Stage
Queer comedy festival a scream
September 08, 2006 Edition 1
QUEERCOM. With Julian Clary, The Wet Spots, Trevor Boris, Jason Wood, Scott Capurro and Poppy Champlin. At the BMW theatre@thepavilion at the V&A Waterfront until September 23.
Review: PETER TROMP
What a pleasure it is to announce that this continent’s first queer comedy festival is a resounding success. Not a dull moment in all its two hours, Queercom has all the wit, flamboyance and cheeky raunch one could have hoped for.
Featuring a dazzling array of international acts, it makes a mockery of the phrase “value for money”.
Laughs of this calibre are a priceless commodity, and it is your privilege, dear reader, to pounce on attending the funniest show by the funniest, cleverest people I have ever seen assembled in one place before somebody cottons on to the idea that they could charge gold bars for this show.
Standing like a colossus at the centre of attention is master of ceremonies Julian Clary, who is worth 10 times the price of admission on his own. The word hasn’t been invented to describe the suavity of Clary’s persona and his cutting-edge wit. He immediately makes one feel at home with his supremely relaxed stage persona, but his charisma and daring never makes one feel too comfortable. After all, what would a comedy festival of this nature be if it didn’t challenge you in unexpected ways?
Speaking of the latter, Scott Capurro, a San Franciscan comic, will have you clutching on to your seat while at the same time racking your body with uncontrollable barrages of laughter. He unleashes the most sophisticated brand of crude humour like it was a sceptre imbued him at birth.
Throughout his set, he had audience members on the knife’s edge that separates revulsion and cathartic bellyaching.
He had me sweating and he only grew funnier throughout his segment, especially because of his devil-may-care nonchalance. He could be the great divider of the festival, but if he does turn out to be your cup of tea, he will be your favourite afternoon roast.
The Wet Spots are a song-and-dance duo from Canada who will have you singing to some of the most provocatively and niftily catchy tunes while self-confessed baby of the festival and fellow Canuck, Trevor Boris (he is only 27), has a kind of playground cheeky wit that is thoroughly addictive.
He is perhaps the closest thing Queercom has to a typical punchline comic, but what delicious punchlines they are.
A big hit of the evening was Jason Wood, and understandably so. Having been to South Africa before, he knew exactly how to work the audience, but his biggest attribute is his feel-good charisma.
He completely flooded the theatre@thepavilion auditorium with his boundless persona and when he found time to belt out a couple of songs, the audience was his completely.
All the while the performers were working their magic and strutting their stuff to the accompaniment of Frankie Nassimbeni’s irreverent set, and I say “accompaniment” because the designer’s decor has as one of its features constantly looping graphics of the most heart-tugging whimsy that complements the generous goodwill of the festival perfectly.
All in all, gangbusters entertainment. Don’t miss it, whether you are gay or straight or still deciding.