On stage, smoking a pipe with his chair turned upstage, dressed as the publisher’s moniker, with orange flippers and everything else hanging out, Garry Starr, aka Damien Warren-Smith, struts his ingenious comic shtick in a dizzying and dazzling series of visual, physical routines.
Slowly the chair swivels confirming the naked aspect of his persona. From there it Is on for young and old. Watching this idea work out for an hour, in intimate playful dialogue with the audience, is a belly laughter arena. His concept compresses every single Penguin classic novel within 60 minutes, while naked save for a tailcoat and the orange flippers. Starr later discards it all and struts his magic with gusto.
As the show unfolds, each Penguin novel is taken off a stacked shelf and video taped in real-time, connecting audience to the screen. There are sound cues throughout- one for each novel, which Garry meticulously replaces in turn under the camera, turning his attention to each title as it comes up, working his way through the entire collection.
Seconds guessing what these capers signify is half the fun. Garry is hell-bent on saving books from extinction by performing every classic novel ever written, a literary adventure like no other through the world’s most iconic works of fiction. Nothing is safe from his lampooning style. It’s hard yakka for him, pleasure for the audience. It’s a style that’s brilliant, in-your-face clowning.
His expressions and impressions are a testament to his engaging performance. To share every title, he of-course needs the assistance of enthusiastic audience members, who respond to Frankenstein, The Handmaid’s Tale and Dracula with spirited, uproarious enthusiasm.
Through a series of astutely timed jokes and games, Garry elevates the intensity up to the conclusion where the genius of Classic Penguins reside. Moby Dick, The Wind in the Willows and the Little Prince and everything in between gets the Starr treatment as he takes the title of the book and acts it out in his chaotic and zany way.
The genius flows from novel to novel with the links he creates between them hysterical.
Garry Starr gave an unforgettable performance
The sketches are manic, never repetitive and simply a riot of laughs, making the show unmissable.
