Damien Warren-Smith in Garry Starr: Classic Penguins. Photo: Austin Ruffer

A brief quiz: If I ask you to picture a man wearing orange flippers, a tailcoat, an Elizabethan ruff, and no pants, will you chuckle or cringe? If the latter, proceed with caution, because that’s pretty much what you get in Garry Starr: Classic Penguins, a madcap clown show with impeccable sound design, surprisingly decent penguin impersonations, some physical comedy that feels actually risky, a dash of aerial acrobatics, and a no-holds-barred approach to a bit. The full-frontal nudity is unrelenting enough that you almost stop noticing for much of the time Garry Starr, clown alter ego of creator/performer Damien Warren-Smith, is onstage. But then again, there is quite a lot of audience contact. (And even a little bit of audience nudity, which, to this audience-participation skeptic, is both entirely terrifying and–pun intended–remarkably ballsy on the part of both Warren-Smith to ask and participants to execute.)

But if you’re smiling at the very thought of a mostly naked man waddling like a penguin and riffing in rapid-fire sight gags and bits (and sound gags; only associate sound designer Camille Denholm is credited but the audio environment is mission critical) on the titles of a whole lotta classics, read on. Classic Penguins shows its roots in the ethos of Edinburgh Fringe: a solo clown show with a tight running time, a distinctly adult flavor of comedy, and a set + props that would fit into a small van. And, like all the best clown shows, it only appears shambolic. Yes, there’s a certain amount of chaos that comes from inviting the audience into your show—and those volunteers are far gamer than I will ever be—but Warren-Smith and director Cal McCrystal run a tight ship. Even when Warren-Smith is genially calling all the volunteers “sausage,” he’s locking them in such that all those who step foot on stage or engage with him from their seat or line up en masse in the aisle for a crowd-surfing bit commit fully to the endeavor, with the same mix of gung-ho and what-the-hell channeled by Warren-Smith. (See also “audience nudity.”) 

In other words, there’s something for everyone here—scatology, sight gags, musical numbers, a giant bear, food fights, gross-outs, crowd-surfing, interpretive dance, clever callbacks, audience participation, a noble purpose (no less than rescuing literature from historical oblivion), moments of genuine sweetness, and did I mention the nudity? (Definitely don’t sit in the front row if you’re at all squeamish about the thought of being very close to a stranger’s junk.) McCrystal and Warren-Smith have impeccable timing; nary a bit lingers past its welcome (or at least, just when you think a bit might be starting to go down that road, it twists in such a way that you figure out why).

Classic Penguins will admittedly not teach you much about literature. Quite the opposite, really, as the quickness with which Garry Starr sets up and knocks down the referenced works demands at least glancing familiarity to get maximum value out of some of the jokes. Full disclosure: I work for Penguin Random House so the sight of a Penguin orange paperback spine works on me like Pavlov’s bells. Flash one and I’ll sit up and pay attention, so you might call me squarely the target audience for a show that draws you in with a chock-full bookshelf of them and opens with a “Flat-Stanley”-esque slide show with the Penguin logo dropped into classic paintings. (I am also easily charmed by an off-the-cuff dramaturgy joke; YMMV.)

So while the claims of saving literature may be hyperbolic, the show has plenty of giddy pleasures to go around. Conceptually, my personal fave was probably The Grapes of Wrath (see also “food fight”), in which an audience volunteer rapid-fires grapes (and then oranges) at Warren-Smith. But if your starting premise is mostly-naked guy, well, you can only imagine what fun there is to be had with Moby Dick. (Think “Porcelain”; think pantless.) 

I also really appreciated that Warren-Smith takes a moment as part of the curtain call to plug other avant-garde clown artists like Natalie Palamides and the upcoming NY engagement of Elf Lyons. Garry Starr: Classic Penguins has a warm heart and a deep affection for the silliness of humanity.