Jackie Clune certainly packs a lot into her Bitchin' Christmas. There's gratuitously offensive audience banter, politically incorrect stand-up, gutsy pop and musical pastiche. The difficulty comes in slotting everything together.
Clune has a big gay following, but she would probably like to branch out. She has certainly moved on from the days when she simply concentrated on celebrating Seventies hairstyles and the hits of the campest icons in showbiz, from the Carpenters to Dusty Springfield.
The stroppy patter is now as central to the act as the kitsch pop. Dressed like a low-rent Moulin Rouge extra in basque and fishnets, she stalks through the crowd, advising one fan to acquire contact lenses because his glasses make him resemble a paedophile. The oneliners have claws, but don't quite draw blood.
Back on stage, Clune attacks gay culture, from trendy lipstick lesbians to homosexual men with bad taste in music. It's like Jackie Mason doing Jewish gags - unacceptable if you don't play for the team, although Clune is currently on the transfer list, a self-confessed "lapsed vagitarian".
The show never quite kicks in, partly because her devotees aren't demanding enough. When Clune coasts through a medley of gay anthems, the applause for kd lang's Constant Craving feels decidedly Pavlovian, particularly as her timing is slightly out of synch with the backing tape.
The comic songs are much better. Her Dido take-off, Slightly Flat, and her crude reworking of Atomic Kitten's Whole Again certainly hit home, but overall there are too many disparate elements. Tighter direction and brutal editing might have helped, however this is not so much a show, more a CV, with Clune's nastiness as her unique selling point. Unfortunately, she is too likeably cuddly to be convincingly catty. Clune is never dull, but she's much more atomic kitten than nuclear bitch.
Jackie Clune's Bitchin' Christmas
