The LOL Word: Coming Out Special ☆☆☆☆
The Vault Festival, London
As the number of gay bars in London is decimated and the number of lesbian bars is well, we can’t even do the maths, were there ever enough to decimate? then we are often left asking, where do all the women go on a Friday night?
The answer is The LOL word. Packed to the dripping rafters their show was sold out at the Vaults, including a last minute addition of two rows of chairs that we suspect were sneaked in while the performers distracted the clipboard & quiff crew. If you are not signed up for the LOL words newsletter then we have to ask “Do you even lesbian tho?”
Tonight’s theme of Coming Out, boisterously introduced by the popular double act Shelf aka Rachel & Ruby, started with a new game show that the boozy crowd took to heart. Loosely based on the Choose Your Own Adventure game Dungeons & Dragons we got the Coming Out themed Dungeons & Debutantes. Throws of the dice decide whether the audience would fade into 18th Century hetero-normality or flourish by creating an anachronistically queer utopia. (Side note – we learned the term Coming Out is a queer appropriation of the term used to describe a young woman’s debut into society in the 18th century – further proof of why Higher Education can’t survive without the lesbians)
After the game show got the crowd suitably warmed up, or tanked up depending on the beverage, it was time for a showcase of comedians telling their own Coming Out Stories. The fun was supplied by Chloe Green, Chloe Petts and the always hilarious Jodie Mitchell.
Chloe Petts, using the appearance of disarming incompetency to revel in the brilliantly obvious, regaled us with the story of how she came out to her parents unnecessarily as they had guessed from “everything you ever said and did” and unforgettably how her love of football and golf fortuitously allowed her to be the son-in-law her father had always wanted.
Jodie Mitchell was all playful mischief. Whether pointing out the seminal importance of Coming Out to your hairdresser to get that all important first gay cut or the willing perversity of embracing god as a queer icon. Oh yes, it was Jodie’s own version of Revelations. Who else but the Homo Superior would be able to feed 5,000 with just a little bruschetta and ceviche? Or would refuse to let his guests drink water when wine was just a wink away? And as for the choice of making those gates pearly? Jodie had blasphemy on blast. Ending with their own Coming Out Jodie shared that it was time to come out as non-binary. The crowd cheered for them, the laughs and the pleasure of their company.
The LOL word will return on 21st Feb, 6th and 13th March. Buy a ticket or wonder where everyone else is on those nights. https://vaultfestival.com/
Review by Andrew HebdenQueerguru Contributing Editor ANDREW HEBDEN is a MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES graduate spending his career between London, Beijing and NYC as an expert in media and social trends. As part of the expanding minimalist FIRE movement he recently returned to the UK and lives in Soho. He devotes as much time as possible to the movies, theatre and the gym. His favorite thing is to try something (anything) new every day.
Labels: 2020, Andrew Hebden, London Theatre, review, The Vault Festival
