|
Julian
Clary
Tuesday 15 April 2003
The Oxford Apollo
|
By
Sam Abercromby
Julian
Clary, the King of Camp long before Graham Norton stole the limelight,
came to Oxford for his Natural Born Mincer tour and certainly lived
up to the title.
The kitchness and glam continued throughout... with a fantastic
jellyfish scene using fluorescent umbrellas  |
| Sam
Abercromby |
From
the outset we were greeted with kitsch camp retro images 聳
Seventies knitwear and pictures of Will Young flashed on to a main
screen, surrounded by ornate flowers and accompanied by a live pianist.
Julian
himself arrived in style, draped over a giant glittering ruby high
heel and attired in a flamboyant dress matching the flowery theme
of the show.
The
jokes started quickly and a running theme was the lack of a capacity
crowd, as there were many empty seats.
Clary,
however, took this all in his stride and made the show more personal.
With
almost every sentence laden with innuendo, the puns came thick and
fast, with Clary racing through topics such as the history of homosexuality,
as well as taking time to come out into the audience.
A
particular highlight was a rummage through one lady's handbag, revealing
contents that could almost have been written for the show.
The
kitchness and glam of the opening continued throughout, with exploding
streamers and glitter raining down as well as a fantastic jellyfish
scene using fluorescent umbrellas.
However,
despite the obvious talent and slick production, I didn聮t find
myself laughing as much as I thought I would.
Throughout
most of it I was smiling, but there weren聮t many real laugh-out-loud
moments.
Clary
certainly gave it his all, combining song, dance and comedy, aided
well by his assistants, but unfortunately I felt that overall this
wasn聮t a classic performance.
听
|
