Gary Starlight: In Tents. Performed by Jeff Clark at Little Andromeda. Friday, 12 October. Reviewed by Sophie Ricketts, Backstage Christchurch.

Gary Starlight: the man, the myth, the legend. For one night only, he was back in Christchurch to give us a hit parade of his most widely regarded and well-loved songs. But no one had ever heard them before... in fact, he hadn’t actually ever sung them before. Confused? This show was an example of musical improvisation at its best, and Jeff Clark was at the top of his game as he expertly wove his way through Gary’s back catalogue and dealt with some familiar faces back to haunt him from his past.

Good improvisation requires a quick wit, a keen intellect, and a somewhat fearless mentality; and this show had all three in spades. But what is even better about this concept is that Jeff is a truly talented singer. The character of Gary works because for all the side eye regarding his fame and glory, behind the singer/songwriter/massage therapist is a guy who has spent twenty years perfecting his craft and fine tuning his ability to take inane suggestions from the audience and turn them into power ballads, love songs, or party hits. We were all thoroughly impressed as he improvised songs of wildly varying styles and incorporated each of the audience suggestions thrown his way with absolute finesse. I never knew there were so many rhymes with “Christmas” until last night. Credit most certainly must also be given to his heroic performance of “Cowboy Dracula” - a genre invented on the spot but now surely secured as a breakout hit.

This was the third instalment in what Jeff has dubbed the Gary Starlight Trilogy, and although few trilogies can claim equal strength across all three parts he continues to prove with each appearance as Gary Starlight that he is more than capable of recreating the magic time and time again. My companion for the evening had never experienced a Gary Starlight show before, but we were each roaring with equal amounts of laughter throughout - Jeff Clark is genuinely funny and incredibly clever. And I’m sure that if there were any audience members who weren’t sure when they walked into the tent tonight, they left absolutely certain in their fan status as a “Gary Guy” or a “Gary Girl”.