Jacob Dombroski bursts onstage, barefooted, board-shorted and equipped with body-rolling dance moves that would put Magic Mike to shame.
He circles the space, winking at the crowd and ramping up the applause - but he'll have half the theatre in tears within the first 10 minutes of his one man show.
Dombroksi effortlessly commands the stage, telling his story with his toy tiger puppet as his little bro Corbin, assisted by stunning visuals and an expert level of emotional control.
Big J takes us with him as he grooves through life. We meet him as a little boy, born with Down syndrome, honing his dance skills from a young age.
His monologues are often set to projections of real home videos, providing a window to his world that at times feels more like an actual portal.
"He didn't understand me," he says of his birth father. "So he walked away."
As for his mother: "Look at her!" he demands of the audience, as the set lights up with footage of his family.
"Look how beautiful she is!"
Dombroski is both vulnerable and fierce as he goes on to grapple with his past: abandonment, violence and the oppression that comes with being perceived as 'different'.
Director Rose Kirkup told The Spinoff Dombroski once turned down a spot in a disability arts festival, telling her, "I don't wanna do that, because I am an artist.
"I wanna be free to be in all platforms."
It's glaringly obvious that Big J does not need his own special category. This is his domain. He is able to measure out his feelings with a precision and power that many seasoned actors would envy.
It's everything you hope for as an audience member - simultaneously feeling safe in the hands of the performer, while experiencing a delivery so visceral, it threatens to overcome him at any moment.
"They say I'm a 'different dude'," he tells the audience of his school bullies. "I mask up, I protect myself."
"It hurt me the most in my heart, when they said I was 'handicapped'."
Crucially, Dombroski is always in control - quivering lip and wavering voice be damned. He's unapologetic, and unafraid to make us a part of some of his most painful moments.
He also demands you keep up with him, as he seamlessly dips in and out of dance breaks, addressing the audience and re-enacting snapshots in time.
Dombroski swaps concentration for comic timing, fragility for fight sequences, all at a moment's notice.
It's no surprise then that Big J Stylez is already award-winning - the Everybody Cool Lives Here production took out several NZ Fringe Festival honours.
Here is a show that is profound, transformative and goosebump-inducing. Big J did the mahi, and anyone who witnesses his story will reap the rewards.
Big J Stylez plays the Herald Theatre in Auckland from July 4 - 7.
Newshub.
