FRINGE 2019: 2 Hilarious Dick Comedies
Crazy For Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation
Stage 18 (Sugar Swing Ballroom)
A quick look at Dirk Darrow’s show titles will give you a good idea of what to expect from this sunny Australian entertainer: 6 Quick Dick Tricks, 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick and now his latest, Crazy For Dick Tricks. Dirk (Tim Motley) appears ever year with the predictability of a Fringe onion cake. He’s cocky, bright, witty, bawdy and very quick with an ad-lib or working the audience with a bit of comic improv. This is not a show for kids.
Motley brings with him a list of “Best of the Fringe” credits.
The character Dirk Darrow is a child of the hard-boiled detective literature of Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon), describing himself as a paranormal investigator. In this caper the intrepid gumshoe sets out to solve a crime in a Hartford, Connecticut mental hospital. He unearths four suspects (he plays all four) and each is delusional. One thinks he’s a preacher, another a superhero, the third an academic and finally, a Fringe Performer.
Each year Motley seems to lean more and more on magic and slight of hand, so each suspect is introduced just to set up some generic viagra buy sort of mumbo jumbo. Some of his tricks are familiar – many kerchiefs appear in an empty hand, playing cards that do strange things – but are delivered with conjuring skill, lots of laughs and, in the hands of this master prestidigitator, are amazing all over again.
He’s even funny when a trick misfires. Trying to burst a balloon from the other side of the room with a flicked playing card while blind-folded didn’t work – so he moved closer. And closer. Finally, he’s right on top of the balloon as it busts. In the meantime, to the great delight of the audience, his cards have landed everywhere and when they hit the thing – they bounce off.
“You sure make your balloons thick here in Edmonton.” he grouses.
In fact there a number of tricks that don’t work and every one of them resolves in the final moments.
The show is part impressive card tricks, part magic and all delivered in a sardonic film noir aside. He appears to do the impossible over and over again and you find yourself repeating, “How did he do that?”
Oh, and he solves the murder case too.
4 out of 5
