If anything could have gotten me out after a sobering men's
Wimbledon final on Sunday, I would have thought it would be Haha
Hackney's Gay Extravaganza at Hackney Empire. As part of the London
2012 Festival, Gay Extravaganza was hosted by Sandi Toksvig and
Stephen K Amos and featured aline up that included Susan Calman,
Paul Sinha and Sharon D Clarke - I was promised nothing short of a
night of brilliance.
The underwhelming and slightly messy opening number of I Am What I
Am was soon forgiven - especially since it was followed by Sandi
(oh, Sandi...) Toksvig striding out on stage, garbed in a shiny
purple trouser suit and cracking joke after joke that had me
squawking loudly with laughter.
In retrospect, I wish I'd relished Sandi's opening gambit more, as
it was the high point of the night. As act after act went on to
high hopes and came off to rather limp applause, it became clear
that the night - directed by the famous West End lez, Susie McKenna
- was distinctly lacking in any quality control. So much so that my
date turned to me about a quarter of the way through and whispered,
"So anyone can just be in this then?" The vast majority of acts
ranged from tolerable to drunken stag-do karaoke. What made it even
worse was that the songs that were performed - largely dated well
back into the last century - were poor choices that seemed unknown
to most of the audience.
Not only was the music misjudged, but the humour too, was simply
not the right tenor for a tame, tired and rather dry Sunday
evening. Especially the Sunday after World Pride. Following a
desperate and rather hopeless plea from 4 Poofs and a Piano to the
audience to join in and sing along with a chorus of "Do you take it
up the ass?", even Stephen K Amos had to come back on and make a
crack about the lack of audience enthusiasm.
Sharon D Clarke stole the musical trophy, however, with her jaw
dropping performance of Oleta Adam's I've Got To Sing My Song,
while the London Gay Men's
Chorus delivered a moving rendition of Love Don't Need A
Reason.
On the comedy side, it was the Scots wot won it (at least some
Scots were up to winning) as Susan Calman and Craig Hill
nailed their sets and somewhat redeemed the otherwise flaccid show.
Paul Sinha too deserves an honourable mention, but the real credit
goes to the hosts - Sandi And Stephen, who provided essential and
unfailing comic relief in between all the cringing and
mediocrity.
Susie McKenna's idea of paying "tribute to those LGBT artists
whose talent, influence and popularity paved the way for so may of
us" was a nice touch, as was the short presentation by Simon
Fanshawe from the board of The Kaleidoscope Trust,
which supports and enables LGBT activists abroad. His sensitive and
informed talk about the different stages of LGBT acceptance around
the world, the different ways local activists are trying to garner
support and effect change, and his clear statement about "not
exporting homophobia" was enough to make me consider Kaleidoscope
as a legitimate way of attempting to tackle discrimination
abroad.
And of course, the overarching theme of the night was pride -
pride in being who you are. The most memorable words for me came
from Sandi Toksvig who implored the audience to come out if they
weren't already. "It's like a cancer of your soul" to be in the
closet she stressed. Having been in the closet for much of my life,
and still in the closet to many people in my family, I know exactly
what she means. It is events like this that give me faith and joy
and comfort in my wider family - the LGBTQ community. so quality
control or not, I am endlessly grateful. Keep 'em coming!
