Strassman back in the city

Ventriloquist David Strassman and his menagerie of puppets are returning to Palmerston North with a new show that holds a mirror to our modern relationship with technology.

The star of numerous television shows in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom, Strassman is touring the country with characters such as Ted E Bare and Chuck Wood for the first time since 2013.

Speaking to the Standard ahead of his performance in Palmerston North on Friday, Strassman said the beautiful, ornate style of the Regent Theatre always stood out for him.

As a self-confessed theatre snob, he said he was a fan of the city’s theatre scene.

‘‘It seems like what you’d expect in a larger city, it’s a very sophisticated scene. I was very impressed.’’

His new show, itede, centres on Strassman and his characters preparing to deliver a TED Talk on whether access to modern technology is hurting people’s imaginations.

The first half of the show is what Strassman called ’’traditional hand-up-the-bum puppetry’’.

But the second act sees him use a remote control, held discretely in his right hand, to simultaneously control and voice five puppets spread across the stage.

Strassman said it was the most complex piece of puppetry he had ever done.

‘‘It’s a crazy, hilarious six-way conversation... It’s mind-blowing, [and] it’s something nobody has ever done.’’

Strassman’s friend and cowriter Steve Altman wrote the piece before they even had the technology it required.

It grew a small bit from a tour three years ago.

At one point in that show Strassman performed a four-way phone conversation, with voices coming from the left and right of the stage.

Altman was so impressed at how Strassman handled it, he decided to up the ante and write him the 25-minute six-way argument.

It took a year of rehearsal to perfect the controls and logistics of the act, the longest preparation Strassman said he had ever done for a show.

Strassman’s itede is at the Regent on Broadway on Friday, March 10.