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Puppetry of the Penis...
review There’s something about sitting in such a grand venue as The Dome Concert Hall watching two blokes playing with their winkies that is more than a little unsettling.As if that wasn’t enough, the mere nature of the show made the audience as strange as the show itself. Loud, drunken, raucous women, by all accounts roving in packs, reminded us all that Halloween is, indeed, just round the corner. And then there were the couples. Just why you would want to drag your boyfriend/husband/dad(?) along to watch a couple of naked men guiding us through the art of genital origami is mind boggling to say the least, and during the show, many a man was left squirming uncomfortably with what was pretty eye-watering stuff. As a regular REALBrighton.com theatre reviewer, I try to keep an open mind about the things that I see, but I couldn’t help dreading this one – bound to be little more than hen-party fodder. And I was right. To begin, a Jo-Brand-style comedienne (I think her name was Gina), who happened to have one or two good gags. Completely spoilt, of course, by the drunken female hecklers. Then out with the peni (is that plural?). Billed as a non-sexual show with full frontal nudity, one would have thought that half the audience had never see a willy before – several groups in the audience rather loudly making up their own jokes. The guys come on in cloaky-type things that looked as if they’ve been run up from a pair of old stage curtains. After a bit of banter, the cloaks are swished off and there they are. A camera with live footage projected straight to screen ensured that the audience get a complete eyeful. Cue more heckling from more plastered females. The boys were quite good natured with it, patiently pointing out to one sozzled monster of a woman that their ‘kit’ was, in fact, already off. She, however, carried on yelling out incomprehensible remarks, although it became apparent quite quickly that she didn’t really know where or who she was. A 9.15pm show meant that plenty of boozing had already been done, and throughout the show there was much to-ing and fro-ing to washroom facilities. So, on with the dick tricks…the whole hour’s worth of them. Of course, having done my research and made contact with their PR company, the burning questions were WHY? And HOW? The official reply I got was “because they can” and “with great style” respectively. Fair play, I suppose. The show was born of the kind of pub antics that we are led to believe that Australians indulge in on a Friday night down the local. Out with the todgers and let’s twist them about to look like something resembling the contents of a tin of peeled plum tomatoes – enough to put you off Bolognese for life. The repertoire of shapes created by them were far too numerous and tedious to mention, although, to be fair, it must be quite daunting to strut around starkers on stage in a concert hall built for 1800 people. Indeed, we were assured at the start of the show that there would be no hard-ons on offer, but by the time they had stretched, grabbed, twirled and pulled their appendages about for over an hour, its not surprising. In fact, it would be a miracle if they were able to use their equipment for what nature intended at all after a sell-out season. Our show was the second show of the day – and I definitely detected a whiff of aloe vera. So, would I see the show again? Probably not. Would I try any of the tricks? Definitely not. Would I recommend the show? Possibly – it has a strange fascination to it - the allure, perhaps, of a road traffic accident. But the question still remains….WHY? Puppetry of the Penis is now touring, and will be dropping closeby at Worthing, Crawley and Croydon – check out their website www.puppetryofthepenis.com for more information
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about Magners Paramount Comedy Festival
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