Four masked businessmen held together by their ties are about to hit the streets of Dunedin.
They are bald, "a little grotesque" and have been known to send bystanders scurrying.
But the men are just performers and their act is a statement on the modern "rat race".
"Funnily enough, they have a striking resemblance to our current prime minister.
"A bald-headed businessman - it’s quite an iconic image of its own."
The group’s comedic street performance - Suit Yourself: Older But No Wiser - will be returning to the city’s streets after a 25-year hiatus, for this year’s Dunedin Fringe Festival.
Mr McLellan-Smith - a former director of the festival - said the "surreal" street performance was a critique on the modern vision of success and the mentality of growth "at all costs".
"We do at times feel like we’re in a bit of a hamster wheel, and a rat race.
"It’s something that we can easily get caught up in, and people do, and people go to huge lengths to create this vision of success, but often it undermines their health and their happiness."
The four businessmen were "a little grotesque", Mr McLellan-Smith said.
Some bystanders in the past had found their performance "too strange" and would "walk the other way as quickly as they can", but the group were ultimately pretty harmless.
While they did not talk, there would be "a few noises" accompanying their gestures and movement.
"That seesaw is definitely going to be part of our performance routine.
"It’s crying out for some performance happening on that."
They would also stage some "self-congratulatory events of our own devising" and hold official openings around Dunedin - "because, you know, politicians like to open things".
Mr McLellan said he debuted the show in the city at the inaugural Dunedin Fringe Festival, 25 years ago, and had brought it back specifically to celebrate the milestone.
Yet, it was a bit sad the show and its message were "still so relevant" a quarter of a century later, he said.
Suit Yourself: Older But No Wiser will be performed in the Octagon tomorrow, at Dunedin Railway Station on Saturday, George St on Monday and the University of Otago on Wednesday.
