Thinking you have déjà vu right now? Well, you’re not wrong; we did publish Richard Watts’ review of Starr’s show just a couple of months ago when it was playing in Adelaide. But now it’s in Melbourne and more of the team have seen it and can only concur that this is an absolute, deadset, five-star show, so it needs recommending again. And again. And again.
Gaulier-trained clown Garry Starr (the be-ruffed, malapropism-prone alter ego of Australian actor, writer and director Damien Warren-Smith) returns with his latest production, Classic Penguins. Hilarious, in-your-face and flawless, Starr performs the fast-paced hour dressed as a literary-loving penguin: flippers on his feet, top hat and tails, and otherwise naked – because penguins don’t wear pants.
This is not a show for the easily shocked or for those who hate audience participation – with the caveat that Garry Starr engenders an atmosphere of complete trust and leans heavily into the concept of enthusiastic consent; this is not a Dame Edna-style comedy show where audience participation leads to participants being mocked and ridiculed.
Garry Starr: Classic Penguins is Warren-Smith’s third full length outing as Garry Starr. Here, the character’s malapropisms are quickly phased out, demonstrating an evolution in Garry Starr’s development and, despite his nudity, one quickly focuses on Starr’s expressive face and committed performance, a testament to the performer’s engaging persona and the cleverly explored premise of this show, in which Starr sets out to save literature, having previously saved Greece’s tourist economy in 2022-2023’s Greece Lightning, and every genre of theatre in his debut solo outing, 2018’s Performs Everything.
Classic Penguins is world-class clowning, in which Starr saves literature by cheekily embodying the titles of Classic Penguins, the cheaply produced, affordable and simply yet strikingly designed series of books which first appeared in 1946 with Emile Victor Rieu’s new translation of The Odyssey. To share every title Starr performs, often (though not always) with the assistance of enthusiastic audience members, would be venturing into spoiler territory, though the titles Starr enacts include The Wind in the Willows, Dracula, Frankenstein and The Handmaid’s Tale.
It’s how Starr recreates such titles – through a series of astutely timed and well-honed jokes and games, the intensity of which rises as the production reaches its conclusion – in which the genius of Classic Penguins resides.
Never repetitive or formulaic, with a focus on manic, brilliant sketches and willingly consensual audience participation, Classic Penguins is that rarest of shows: flawless and unmissable. It deserves every sparkle of its five stars.
Tickets: $25-$35
Garry Starr: Classic Penguins is at the Beckett Theatre, Malthouse until 20 April as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival before touring nationally and internationally thereafter.
