Alert the press, sound the fanfare and roll out the red carpet, because acclaimed physical comedy performer Thom Monckton is in town with his show The King of Taking.

And you are hereby summoned to the royal grounds where this King callously barrels towards his own destruction – while you give him gifts.

“The King of Taking is about a childish king who is dangerously volatile, but kind of likeable in a toxic kind of way,” Thom says. “It’s mostly non-verbal and quite physical and revolves around the king being a bit hopeless at life, struggling with carpets, his throne, and velvet. A royal consequence of 100% pamper and 0% accountability.

“The non-verbal nature is broken from time to time when he shouts names at his imaginary constituents and to order their executions at a rate that is completely unsustainable for his kingdom and the crocodiles tasked with their decomposition. As part of the show audiences are asked to bring a wrapped gift for the king. The king opens the gifts as part of the show and whatever happens in this part of the show is and forever will be… a mystery.”

Previously at Adelaide Fringe with his hilarious smash hit The Pianist, Thom is thrilled to be back in Adelaide with his new show The King of Taking, which is playing until March 5 at Holden Street Theatres, which is much closer than Scotland.

“There are many festoons, the weather is nice, there’s so many shows to see, and it’s closer to New Zealand than Edinburgh Fringe so it’s cheaper to get to (that’s the first thing that came to mind but I put it last because I didn’t want to be rude),” Thom says.

A one-hander by the hilarious and unique Thomas Monckton, The King of Taking might also be a two-hander, but it also might not be, but we don’t know because it’s a secret. Also there’s a tech with good foot covering.

“I am a surviving physical comedian, metaphorically badly wounded, but still alive. I’ve travelled the universe with various shows and performed to all manners of creatures and objects, but I have most experience performing to humans, including some royals of somewhere, definitely a president of Finland, but most importantly at least two groups of unimpressed teenagers,” he says. “I’m joined by Tess Sullivan who has a secret role in the production that I’m not telling you about because it’s a secret. She raced horses across Mongolia and that part is true and not even a facetious metaphor and not even a particularly exciting story compared to most Tess-stories. Niamh is the operator and tech on the show and probably has the best internal time-management clock as well as having the best socks and is very confident at ranking preferences of beans.”

The King of Taking promises to be an absolutely hilarious adventure by one of the world’s best physical comedians, so grab your tickets HERE and don’t forget your gift!