Paddy Daddy
Glass Mask Theatre, Dublin
★★★★☆
A gloriously camp Mark T Cox strides on to the Glass Mask Theatre stage, at Bestseller on Dawson Street: slick fohawk, frosted-tipped quiff, sparkly blouse and black leather vest like Joey’s in the Friends pilot. An LGBTQ+ audience and their allies are welcomed to a night of cabaret chronicling our host’s intimate affairs in rural Ireland. A blow-by-blow account, in his words.
With effortless charisma and a sweet west-of-Ireland drawl, Cox immediately connects with the room. Originally from Co Clare, he has honed his craft in East London, inspired by its prominent gay cabaret scene. Fresh off a 26-show run of Paddy Daddy at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he is proud to bring it home – even though his “mammy is threatening to come”.
With a keyboard, a reverb pedal and some lilting thrown in for good measure, Cox performs Spice Girls, The Corrs, Jennifer Lopez and other “songs written by straight women” the gay community have adopted as anthems. In between, semibiographical stand-up leaves the audience in stitches. He’s Bo Burnham if the punchline were “getting pounded by a married man”.
Like the best comics, there’s a grain of truth to Cox’s act. Amid the stories of old flames and “hometown boys” still firmly in the closet is a shared trauma. There’s a willingness to laugh at the absurdity of the sometimes homophobic rural Irish attitudes to gay men. Equally, though, an original ballad moves one spectator to wipe away tears, forcing a smile along with his peers even so.
Cox teases us, flirting with innuendos and clearly at ease with entertaining his peers. In his storytelling, he flirts with vulnerability with a frictionless demeanour. There’s a trust one must earn from an audience to tackle home truths the way Cox does and know he’ll pick you back up.
Although his act needs logistical fine-tuning here and there, it’s a pleasure watching a master at play. He jests about being a superstar, but, in his quick-witted humour and candid authenticity, he already is.
Continues at Glass Mask Theatre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Sunday, September 15th
