Hilarious and absurd, ‘Poncho: Keep it Up!’ is a must see, for an hour of delirious laughter and a smatter of teachings to boot.

Clad in many shades of orange and adorned with a water pistol (disguised as something a bit more floral) on his breast pocket, the Professional Clown we come to know as ‘Poncho’ erupts onto the stage with a big toothy grin and an hour in which to change your life, if you’ll let him.

The oh-so lovable character of Poncho has been well crafted into a charming, witty, sensual ‘Latino Lover’, who gives off just the right amount of flirtation and boundary-pushing etiquette during the many audience interactions. I found him akin to a more worldly version of Manuel from Faulty Towers, who branched out of hospitality to teach the world how to become a better lover.

Poncho takes the audience on a journey of childhood experiences of maternal and paternal figures and reflects on how our childhood role models can feed into negative stereotypes and damaging traits, some of which, like toxic masculinity, need to be deconstructed for the betterment of society.

While some of us were no-doubt on the edge of our comfort zone, Poncho did not cross the line of acceptability, as importantly, consent was sought from all participants, and a safe word agreed to by the audience early in the piece. Not only did he teach us to set boundaries, but he empowered us to enforce them as well.

Through the use of physical comedy and a good dose of absurdity, Poncho really put the ‘sensual’ in ‘consensual’. Other characters broke through to the surface of Poncho from time-to-time, like Dee from Byron Bay, who popped in to educate the audience on the many uses for coconut oil – nutritious, delicious, and most importantly…lubricating!

I left this show delighted, enlightened and somewhat smitten! ‘Poncho: Keep it Up!’ is an exotic and erratic roller coaster that you will be better off for taking part in.