It took two weighty books for Stephen Fry to work his way through Ancient Greek mythology, physical comic Damien Warren-Smith pulls off the same feat in under an hour in a show that he brings to Australian audiences and, in particular, the Melbourne Comedy Festival next month.
Garry Starr Greece Lighting sees Warren-Smith’s alter ego, Garry Starr, who he describes as an “overzealous idiot” trying to save his “Hellenic homeland from economic ruin” by boosting tourism and performing in under an hour over 16 stories drawn from mythology.
This is the unlikely, energetic premise of the show that Warren-Smith premiered to great success at the recent Adelaide Fringe – the world’s second largest annual arts festival- where he was given the “Pick of the Fringe” award and won a Comedy Weekly prize.
It also found favour with the city’s Greek community with one critic cheerfully declaring: “Bring yiayia, if you dare.”
Like his Garry Starr alter ego, Warren-Smith grew up thinking he was Greek.
“I look Greek and my mum thought one of our ancestors was a Greek. A few years ago I did a DNA test which showed I am 100 percent Celtic. Still, my partner is Greek,” said Warren-Smith by way of explaining why he felt he could take on the ancient myths without incurring the wrath of the gods.
The Garry Starr character is someone who thinks knows and can do it all, but nothing could be further from the truth.
“It is very silly fun. If you don’t know anything about Greek mythology, you will come away from the show knowing even less,” promises Warren-Smith, “Garry thinks he is on a higher intellectual plane, but he actually has a low IQ, muddles words and gets things wrong.”
And that includes an assault on the Greek language.
The show is a product of COVID which put an end to Warren-Smith’s residency in a Las Vegas show. He returned to a locked down Melbourne.
“I was working as a driver delivering bikes around Victoria, I listened to a lot of podcasts on Greek mythology and I developed the idea while I was driving.”
But he needed an audience to see how the show would work and he was able to test it on an audience at the Butterfly Club in Melbourne towards the end of last year. It received a good reception and he went on to develop it further and take it to Adelaide and onto other Australian venues in the coming months.
Starting in Darwin 7-9 April, he will be at The Butterfly Club in Melbourne from 12 to 24 April for the Melbourne Comedy Festival.
He will also perform at Ballarat Trades Hall on 30 April, before taking his show to Canberra (at Smiths’ Alternative) on 5 May. He then moves to the Factory Theatre from 7-8 May as part of the Sydney Comedy Festival. The show moves to the Brisbane Powerhouse from 10 to 15 May.
From Australia, he will tour in the United Kingdom culminating in an exhausting 20-day run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
