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Fringe Review: 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick: A Dirk Darrow Investigation

Dirk Darrow

A bank heist, bloody murders, baddies, a femme fatale, and plenty of chaos are craftily mixed with mentalism, card and magic tricks.


Dirk Darrow
Presented by Tim Motley
Reviewed 05 February 2014

It’s a tough job being a jaded private dick. In 2 Ruby Knockers, 1 Jaded Dick: A Dirk Darrow Investigation starring his 1940’s noir detective Dirk Darrow, Tim Motley makes it look easy. He’s no two-bit guy. Motley is clever, tricky, funny, and a dick.

Shades of Glenn Ford and Maxwell Smart loomed as Dirk Darrow opened the show and he only improved from there. A bank heist, bloody murders, baddies, a femme fatale, and plenty of chaos are craftily mixed with mentalism, card and magic tricks, to provide a splendid show with more titter-tastic cheese and corn than a giant gorgonzola taco.

By his own admission, Motley leapt over the poor taste line repeatedly, but the seat shuffling and awkwardness that resulted lessened no-ones appreciation for Motley’s ability to keep the show highly entertaining, even with its somewhat more lurid aspects than that of actual noir. ‘G’ rated this is not, but 9pm start it is, so the only minors in our crowd were characters.

Darrow’s orchestration of the audience and their resulting participation was vintage Motley, and kept us somewhere between balancing on the edge of our seats in suspense, and falling off them with laughter. Motley is not pulling a fast one when he claims this is a unique show. It is an action packed hour, lousy with unravelling magical mystery and with more twists than a Chubby Checker dance marathon.

If “you’d sell out your own mother for a piece of fudge” and “haven’t had a good laugh since before Johnny was murdered”, get along to find out how Ruby Knockers Carbunkle got her nickname, meet Stewie the Snitch, Vinnie the Grip, Percy the Skullcracker, and hear the worst (best) rendition of That’s Amore ever conceived. Oh, and there’s some pretty clever magic in there too.

With only four shows left, see Dirk Darrow before your future is all used up.

Reviewed by Gordon Forester

Venue: The Bally, Gluttony, Rymill Park, Adelaide
Season: 04 – 09 March 2014
Duration: 1 hour
Tickets: $12 – $22
Bookings: Book through FringeTix online or phone 1300 621 255

 

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