The most naked penguin clown you’ll ever see!
It’s not often that the audience is greeted at their seat with a penguin chocolate bar. It’s also not often that they’re greeted with a fully naked man – sorry, penguin – smoking a pipe on stage. As with any penguin chocolate bar, this smoking penguin always has a stupid joke to share, and boy did we love every single one. Garry Starr: Classic Penguins was as much of a treat as its opening gift.
The premise: to perform every Penguin Classic novel ever written. The show is equal parts unbelievably stupid and incredibly clever. Damien Warren-Smith, aka Garry Starr, opens Godfather style, with his back to the audience and slowly turns to the audience, smoking his pipe through his anus and looking ever so pleased with himself. Over the hour, Garry Starr does some pretty shocking things that I wouldn’t want to describe in words, and yet I loved every single one of them. He pushes the boundaries of humour, audience interaction and bodily function with elegance and complete control.
Throughout the show, he engages with the audience, gently but with one hell of a nerve, inviting them to ‘play’. Audience members do things they probably never thought they’d do on stage. But if Garry Starr invited you to join him on stage, naked, you might just do it. And it might just be a very beautiful moment. The whole audience was in rapture, laughing, crying, cheering, applauding, screaming in shock; and this wasn’t even the peak of the action. He plays beautifully with his technical operator throughout, improvising, adding a freshness that makes the show that little bit more special. Garry Starr is both comedically and physically impressive, at one point performing pretty advanced trapeze work, not to mention the pretty much non-stop running and jumping around. To exert so much energy every night and maintain such a high level of silliness is no mean feat.
Francesca Moody has hand-picked this masterclass in clowning straight from the Edinburgh Fringe and brought it to The Other Palace and thank goodness she has. It’s no wonder this show has gained critical acclaim all over the world. It’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime clown experience, not to be missed if you can help it.
Garry Starr: Classic Penguins runs at The Other Palace until 3 January. Tickets here.