Art from down under - literally (Puppetry of The Penis)

Art from down under - literally From Australia comes a collection of below-the-belt physical tricks that stretches the limits of theater. Sorry, Hamlet, but this time the thing's the play.

One of the most bizarre shows popping up on main stages around the world will premiere in Philadelphia next month. Puppetry of the Penis - whose name defines the show precisely - will compete head-on for audiences with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Evita, and other vaunted cultural attractions.

Given its track record in other cities, the show will probably hold its own. Puppetry of the Penis features two men who contort their privates into different items, without strings, props or costumes, amid a flurry of comic patter. The show's handlers call the performance "the ancient Australian art of genital origami," although it is clearly more original than aboriginal.

"We're very, very excited to finally bring Puppetry of the Penis to Philadelphia," producer David Foster told a roomful of reporters and other guests yesterday at 32º, a club on Second Street where two highly flexible puppeteers held a revealing news conference to demonstrate the routine.

The show will begin a monthlong run July 1 at the Wilma Theater, on the Avenue of the Arts, and if audiences respond as they have recently in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston, Penis will be extended.

At 32º, Foster began the presentation with a short video that carried a warning - "The following segment contains foreign accents and fully frontal male nudity" - and featured Simon Morley and David Friend, the Australians who are the pioneering puppeteers.

The origin of the show is a heartwarming family story, sort of. Morley is one of four brothers, the youngest of whom figured out, in childhood, how to make his penis and testicles look like a hamburger sandwich - one of the staples of the current show's menu.

Morley got the hang of it, and so did his other two brothers. All four boys were soon competing with one another for the best shtick. What to do with all these discoveries? Morley took matters into his own hands and put out an artsy calendar, a gesticulation for every month.

He then teamed with Friend, who, according to the show's material, "began his current career in the bath and developed his skills further when he discovered beer at university." The two opened their show in Australia in 1998, and when they took their "installations" - their term for each puppet trick - to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2000, they became huge.

So on they went, to Europe, Canada (where Penis followed The Vagina Monologues into Toronto's New Yorker Theatre) and the United States.

Over the last two years, other puppeteers have joined, and the troupe now boasts eight performing members.

The puppeteers at the news conference were two Melbourne palm pilots, Daniel Lewry, 25, and Jim MacGregor, 27. Lewry's career shows how versatile the modern theater has become; he began turning his penis into other things in a soccer club, but abandoned that idea except when drinking. He eventually painted faces on his rear end and began performing classic movie scenes at Australian clubs. The penis puppeteers saw the act and persuaded him to turn around and face the audience.

MacGregor was a concrete workman and Army enlistee who "used to get thrown out of clubs for doing penis tricks." He said that "once people see the show, it's harmless."

Nobody likes a flaccid performance, but both men demonstrated that for a penis puppeteer, it's a must. They proceeded to throw back their capes and show the hamburger, a windsurfer, the Loch Ness monster, and, playing to the crowd, Lewry's rendition of the Liberty Bell. "No cracks in this one!" observed MacGregor.

Both men said they had no real secret to their art and scoffed at the rash of penis-extension spams on current e-mails. "Playing with it makes it longer," Lewry said. "Mine has grown since I've been doing this. It's one of the horrible side-effects!"

Such corporeal novelty acts, while rare, are not unheard of. In the late 1800s, Moulin Rouge audiences gasped as Joseph Pujol - called Le Petomane - turned flatulence into impressions, assaying everything from a dressmaker tearing calico to cannon fire. More recently, in the late 1970s, an entertainer named Honeysuckle Divine played Philadelphia and other cities, leaving a trail of Ping-Pong balls hurled fiercely at audiences - without benefit of using her hands, or anything above her navel.

Puppetry of the Penis draws from this hoary theatrical tradition, but also from the burlesque entertainments that once played the Troc, now the rock club on Arch Street, where such entertainers as Carlotta Tendant ("You'll park here all night!") and Freeda Maspeech ("She'll rattle your constitution!") laced nudity with fun.

The logistics leading to yesterday's news conference were, in themselves, a drama. It had been scheduled for the Hotel Sofitel, near Rittenhouse Square, but was nixed. It could not be held at the most logical place, the Wilma, because the theater's current production, Red, was scheduled for a Wednesday matinee; those who ambled in early for a play about a Chinese American novelist and the Red Guard would not necessarily expect to see two men pulling their penises every which way to make a point.

"The show's handlers call the performance "the ancient Australian art of genital origami," although it is clearly more original than aboriginal."

The show's handlers?!?! [that's a great line]

To the contrary. This is not original at all.

I've been doing this for years.

Never thought of taking it on the road though.

Hummm.......

This is a funny article.(ROTFL) Read it again. The guy who wrote it has all kinds of one-liners in it.

Somebody should reccomend these guys to be the entertainment at the demacratic convention. They'd be perfect.

5 posted on 06/06/2003 3:42:45 AM PDT by fly_so_free (Never underestimate the treachery of the demacratic party. Save the USA-Vote a demacrat out of offic)

At 32º, Foster began the presentation with a short video that carried a warning - "The following segment contains ~~foreign accents,~~ fully frontal male nudity and significant shrinkage"

This stupid "show" has been playing in my neighborhood for the past few months. Thanks to it and the "Vagina Monolouges", you can't go through the newspaper or ride the CTA without seeing "PENIS" or "VAGINA" in big block letters in their advertisments. Wonder how this is affecting the children? BTW, this penis "show" seems to attract graying women in their 50s.

"Thanks to it and the "Vagina Monolouges", you can't go through the newspaper or ride the CTA without seeing "PENIS" or "VAGINA" in big block letters in their advertisments. Wonder how this is affecting the children?"

They're probably just wondering what new scheme the Democrats are up to today.

8 posted on 06/06/2003 4:45:24 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~Remember, it's not sporting to fire at RINO until charging~)

It made it to OFF OFF Broadway about a year ago. Took a friend for her 35th birthday. Was quite funny and the "warm up act" was really just a regular stand up comic who was very good. We had a lot of laughs. Very few men in the audience, alot of bachlorette parties and a few married couples.

"Wonder how this is affecting the children? "

Since children have either a penis or a vagina, I can't imagine how it affects them at all. "Down there" is a pretty undescriptive term. Why don't we just use the real names for these parts?

I don't know, call me old fashioned or whatever, but when I walk down the street and see a billboard that says "PENIS" or "VAGINA" in big black letters IN MY FACE--it's just unsettling. It doen't make me feel real good about the world. There once was a time when these were considered "privates'. I think they should remain private IMHO.

developed his skills further when he discovered beer at university.

I loved college...

12 posted on 06/06/2003 3:58:58 PM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)

The show's handlers?!?! [that's a great line]

My favorite line..."All four boys were soon competing with one another for the best shtick."

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