Puppetry of the Penis is a comedic live performance-art show featuring a series of genital contortions. The show was initially conceived as the title of a highbrow art calendar released by Australian Simon Morley in 1996. The calendar showcased twelve penis "installations" (the manipulation of male genitalia into a variety of recognisable forms). In response to increasing requests for live demonstrations, in 1997 Morley enlisted fellow Australian, David "Friendy" Friend, to devise a performance show consisting of body-based genital comedy.
The show involves two nude men who bend, twist, and fold their penises and scrotums into various shapes. The theatrical contortion of the male genitalia accompanied by comedic narration has since spread internationally. It is humorously termed "dick trick" or "genital origami."
Puppetry of the Penis was first performed on stage at the 1998 Melbourne International Comedy Festival in Australia, featuring the creators, Morley and Friend, as the premiere cast. The show has since appeared on the international stage, featuring productions in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Europe, Canada, the United States, South Africa and Argentina. The duo has recruited supporting production teams and actors across Australia, the UK and the U.S., allowing international performance demands to be met. Due to the success of the show, the business was expanded to cater for private parties around Australia.
A Puppetry of the Penis TV special has aired in Australia on One.
Background
In 1996, Australian comedian Simon Morley created an art calendar that showcased close-up images of twelve penis 'installations'. In order to market the calendars, Morley devised a live routine. Morley enlisted David "Friendy" Friend, a Melbourne resident who had previously run a small entertainment business that catered to bachelorette parties, as his stage partner, and together they developed a comedy routine based on Morley's original concept.
Summary
thumb|David Friend performing Puppetry of the Penis at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival
The run-time for the performance is approximately one hour. The main acts are preceded by a 25-minute stand-up comedy act, with varying comedians in different productions. The tricks include the Big Mac, the Loch Ness Monster, the wristwatch, the pelican, the Eiffel Tower, the hamburger, the bulldog, the windsurfer and others. The show consists of approximately 45 out of around 60 different genital manipulations, accompanied by sound effects and comedic narration. The success of the initial performance prompted an eight-month tour of Australia that covered 20,000 kilometres. It ran from 30 March 2001 to 20 May 2001 at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne, hosted by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The tour continued in July at Her Majesty's Theatre in Adelaide and in October at the Footbridge Theatre at the University of Sydney. In 2002 Puppetry of the Penis performed at Riverside Theatre in Parramatta, the Playhouse Theatre in Canberra, the IMB Theatre in Wollongong, Tivoli Theatre in Bowen Hills, Brolga Theatre in Maryborough, Pilbeam Theatre in Rockhampton and Enmore Theatre in Sydney. The show appeared again at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April 2002, with performers Brett Hartin and Richard Sutherland. In 2003 Puppetry of the Penis was hosted in Armidale at the University of New England Arts Theatre and the Orange Civic Theatre in Orange before returning to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in March 2003, with a new Director's Cut version of the production, featuring performers Brett Hartin and Aaron Bloomfield. The Puppetry of the Penis Director's Cut tour continued in Australia throughout 2003 and 2004, adding to the cast performer Barry Brisco from New York and featuring the return of Morley and Friend from their U.S. tour. The show briefly halted touring in Australia, temporarily reopening in April 2006 at the Canberra Theatre in Canberra and in March 2007 at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney. The show continued to perform each year at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, hosted at the Athenaeum Theatre, produced by A-List Entertainment production company. In 2008 Puppetry of the Penis premiered at the Adelaide Fringe Festival at the Royalty Theatre, which has hosted the show in subsequent years. On 5 October 2001 Puppetry of the Penis made its New York debut at the John Houseman Theatre on New York's 42nd Street. The show was produced Thomas Milazzo and Ross Mollison of Mollison Productions. The original creators, Morley and Friend, starred in the production, which featured an opening stand-up comedy act by Wendy Vousden. The production ran successfully for over a year, closing on 3 November 2002. The cast consisted of Rich Binning, Chris Cannon, Christopher Goodwin and Gavin Stewart, with opening acts by Rachel Feinstein, Giulia Rozzi and Amy Schumer. The show, originally intending to end on 30 August, extended its Off-Broadway engagement and ran until 4 October 2009.
thumb|Puppetry of the Penis performed at the [[Grand Opera House, Belfast|Grand Opera House theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland]]
The production has also established a flagship show in Las Vegas, which runs up to five nights a week at the Erotic Heritage Museum. British critic Jill Sharp called the show a "theatrical extravaganza, celebrating with tongue-in-cheek innocence the flexibility of the phallus".
Other reviews were less favourable, criticising the show for its sexually graphic subject material. Conservative art critic Roger Kimball of the New Criterion magazine called the production as "a juvenile example of the normalisation of deviance", likening it to toilet humour. The Puppetry of the Penis production employs practical measures, such as having performers stand with their backs to the audience, in order to avoid claims of public obscenity, and to enable the show to be performed in mainstream and civic theatres. While the council was not able to prohibit performances of the show in other venues in the municipality, city authorities retained the power to ban the production at the civic opera house.
United States
In October 2002, Friend and Morley appeared as guests on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote their U.S. tour. The U.S. television network NBC permitted the broadcast despite protests from religious groups. Due to controversies surrounding the show, Salt Lake City's NBC affiliate station, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, refused to broadcast the program. The duo appeared dressed only in capes and during the course of the live broadcast, one of the performers briefly exposed his penis. The Enforcement Bureau of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received a complaint from a viewer The council concluded that the depictions of penises in the episode did not contravene its policies around nudity, as it was relevant and appropriate within the narrative context, but it found The Comedy Network culpable for not running a viewer advisory around the use of four-letter words in the dialogue. While the ad featured no nudity, the complainant protested the "thrusting of the male genital part into the public area".
Analysis
The use of comedy as a method of subverting or critiquing traditional assumptions and social dynamics has been commented on by several theorists. The show demystifies and demythologises the male sexual organ by displaying it with hyper-visibility and boldness. It showcases the complications that the duo experienced during this time, including legal disputes, backstage tension and the difficulties of prolonged touring.