Finlay Clench
Gary Starr is a penguin and there is no denying it. Unashamed, glorious and highly ambitious, Starr takes on the animalia form but with some genitalia also included!
Using Penguin books from Frankenstein to The Great Gatsby, Starr takes it upon himself to inhabit the titles of these penguin classics as he waddles about the stage frilly neck tie strapped to his neck, and orange flippers slapping along the floor. Using exemplary Powerpoint-style humour, he takes us on a tour of his flock of tomes: his stunts intensifying throughout the piece.
Never a dull moment in Starr’s presence, you need to be tightly strapped in, and prepared for anything in this one man triumph. This is a memorable night out at the theatre, and one which you will never forget because Starr so perfectly reimagines the classics rooted in literary culture and remakes them. He leaves a retro humour which is surely the future of comedy in a world where fast-paced TikTok humour is often the best database for sharing comedy sketches or puns. Multimedia comedy like Starr’s, however, can only be found onstage.
Everything moves with a great style, rigour and flow and that’s all thanks to Starr’s incredible, electric onstage presence. And he perfectly lulls the audience into a warm sense of security; a seemingly unimaginable task when a man appears onstage rocking tails and flippers. And it is swim not sink every time: book appears on the screen in humorous slideshow fashion consecutively. A Penguin orange classic cover is dashed in front of a camera, and we segway from rock anthem to ‘What was I made for’ during a rendition of Frankenstein. Starr brings the quick-witted quips and the fast humour where joke after joke piles up in glorious fashion.
Where perhaps his plumage could be improved is the nudity in the show. For the first half an hour, more or less, nudity is hilarious as audience members find themselves horrified at the unexpectancy of this, and also at the end where a troupe of similarly fashioned naked penguins dance onto stage joyfully. Indeed it makes the show memorable, and plays on the ‘classical’ nature of the texts which are inhabited by Gary Starr, but at points you do find yourself questioning exactly the reason for this.
Crowd surfing, grape throwing and naked dancing is exactly what you sign up for as an audience member. Gary Starr is slick in his audience interaction, and never lets it feel tokenistic or one-sided: this becomes participatory theatre which tests what the audience are comfortable to do and what they here for. Starr mocks audience members for being ‘actors’ and improvises quickly in whatever circumstance the audience place him in. He masterminds the whole entourage with grace.
Everything is tied up perfectly thanks to the multimedia format of the show. Swinging from a wire above the stage, the grapes tossed about the space or the fast moving audio language, everything ties together in an imperfect yet deliciously successful manner. It is a feast for the eyes, and even mouth too (audience participation included). Starr makes an auditorium into a playground and his energy in doing so rubs off delightfully on his eager audience.
You can catch Gary Starr: Classic Penguins at Pleasance Grand from 5-30 August (not 12, 18, 25) from 21:20 (70mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.
Reccomended Drink: Snowball!
Image Credit: Matt Crockett
Shay Mace
Isobel Jacob
Romeo Lau
