Latest review of James Mullinger Is The Bad Boy Of Feminism

I have just been sent a link to this lovely review of my last Etcetera Theatre show by journalist Sam Parker on the International Life website. It's always a real delight when someone sees the show and totally gets it.

Link:
http://www.internationallife.tv/James-Mullinger-comedy

Review:
"One slight problem with the title of James Mullinger’s one-man show is that it prepares you (or me at least) for Frank Skinner filtered through a university education: blonde jokes with Freud in the punch line. The wonderful surprise - and charm of the routine is that the title isn’t ironic. Mullinger really is a feminist, and by the end of the show he wants you to be one too.

Any doubts over his credentials are quickly dealt with – do you need to be black to care about racism, he asks? – not least of all because the comedian has a degree in Women’s Studies. Mullinger shimmies across the stage bristling with positive energy - like Chris Rock minus the vitriol – as he expresses his indignation at the way women are paid less, portrayed negatively and patronized by society.

The arguments fluctuate. A sketch around sexist taxi drivers is fantastically well observed, while a fellow audience member struggled to see why she should feel offended by the conventions of chick-flicks. But it is when Mullinger delves into anecdote that he is most compelling.

As the photo editor of a national magazine, he was the responsible for a worldwide airbrush scandal. As a liberal, he was forced to forgive a tramp who violating him in his sleep. As a man on his stag do, he had a stripper stick a toothbrush up his backside in front of a room full of his friends. These stories are hilarious and delivered with disarming frankness, but it is the way he brings them round to support his central thesis that distinguishes Mullinger from most other comics on the London scene. Comedy at its best is thought-provoking without being didactic – a balance this comedian nails time and time again.

James Mullinger is… The Bad Boy of Feminism was sell-out at the Camden Fringe. He also played Upstairs At The Masons near Oxford Street on November 17th. Anyone who has lost faith in feminism – or for that matter, new comedy – really ought to check him out."