You might be taken aback if someone claimed he could bulge his eyes and hiss and sputter in the manner of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. But probably not if that person was Charles Ross, the Canadian comedian behind the hilarious One Man Star Wars Trilogy staged here in 2009.
"I really enjoy playing Gollum. I feel uninhibited and emotionally honest," says Ross of his new show One Man Lord of the Rings.
He returns to the city next month for eight 70-minute performances, during which he condenses Peter Jackson's film adaptations - The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King - of British novelist J.R.R. Tolkien's classic trilogy.
Other than Gollum, he will be "summoning" Middle-Earth wanderers from hobbits such as Frodo and Sam, to Gandalf the wizard and wicked Sauron. "It is by far the most physically demanding solo show I've done. I play more characters, plus there's more film - 12 hours' worth - reduced into an hour and 10 minutes," says Ross.
However, the advantage of doing a one-man show based on such a successful franchise, says Ross, is that there's a built-in fan base.