Penguin Extinction: The Last Ever Performance of A Betrayal of Penguins

A Betrayal of Penguins, one of the finest comedy groups to ever cross our paths, are unfortunately calling it a day. You have one last chance to see them, so listen well as they say goodbye in their own special way.

Not everyone can say that they’ve retired undefeated.

Not everyone can say that they’ve never garnered a bad review and have only ever left the stage to the sound of frenzied applause accompanied by a rush of the audience to get to their feet as the clapping intensifies.

Not everyone can say that after a five year long career, they’ve earned enough to ensure that they never have to work another day in their lives.

We certainly are not in any of the above categories. Particularly all of them.

We’ve heard the deafening sound of silence greeting the first of our ‘big laugh’ moments at the start of a show.

We’ve changed, all three men in the one toilet cubicle into separate tuxedos, and come out and perform to a crowd of four and then spent the first ten minutes of said gig awkwardly apologising that we aren’t stand up comedians.

We’ve even got a one star review for a performance (but the fact that the reviewer spelled the word ‘in’ wrong on two separate occasions, does make it more of a fond memory than maybe it should be).
However, in spite of all of these things, there have been more than a fair share of good to accompany the awkward:

Someone once left an entire box of Taxi bars backstage for us before a gig in Yorkshire of which we had all 36 of them.

There was a brief moment, minutes after the nominations were announced where we had 46% percent of the vote for Best Comedy Act of the Year at the etertainment.ie eric Awards.

We’ve won, and I believe still hold, the award for ‘Best comedic guilt trip involving an Irishman in a penguin outfit’ from The List Magazine in Edinburgh.

And so after five fairly amazing years, four Edinburgh fringe festivals and eight separate penguin costumes, we’re calling it a day. Rumours of our reasons for going our separate ways have obviously dominated the media over the previous months, but we’d like to put them to bed/start them now (it rhymes with ‘massive frug problem’). But all that is certain is that on the 6th of January, we’re hanging up our bowties, retiring our tuxedo’s and putting our constant ‘breaking the fourth wall’ gags into storage.

However rather than fade into obscurity (or more accurately, remain in obscurity) we’ve decided to go out in the truly most ridiculous way possible. We’re doing all our shows. All again. Twice. Over the course of two nights.

Call it what you will: A way of saying thank you to the many and numerous people who’ve supported us over the years. One last hurrah. Or quite possibly the greatest night you’ll ever have sitting down in the dark, surrounded by people you don’t necessarily know. But either way it’s happening and you are cordially invited to join us on this night of nights (again, there are two separate nights of this) and guaranteed laughter, tears and at least two intermissions shall await you.

While we’re here, this is probably a good a time as any to thank the numerous people who’ve made this whole thing as ridiculous and fun as it has been. What essentially started out as a practical joke has brought us halfway around the world and the memories of gigs, both incredibly good and horrifically bad, will probably stay with us long after our lawsuits against one another have been settled.

Although we find it hard to express real emotions and feelings without making an awkward joke or inappropriate comment directly afterwards, it’s worth saying that this whole thing has been amazing and we’re truly indebted to each and everyone of you who came to see a group that you’d never absolutely heard of before and then rather mystifyingly came back to see us again.

All the unscripted rants, frantic turnarounds when we’ve gone over time and covered the stage in gunge and being stopped at customs for trying bring prop guns and horse legs onto a plane have all led to this point, the performance of our last ever show: Druid Penguin. And to complete the awkward boxer analogy made at the start of this piece, although we can in no way say that we’ve gone out undefeated we can at least say that we’ve gone out swinging frantically.

Thanks to one and all.

Druid Penguin the final show of A Betrayal of Penguins will be on in the Project Arts Centre on the 4th and 5th of January 2013. Tickets available at www.projectartscentre.ie

Story by EI Team | 09:00 | Thursday 3rd January 2013 | Comedy

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