David Williams Is The Cool Genes Man! – Adelaide Fringe Review

Gluttony’s Pigtails, Tue Feb 17 David Williams tells of his involvement with a lesbian couple who want to start a family with him. He is excellent dad material, a strapping, good-looking, successful bloke: the decency just shines out of him. His upbringing at a Catholic boys school in Elizabeth caused him to revolt against organised religion and deliver one in the eye to the Pope by donating sperm (GASP!) to a lesbian couple (GASP!) who are married (GASP! Thud!). Unsurprisingly, he couldn’t make the show without talk about masturbating; in fact he managed two monumental wank stories. Rather as “humblebrag” has entered the language, perhaps we should consider the “mocksorry” in comedy - delivering an insincere apology for plumbing the depths of vulgarity, whilst maintaining full eye contact with a squirming audience member. Because that’s what he did here, without malice and with bashful pride in knowing how gross he was being. He raised, but shied away from examining, some interesting areas - why was he not interested in how they were going to administer the dose; why clichéd lesbian porn isn’t of any interest to real lesbians; why he was uninterested in any parental role for his donation offspring. Instead, he paraded clichés about male interest in lesbian sex in order to refute them and ended the show with a routine about men not finding the clitoris – all done from a point of view cheerleading for women, but it is old news and presented with a decades-old metaphor. The show had bags of potential, but needed a more ruthless interrogation of the subject and fewer diversions to make it distinctive. He could still do it. Julia Chamberlain David Williams – Cool Genes Man! continues at Gluttony’s Pigtails Sun Mar 1. Book at FringeTIX on 1300 621 255 or adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix. Click HERE to purchase your tickets.