In this exclusive interview with Garry Starr (the irrepressibly hilarious alter ego of actor and comedian Damien Warren-Smith), we delve into the origins of the eccentric character, his journey from clown troupe leader to solo performer, and the unconventional path that led him to embrace contemporary clowning.
With insights into the creative process behind his acclaimed solo shows like Garry Starr Performs Everything and Garry Starr: Greece Lightning, Damien reveals the inspirations, challenges, and joys of bringing Garry Starr to life on stage.
So... What was the inspiration behind ‘Garry Starr’?
Ooh good question! So, Garry Starr started off as the host of a troop of clowns called the 'Plague of Idiots’, and I was the kind of MC Boss Clown character. And we all went to Clown School together in France and we formed this clown troop travelling round and I was the boss clown. So, I was always the straight character, I was the one that they bounced off and we toured for a couple of years. It was towards the end of that that I came up with the name Garry Starr, but that was as the host.
Then I was living in Berlin afterwards and we all disbanded and went our separate ways, and someone suggested to me that I do some solo comedy and I’d never done solo comedy, but I thought “Why don’t I do this Garry Starr character?”. But I’ll pretend that the Clown troop have all decided that they don’t want to work with me anymore, but I want to continue the show so I’m going to try and do the whole show on my own and it just went really well.
People were like “You should continue doing this!” so it was really funny because that made me such an idiot character that thinks he can do it all on his own, you know? Garry Starr just really grew from there.
With a show titled 'Garry Starr: Greece Lightning’ we can't help but wonder...are there any ties to Grease the Musical?
To Grease? There’s the music from it but its more to do with the fact that he’s trying to get through all of Greek Mythology and he thinks that Zeus’s Nickname is ‘Greek Lightning’ because he’s the god of thunder and sky. If you like Greased Lightning you’ll like Greece Lightning.
Image Credit: Aaron Walker
Image Credit: Aaron Walker
Image Credit: Aaron Walker
Image Credit: Aaron Walker
This show is you. Is it only you in the cast?
Yeah.
Is it a one man show?
This is a solo show.
When things go wrong with a cast, at least you can bounce off into each other. As a solo performer, do you ever have any moments where you must improvise and keep going?
When you see the show, you’ll see. That’s what I thrive on now. So much of this clown training is about putting you in situations where you are completely out of your depth and uncomfortable. And learning to not only feel comfortable in those situations but love that and crave that. So now I set up moments in the show where there’s an audience member I get involved in the show and I don’t give them much direction because I want to see what they’re going to do and what they’re going to bring. Then I have to deal with that and its chaos now that I thrive on. So, I love I when things go wrong, and I have to find my way around it. The audience loves that as well. I think one of the reasons people are drawn to watching improve is because there’s that element of danger. But then sometimes if it’s just improvised there can be low bits and sometimes, you’re lucky and the whole thing is incredible, but my show is a structured show but there’s moments that I leave very open to what might happen. In the hopes that it keeps moving through. The only bad thing about working on my own is the loneliness and if you do have a bad show you just have to deal with it on your own. Especially if you’re on tour and your go back to our hotel room and you go ”okay that was bad who do I talk to about this?” .
Just debriefing with yourself?
*Laughs* Yeah! At a festival it’s fine because there’s all these other artists as well. You’re all like “I just had a terrible show”, “Tell me about it!”. But when you’re doing a regional tour on your own it can be quite hard.
How do you find performing for regional audiences?
I really enjoy it! Though it can be hit and miss. Sometimes it can get too regional to the point where they have just never seen anything like this, and they don’t really get on board. But you always have people coming up to you afterwards and saying that was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. But you want to say to them “But why didn’t you laugh?” *Laugh* and they usually say, “I was- I was just right at the back!”.
The people who program these regional shows say, “We need this, the community is too safe, too conservative, we want this!”. It can be hard work when you can’t hear the laughter even if they’re reassuring you that they were.
If you had to give a profile for Garry Starr. What would a day in the life of Garry Starr look like?
That’s interesting because he kind of sits outside of the realm of reality. I’ve been talking to some people about adapting him for a TV series and how that could look. I think I’d put him as somebody like me, growing up in a regional town but doesn’t quite fit in. But of course, me growing up in a regional town I would do my best to fit in, I wouldn’t dress in the ways that Garry does. What if we just took Garry as he is now and put him in a regional town as a forty-year-old man? Who wear Elizabethan rough collars and nipple tassels. And everyone in the town just treats him kind of nicely. “God bless him, Garry” you know? Maybe he works a normal kind of job like he works at the local pharmacy or supermarket. They don’t treat him differently. I don’t think he’s simple minded, I think of Garry as me but with slightly higher status and lower intelligence.
*Laughs*
So, he thinks he can do a lot more, but everybody knows that he can’t.
He’s just so himself?
Well funnily, when I created the character, I was overseas and the first time my mum saw the show in Australia she said to me afterwards she said, “I’m blown away by how many of the mannerisms that Garry has that you used to do as a child”. I didn’t realize that this is not something conscious, there’s all these little mannerisms the way I move and speak, these little hand gestures she hadn’t seen me do since I was a kid. So, I feel like with Garry I’ve tapped into a very childlike version of myself.