This one man stage show is brilliant! Using a bare minimum of props like his own clothes, a simple wind instrument, a bit of snack food and some paper cut outs, Jonathon Katz is able to weave a hilarious tale that has absurdity, cosmic zap, audience participation and a sense of sublime silliness to carry it through. It is a masterpiece of Andy Kaufmanesque humour that will delight right through to the end, punctuated with the perfect punchline.

Kenneth Chisholm, internet review

The word eclectic should be underlined in any definition of the London Fringe Theatre Festival. Sex, Violence & the Meaning of Life, being presented by Epic Worlds of Melbourne, Australia, at the Fringe's Museum London venue, is a ridiculously funny over-the-top comedy from Down Under.

Creating this entry's inspired nonsense is Jonathan (Jonno) Katz, a 31-year-old Aussie now living in New York City.

In the production, subtitled The Elaborate Adventures of a New Zealand Manicurist, he proposes to tell the life story of "visionary" Emily Winkins, based on her book Tantalizing Confusion, though that label truly describes the show itself.

Katz maintains a friendly rapport with his audience, whether telling them if they don't understand something, "I'll come and explain it to you," or interrupting his performance to pose for London Free Press photographer Morris Lamont.

It doesn't matter that the plot line of Sex, Violence makes next to no sense. That fact is lost in the dizzying demonstration offered by this one-man perpetual motion machine.

Showing boundless energy and enthusiasm, thebarefoot comic actor races about the stage, portraying a dozen weird characters and delivering seemingly spontaneous one-liners.

His bizarre activities include miming the sex act ("Theatre is about soft, little orgasms"), conducting a slide show and simulating the bloody dismemberment of a human body, hence the violence referred to in the show's title.

"Any questions? Answers?" asked a perspiring Katz at the end of his frantic 45-minute flight of fancy.

No doubt his audience had queries, but they were just too mesmerized to raise them.Katz delivers a unique, offbeat, solo performance that is meant more to be enjoyed than described or explained.

Noel Gallagher, London Free Press Arts & Entertainment Reporter, 12/8/02.

Well, that title promises more than this show delivers, but what is delivered is pretty remarkable – and I’m not referring to the cookies at intermission. Jonathan Katz runs riot as he tells the hopelessly fractured story of Emily Winkins, a New Zealand manicurist who ends up as a god-like figure – or something like that. Katz uses vacation slides, audience participation, cartoon cut-outs and physical comedy to tell a story that appears to be largely improvised – but isn’t. Theatrical anarchy that’s alternately baffling and delightful. Sex gave free reign to Jonathan Katz, a performer whose genius at free-form comedy borders on madness. A MUST-SEE show at the fringe.

Chris Doty, Internet Review

OOOOH!AAAAH!...Go see it...More than once!

P.B, FringeCut

Now this really is theatre on the "Fringe"

Jonathan Katz, otherwise known as "Jonno," arrived at the London Fringe Festival from Melbourne, Australia, via New York City, with his show, Sex, Violence and the Meaning of Life. This stands as an example of one of those titles that is meant to hook a finger in your lip and reel you in, since there isn't much of any of these aspects to his production.

"Does anyone want a cookie?" he asks during what was evidently the break. The audience only knew it was the break because he told us. That he was drinking juice and eating Oreos on stage may well have been part of the show for all we knew.

Despite what seems an offhand and spontaneous approach to his play, Jonno maintains that structure is important. Structure is, in fact, paramount. While this may seem a stretch at times to the audience, given he often doesn't seem to know where he's going with a line and spends almost as much time chatting with the audience and his "techies" as presenting his show, it seems likely that without some foundation of a story, Jonno would have spun himself right out of the orbit of his original flight pattern.

He says the story, revolving around a New Zealand visionary named Emily Winkins, has meaning for him, but his tangents and interaction with the audience propel the show. His manifesto states the line between chaos and control should be constantly shifting and evolving through the show and scripted dialogue is out unless it can be "mucked up."

Also, throw in a lot of manic running and spinning about. This is not buffoonery, incidentally, but rather "physically devised theatre." According to Katz, audiences crave this type of theatre and the energy of it is riveting. Presenting ideas to the audience is "patronizing."

There probably aren't a lot of theatregoers who are apt to be hornswoggled by these rather porous ideas and Sunday's audience, though willing to get in the spirit of the thing, did seem a tad baffled.

Deliberately toying with chaos in front of a live audience takes more intestinal fortitude than most performers have and it can cause quite a bit of anxiety on the part of the audience as well. Fortunetly, Jonno is an appealing fellow, with a bright, manic grin and a zinging, boinging kind of stage presence.

The most important thing to him is to not get bored with the material he's performing, which means mixing it up each time he performs and seeing how the audience will play with him. "I found I wasn't getting nervous when I would go out on stage when I had lines to say. Now I get nervous."

It would be a rare actor who wouldn't be nervous standing in the wings with only the skeleton of the story holding him up and no script to carry him through. According to Katz, "the most original and interesting theatre comes when performers commit themselves to their imagination."

On the other hand, this isn't conventional improv theatre, either. Katz sticks to his story even when you wish he'd stick with one of his tangents instead.

"The most important thing, " Jonno says, "is that I'm having fun." Most people I talk to rate their enjoyment before the actor's, but he believes if he's bored, the audience is bored. Conversely, if he's energized, so is the audience.

This is the opposite of the traditional theatrical experience of getting a bang for your buck: no costumes, no script. It's either brave or foolish,possibly both, and it becomes compelling because he's made himself so vulnerable it would be churlish to refuse him. As much credit should be given to the audience as to him for his survival at the end.

Denise Hay, London Free Press 14/8/02