Comedy Review - Trash With A Porpoise

This show was not made for me. As a scholar and a gentleman, I often find myself immune to low-brow humour, slapstick comedy and the nefarious use of literal trash during a live performance. I’m a classy man with a finely tuned radar for the arts, so I was surprised to be giggling like a schoolkid while a trash-manatee did his best dad jokes. I wasn’t surprised that I was laughing because I’m a liar with a low threshold for yucks, but I was surprised that this manatee was teaching me about proper disposal of waste products. 

Did you know that you’re supposed to rinse produce containers before you recycle them? I sure didn’t, and I can assume that I was not the only one in an audience whose average age was five and a half. I am not sure what the ramifications of water scarcity are nowadays, but I do remember wanting to save water as a kid, so to leave Trash with a Porpoise questioning a fundamental pillar of my eco-friendly conscious was pretty deep. I think I’ll start rinsing my recyclables from now on, or at least until I see another puppet show, next time advocating for appropriate water usage and then this whole vicious cycle will start over.

Although I didn’t realise before entering, be aware - the show is relatively interactive. While my core trembled as the show’s starring mermaid scanned the audience for a volunteer with the ability to read, I knew that I was on the brink of becoming a part of the show. I would’ve stumbled upon a critical crisis as I reviewed my own acting abilities. Fortunately, several other adults played the role of talking trash cans and I enjoyed the rest of the show with the other children, some of whom got to rock in a turtle’s band towards the end of the show. 

Trash Puppets, as the name suggests, makes the most out of very limited supplies. Most of the characters in the show were finely replicated sea life, others were spruced up biscuit boxes, and all added zest to an already cracking show which didn’t get caught up taking itself too seriously. Throughout the performance there were moments when the human faces behind the trash broke character, be it asking for mercy/patience between overzealous scene changes, or a rootin’-tootin’ seahorse directing some late attendees towards their seat before engaging in a scheduled shoot-out. 

The kids had fun, I had fun and most importantly the Earth had fun. For at its heart, Trash with a Porpoise is a show with a purpose. Not content with the schooling system to educate our youth, performers Jemima, Joseph and Julia will not rest until every child in the metro-Melbourne area washes the hard plastic containers strawberries come in.

Trash With A Porpoise is showing as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival between April 20th and 24th at La Mama Courthouse. For tickets and more info, click here.