Tourette's show ticks all boxes

He's experienced just about every verbal and physical tic imaginable but you won't catch professional actor Paul Barrett yelling obscenities at you.

The 54-year-old, who discovered he had Tourette's syndrome when he was a boy, says despite popular belief only 10 per cent of sufferers actually swear randomly while most battle a chronic inability to sit still coupled with verbal tics, including coughing, sneezing, barking and repetition of names or sounds.

The Auckland-based actor, who has spent the past 30 years on the stage in front of the camera or as a musical director, is performing his solo show, Tic Tic, at the Tauranga Arts Festival this week.

The comedy is about his life as an actor living with Tourette's and is designed, above all, to entertain.

"I have a very well developed sense of irony and self-mockery," says Barrett.

Previous audiences, including those in the medical profession, have learned plenty from Barrett's first-hand account of Tourette's and he is unexpectedly investigating taking the show on the medical conference circuit.

A passion for performance and gift for music and drama lea Barrett to the stage, an unlikely career for someone fighting the uncontrollable urge to do the unexpected.

"It's generally agreed that the best point to start with as a performer is stillness so I started off at a disadvantage," he said.

But through self-control he has taught himself, without medication, to control the tics in public - letting them run riot again when he gets home.

"I just sort of had to fight it out for myself," he said.

The show was suggested and written by close friend and award-winning playwright Michelanne Forster and directed by Jennifer Ward-Lealand.

Tic Tic will be held at Te Puke Repertory Theatre tonight (Wednesday) at 8.30pm.

Tickets available from Baycourt.