Possibly not since Puppetry of the Penis has an Off Broadway show aroused such naked laughter.
Like that offbeat endeavor of a quarter century ago, Garry Starr: Classic Penguins hails from Australia. Damien Warren-Smith, an award-winning Aussie clown, here assumes the guise of Garry Starr, who lectures on literature in highfalutin’ accents. The mustachioed Starr’s grandiloquent manner contrasts with his semi-nude attire: A stovepipe hat, a claw-hammer tailcoat, that starchy ruff as previously mentioned and, oh, yes, a pair of large orange penguin’s feet.
The relatively bare stage features a modest bookcase displaying rows of Orange Penguin Books; that distinctively colored paperback series devoted to celebrated literature. This show’s seemingly spontaneous entertainment consists of Starr grabbing these volumes and producing comical riffs, often with the happy assistance of people from the audience. A large screen offers live close-ups of some of the action. As the show proceeds and Starr strips off those webbed feet — and everything else — matters tend to get crazy.
Early on, when “Gulliver’s Travels” pops up, a volunteer finds himself being bound to the stage with masking tape; some of the laughs erupting from seeing a virtually naked Starr evilly crouching over the guy during this process. Not incidentally, the performer is an agile, nice-looking fellow in his mid-40s whose trim, hairy body and bits soon are revealed to one and all. Sometimes in very close proximity. His admirable physical flexibility is highlighted during a graphic sequence inspired by Treasure Island that, alas, must go undescribed. The Grapes of Wrath and A Clockwork Orange sees the artiste splattered with fruit thrown by spectators while The Communist Manifesto, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Little Women are among titles amusingly proving his prowess for improvisation with viewers. His solo bit for Dracula hilariously involves a breakable doll and a big bottle of V-8 juice he chugs down to growing cheers. Eventually, The Waves sends the increasingly antic Starr fearlessly bodysurfing amid the audience, which appeared delighted to manhandle his body more than a dozen rows deep into the 286-seat auditorium. Let’s mention that the press representatives assert no paid personnel are planted among the spectators.
Subsequent performances of Garry Starr: Classic Penguins are likely to vary somewhat according to the whims of the audience, of course, but director Cal McCrystal coordinates some apt, effective sound and lighting cues to enhance this quick series of vignettes driven energetically by Damien Warren-Smith’s comical mad professor-type character. Warren-Smith’s ability to work strategically with individuals as well as a crowd is a treat to witness, although the gamier aspects of his performance will not appeal to conservative tastes.
But Starr’s level of commitment to the premise is quite impressive. And while some in the audience were clearly put off by his antics, others were lapping it up…and believe me, that was literal too.
Back to that premise. The show’s program notes put it quite succinctly: Garry Starr is “hell-bent on saving books from extinction – by performing every Penguin Classic novel ever written in under an hour, (mostly) naked.” Before the play begins, we can see him seated upstage in a high-backed chair facing away from the audience. When he finally turns around, he’s wearing an Elizabethan collar, top hat, formal tales and what’s supposed to be webbed flippers on his feet, suggesting a penguin.
Everything that follows is farcically literal. One by one, he picks up books from an onstage shelf, and as the title is projected on an overhead screen, he enacts it: With Around the World in 80 Days, he holds up a globe and spins in a circle 80 times. From Grapes of Wrath to War and Peace, he arms an audience member with a bag of grapes to throw at him. That’s followed by A Clockwork Orange with the introduction of oranges which he instructs the volunteer to hurl in his direction. Incredibly the woman at my performance had great aim and nailed him in the head on the first throw.
If all of this sounds ridiculously inane, that’s part of its appeal because as the stunts get nuttier we’re wondering what could he possibly do next. When he pulled out the book Hunger, he picked up the grapes from the stage floor, stuffed a handful in his mouth and proceeded to transfer them directly from his mouth into the mouth of another audience volunteer as if feeding a baby bird. Gross! Right? But craziest of all was his depiction of the Virginia Woolf novel The Waves. With all his clothes off, lying on his back, he had the audience pass him hand over hand from the first row all the way up to the top. Of course, he chose the section of the audience where I was sitting.
The show, directed by Cal McCrystal, is pure escapist fare. Far from a classic itself, Garry Starr may not be for everyone, but at just over an hour, you can’t quite write it off. And judging by the enthusiastic reception at show’s end, it’s hard to deny there is method to the madness.
Garry Starr: Classic Penguins opened September 8, 2026 at Studio Seaview and runs through October 11. Tickets and information: studioseaview.com
