The Arch at Holden Street Theatres, Sun 21 Feb.

Peter Goers’ latest Fringe show is as Peter Goers-ish as they come, and all the better for it. After all, there are few performers of any shade who’d have the confidence to walk onto an almost empty stage and, within minutes, remove their pink socks to show the crowd their “floppy toe”. Stephen Fry would have never dared such a stunt!

There was no rigid structure, giving the show a freeform, chatty style, as we began with funny anecdotes about Judi Dench, Peter O’Toole, Trevor Howard and others, segued into some tales about his time living in Istanbul in the early ‘90s, strayed through flashbacks to his career as a journo for The Advertiser (like the time he had lunch with the hopelessly up-himself Keith Michell), and finally sidestepped into a few darker, sadder interludes. And, for a bit of variety, Peter’s old mate ‘Smacker’ came in for a sweet musical break halfway through.

More amusing and intriguing than the showbizzy talk were a series of reminisces of Peter’s travels around “the glories of regional South Australia”, mostly in an ABC vehicle and winding up in some very out-of-the-way destinations, a few of which proved fairly dull (and he said he wouldn’t name them – but he did, of course). Finally, to cap things off, he offered some choice excerpts from his soon-to-be-published-by-Wakefield-Press book, a couple of cute tangents, and a melancholy consideration on the devastating impact last year’s COVID-19 restrictions had upon an elderly friend, and so many older, lonely people out there. And did we detect a tear? From Peter Goers? Surely not? Who’d believe he could be such a softie?

But we just had to end on a happy note, so Peter’s pal (and everyone’s), an Adelaide icon with no less than 19 Logies at home, popped in to croon Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway Baby and then stayed on for some nice comic schtick where Peter pretended he couldn’t get up and had to crawl around on the stage, mugging happily.

Joyful strains indeed.