Being Gay on stage…
Well, I happen to be Gay, and, it obviously affects some of my life experiences and in turn what I find funny and decide to tell others to hopefully make them giggle too.
Now, I’m a ‘little’ bit camp not overly but enough for people to think I have a quality. I came out when I was 15 to my mum (so yes she does know I’m queer!) and, to be honest, I am bored to death with ‘coming out’ - when I really, really have to it’s so predictable the 5 questions that follow are answered …
1. Yes, Always
2. Yes
3. Never
4. Only if you do it wrong
5. Both
I’ll leave you to fill in the questions.
Oddly though I find it to my detriment that I don’t go off all GAY GAY GAY on stage, I’m not Alan Carr or Graham Norton and I’m not ‘Just’ Gay. But, by not coming on stage and saying “oooooh look at you… bet you’ve got a nice cock.” the audience are sat going “hmmm is he or isn’t he” and it almost feels as if I’m lying to them - not deceiving them - just not telling them something. In fact at the TNT Comedy night for oncampus after I came off the compare Paul Tonkinson immediatly after saying my name asked the audience “do you think he was gay”, I don’t quite know how I would have felt had I heard it (I was filming backstage) but my friends we offended for me and due to the liberal audience so were some of them.
It’s interesting that out of the Gay men in the media that don’t really make it a major part of who they are namely , Scott Mills and Simon Amstell. When they are berated by people or made to look a fool it is often because someone has brought up the mystery of their sexuality. This is most obvious in the case of Mills and his callers making insinuations and sometimes just homophobic comments, not ever malicious just slightly mocking.
Amstell even mocks other gay men on his show, when he has had John Barrowman and Dale Winton on he has mocked them for living up to a stereotype and perhaps this goes slightly of the heads of non homos as surprisingly people assume that most gays are like Barrowman and Winton sadly they aren’t if they were it might be more fun on the gay scene - unfortunately most of us are just average people.
What is scary is that when someone is overtly homosexual he can be openly ridiculed. Scott Capurro was heckled and abused by a Polish woman in a comedy club and the audience took her side when she homophobicly abused him, I can’t help but wonder if this would have happened if someone had called another comedian ‘Nigger’ or asked of a south east asian comedian ‘Why should I care what this Chink has to say’? But Scott gives as good as he gets and ranted at her and wrote a column in Attitude! We are still 3rd class and we should be more visible but I don’t think I’m personally able to do it… maybe that’s a flaw!
