Twisted sort of happiness

This show, a mild hit at Edinburgh this year, is a tribute to the art of "genital origami". It involves two men, butt-naked, folding, kneading, squeezing, or twisting their penises into as many shapes as they can muster.

We were offered five-second glimpses of the Atomic Mushroom, The Boomerang, The Electric Fan, The Hamburger, The Joey in the Pouch and The Loch Ness Monster. They even got one brave woman to pop up from the audience for a move called The Fruit Bat. (Most horrific of all: she shook hands with them afterwards.)

The Puppeteers are Simon Morley, who premiered this show at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 1998, and David Friend - who, to judge from his moustache and shades doesn't intend to do this forever. Both men stand in front of a screen, onto which, when the roving camera is properly focused, is projected a blown-up image (we should all be so lucky) of their efforts. And they had their own music man in the shape of James Compton, who was of course their "penist".

But was it funny? Well, to judge from their limited patter, they won't be packing it in tomorrow to become stand-ups. But this is not pornography. In fact, after seeing Friend's eerily accurate impression of a Kentucky Fried Chicken, sex will probably be the last thing on your mind.

If anything, it's tableau vivant meets What the Butler Saw. It's pretty static, except when they attempt a daring coup like the Slow Emerging Mollusc or the blinking Sea Anemone. There's an end-of-the-pier feel to it - not a shape they tried, actually - and besides, it's hardly a revelation that most men spend much of their spare time playing with their nether regions.

It should pall after the first 10 minutes, but I didn't see anybody walking out. In fact, some people in the audience were bursting with laughter from start to finish. Others had a fixed, slightly distant half-smile. Gay blokes and all-girl office parties figured prominently, of course, and, well, why not? Almost everyone seemed to derive happiness - no, I said happiness - from this bizarre spectacle.

Puppetry of the Penis