29 November 2006
The Fourth Coming
Paul Burston: BlogApologies to those who don't live in London or are forced to work on
Tuesday nights, but for the benefit of those who do and aren't, a word
of advice - go and see David Hoyle at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. I've
said it before but I'll say it again - the man is a fucking genius.
Last
night was the fourth in a seven week run of his new performance club
Magazine. The 'issue' of the night was spirituality, and topics up for
discussion ranged from queuing up at the post office to getting down on
your knees at a gay sauna, religious bigotry to internalised
homophobia, the meaning of life to the death of squirrels.
Denouncing
our furry friends as 'the drag queens of the rodent community', Hoyle
confessed that he relished 'the sound of a squirrel starving to death'.
You could tell how many keen gardeners there were in the audience by
the level of the laughter.
The show was a breakthrough in some
ways. As a performer, Hoyle has always had a vast arsenal of talents to
fall back on. He's charismatic, clever and has enormous stage presence
and great comic timing. What he didn't used to have, at least not in
the old 'Divine David' days, was the courage to be truly vulnerable on
stage. The pain was always there, but masked behind a steady stream of
vitriol.
That changed last night. The vitriol is there, and
the savage humour too. But there were moments in last night's show that
were truly heartstopping. When he told a punter he'd happily give up
performing if he could only find someone to love him, he wasn't joking.
It may sound cheesy now, but then I guess you had to be there.
In
fact, you have to be there. Next Tuesday. 8pm. The theme is the sex
trade, and the special guest is a male hooker rumoured to have a rather
large penis. So that's one comic genius with a side order of cock. What
more do you people want?<
David Hoyle as The Divine David
And again as he is now, pictured with my mum at my recent book launch. Is this the start of a sinister new cult?
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