Performing a stand up comedy puppet show sounded unreal before attending “WHAT THE DUCK?!?” — but what was more unreal was having a puppet deliver political satire on the United States.
“WHAT THE DUCK?!?,” starring Susan Linn and her puppet companion Audrey Duck, is a one-of-its-kind improv comedy show featuring both expert puppetry and excellent sarcasm. Hosted at the Puppet Showplace Theater across from the Brookline Village T-Station, the set offered both reflections on the state of the nation and commentary on the concept of doing an 18+ stand up puppet show.
Audrey Duck, the star of the show, was very enthusiastic to tell Linn her many grievances with the way she has been treated over the years.
Due to Linn’s “social conscience,” as Audrey puts it, she’s had to endure considerable hardship — a likely reference to Linn’s work using puppet videos to help children process grief and trauma.
Linn, in turn, tried to console Audrey throughout the night, talking about how busy she’s been with her other work and how stressed she is with current events, even mentioning how concerned she is with recent elections and fascism.
She told Audrey not to worry though, as puppets thrive during fascism, later jokingly citing President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Russian president Vladimir Putin as examples.
The sheer absurdity of a neon orange puppet duck talking about democracy and calling out foreign leaders was enough to make audience members double over in laughter.
Linn’s skillfully crafted jokes and keen sense of her audience’s humor made every punchline feel more like you were laughing at the news with a close friend rather than with a whole crowd of strangers.
What really captivated the crowd throughout the night was Linn’s adept improvisation skills. At one point in the show, Veronica Barron, the theater’s executive artistic director, drew words out of a bowl that were written by audience members pre-show. Both Linn and Audrey were tasked with crafting hilarious jokes surrounding words like “sarcophagus” and “limitless,” which they both aced.
Throughout the set, the two performers did not shy away from breaking the illusion of puppetry.
While many puppet shows are geared towards children and have them imagine the puppets as their own individuals, Linn and Audrey cheekily joke about how without Linn, Audrey would be no more and how ultimately all of Audrey’s dialogue is Linn’s own.
Their subversive, head-on approach to discussing Audrey’s puppethood not only made audience members laugh, but also made their show feel aged up appropriately.
That’s not where the fourth-wall breaking stopped either. At one point in the night, Audrey detailed to the crowd the ordeals of being dry cleaned and asked us if we’ve ever gone through it.
A man in the audience nodded and Audrey quickly called out to him. The man, a former dry cleaner, and Audrey bantered back and forth about dry cleaning practices and the delicacy with which they handle fabrics, all to the audience’s delight.
To end the show, Audrey and Linn fielded open questions from the audience. People’s queries ranged from Audrey’s age to her thoughts on love to the national economic boycott that was happening that evening, all of which Audrey and Linn answered with their characteristic tongue-in-cheek humor.
The last question of the night came from another puppet, pulled out by an audience member to share a question.
After going back and forth with Audrey to discuss the formation of a puppet union, the show ended with a crowd singalong of “Solidarity Forever” with Audrey and Linn, a popular labor rights song co-opted by many union movements over the years and likely another reference to the state of the world.
“WHAT THE DUCK?!?” felt like watching Kermit the Frog’s PG-13 restrictions get torn off of him in real time. Both Linn and Audrey tackled the idea of a puppet improv comedy show in a smart yet amusing way, neither shying away from addressing the audience exactly how they are nor censoring their thoughts.
The show was pure puppet perfection.
Linn was an expert at not only knowing what sort of humor her audience would respond well to but also matching them at an intellectual level with her literary and current events knowledge. You never knew where exactly the set was going, but throughout it all, you knew you’d be met with a clever reference and sarcastic statement from either Linn or Audrey.
I came away from “WHAT THE DUCK?!?” not only having had a great time with a crowd of puppet enthusiasts, but also I felt smarter for having watched it. Instead of doom-scrolling current events in my room at home, I was able to catch onto Linn’s clever political references and laugh at the absurdity of it all from Audrey’s point of view.
While Audrey Duck may not be able to truly control her own thoughts and actions, her ironic commentary and sharp retorts made her feel more socially aware and lively than any other person in the room.
