The reviews are in for Garry Starr: Classic Penguins, the Australian clown Damien Warren-Smith’s mostly naked dash through the Penguin Classics, which opened at Studio Seaview on September 8 after runs in Sydney, Melbourne, London and at the Edinburgh Fringe. Directed by Cal McCrystal, the 70-minute show sends Warren-Smith’s alter ego, a self-declared half-penguin, on a mission to save literature from extinction one paperback at a time, with a good deal of help from the front rows. Most of the critics surrender to it: This Week in New York calls it utterly insane and completely brilliant, and Theater Pizzazz names it the most outrageous show of the season so far. The reservations are about the volunteers rather than the comedian, with TheaterMania the most uneasy about how much the show asks of them.
The verdict: thirteen reviews so far, and only four carry a score: The Front Row Center gives the show 4.5 out of 5, and New York Stage Review, Culture Sauce and 1 Minute Critic each give it 3 out of 5, an average of 3.4 among the outlets that rate. The rest, The New York Times among them, publish no score. Nobody disputes that Damien Warren-Smith is a skilled and fearless clown; what splits the critics is how far the audience participation goes, which Theater Pizzazz and This Week in New York find exhilarating and TheaterMania finds harder to square with consent.
What are critics saying about Garry Starr: Classic Penguins?
The New York Times
"Damien Warren-Smith takes (nearly) everything off to play a flightless bird whose natural habitat might be in your very own lap."
Reviewer: Helen Shaw
"So Garry Starr doesn’t either. In “Garry Starr: Classic Penguins,” the explosively silly one-penguin show, Starr avoids pants to a, shall we say, medically explicit degree. He wears a tailcoat early on, and even a top hat, but these are swiftly dealt with. He spends most of the show’s 70 minutes in only a white ruff and a light sheen of sweat. (He also spends a chunk of the evening in the laps of the front row.)"
TheaterMania
"The Fringe Festival hit comes to Studio Seaview."
Reviewer: Dan Rubins
"But there is something unquestionably compelling, whether you’re consistently laughing or not, about the ease with which Garry Starr presents his naked body, every crevice of it, to us. It’s not that we stop noticing that he’s in the buff, but we might forget, at least when he keeps his distance, that he’s not supposed to be. An invitation, perhaps, to rethink the caution-tape boundary between the versions of ourselves we present in public and our own inner clowns."
The Front Row Center
Reviewer: Margret Echeverria · 4.5 out of 5
"Over coffee later, my date comments, “What a GREAT audience!” This beautiful tender city of humans needs someone as playfully joyful and talented as Damien Warren-Smith to suspend our vigilance and allow us to laugh at the glorious absurdity of everything. More of this, please."
Read Margret Echeverria’s full review at The Front Row Center
New York Stage Review
"Aussie clown with antic alter ego spontaneously moons over great literature"
Reviewer: Michael Sommers · 3 out of 5
"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."
Culture Sauce
Reviewer: Thom Geier · 3 out of 5
"Your enjoyment of Garry Starr will depend on your tolerance for its audacious mode of comedy as provocation. Warren-Smith has a fascinating rapport with the audience: relaxed but commanding, and ingratiating enough to lure the unsuspecting into his NSFW foolishness. Crucially, he never makes anyone but himself the butt of the joke. And his waxed-clean butt is very much on display throughout. He also knows not to overstay his welcome; under Cal McCrystal’s direction, the show gallops through its book shelves in a sleek 70 minutes. You can’t even make your way through CliffsNotes that quickly."
1 Minute Critic
"naked ambition"
Reviewer: Matthew Wexler · 3 out of 5
"Classic Penguins is, indeed, ridiculous. A bookshelf containing dozens of the classic paperbacks prompts Starr’s bits. Some is obvious—wagging his genitals while holding a copy of Moby Dick. Others land with a bit more intellectual curiosity, as when he collects cash from the audience (referencing John Fowles’ The Collector), then redistributes the money as a nod to Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto."
New York Theatre Guide
"baring it all in the name of books, and birds"
Reviewer: Austin Fimmano
"Perhaps it’s a testament to Garry’s boyish charm and bright attitude, mixed with grandmotherly terms of endearment like “sausage” (though a jarring term it may be, given the circumstances). There’s something captivating about a person willing to be so vulnerable for the sake of comedy. Just when you think he has finally asked for something no one could possibly say yes to, someone in the audience plucks up the courage. Classic Penguins is some of the most original comedy on stage right now thanks to the trust Warren-Smith builds at each performance, all while Garry Starr lets it all hang out."
Exeunt NYC
"Mostly naked clowning with a dash of the highbrow and a gallon of the ridiculous."
Reviewer: Loren Noveck
"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)."
Theater Pizzazz
"Garry Starr’s “Classic Penguins” has to be seen to be believed"
Reviewer: Ron Fassler
"Stupid, clever, literary, daring, and insane, Garry Starr: Classic Penguins is the most outrageous show of this new theatre season—so far. That said, I’ll be damned if I can figure out what’s going to top it. The run ends about a week from now on October 11th before Starr takes the show to London for a three-month engagement, his longest sit down ever. Something tells me he’s not going to have much trouble filling the seats."
Theater Scene
Reviewer: Deb Miller
"When he first called for volunteers on the date I attended in NYC, the audience was extremely hesitant; several members he directly asked to participate (including the many reviewers he saw taking notes) declined. But as the show progressed and the boisterous guffaws never stopped, there was a dramatic shift in the response, with a steady increase of enthusiastic volunteers throughout the full house. It’s a testament to our need for unapologetically absurd fun in troubled times and his extraordinary ability to provide it."
Off Off Online
Reviewer: Edward Karam
"Starr’s charm helps put over even a gross bit involving chewed grapes, yet his most improbable coup is to persuade someone to “get naked on stage” with him for a segment involving Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and a figure dressed as the bear Baloo in the Disney film. A volunteer named Anton stepped up, his confidence clearly boosted by long hours at the gym. And the sequence involved a neat bit of misdirection, as much of the show does. The nudity eventually loses its shock value, and occasionally becomes incidental to the fun. Perhaps Starr is offering a lesson for Americans’ still puritanical culture."
This Week in New York
"Saving books and penguins from extinction: Garry Starr goes nuts over literary classics"
Reviewer: Mark Rifkin
"Jackass meets the literati in the utterly insane, completely brilliant, and exhilaratingly entertaining Garry Starr: Classic Penguins. Starr is the clown alter ego of Australian writer, producer, and performer Damien Warren-Smith, who previously appeared as Starr in Greece Lightning, about Greek mythology, Garry Starr Performs Everything, exploring different styles of theater, and the family-friendly Monkeys Everywhere, in which he interacts with simian sidekicks."
Cititour
Reviewer: Brian Scott Lipton
"Any good piece of theatre – drama, comedy, mystery – succeeds (or fails) on delivering on the promise of “expect the unexpected.” Happily, the delightfully zany “Garry Starr: Classic Penguins,” which has just arrived at Studio Seaview just weeks after delighting audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe, makes good on that concept to the nth degree. Indeed, any conventional review of this singular 70-minute show, smartly directed by Cal McCrystal, would be nothing but paragraph after paragraph of spoiler alerts. Here, the more you know, the less you’ll probably enjoy the experience."
For more of what the New York critics have been saying, read our roundups for Delirium at the Space at Irondale and The Holes at the Wild Project.
Garry Starr: Classic Penguins runs at Studio Seaview, 305 West 43rd Street, through October 11, 2026. The running time is 70 minutes, with no intermission, and the show is for ages 18 and over. Production photos by Austin Ruffer.
