Writer: Julian Clary
It’s Friday night in the Hang ‘Em Low saloon, and comedian Julian Clary is looking to get into a few good chaps…
After 40 odd years of touring (with a body in its 60s, and a face in it’s 20s) Clary has his format down pat. Don a few outrageous costumes, talk to the audience, tell some stories, throw in heck of a lot of innuendo – and a lot of outright smut – and then get some men on stage to flirt with to gay abandon. Nothing has changed for Fistful of Clary except that there’s a loose Western theme in this one, leading to lots of jokes about riding cowboys. It’s exactly what you want and expect from a night out with Julian.
Act One is like having a conversation with an old friend. Clary tells stories about OAP cruises, till ladies in Marks and Spencers, Gigi the dog who would be a serial killer, and sharing a meat pie with Jesus, all ably prompted by stage manager Bertha the Lesbian and interspersed with some picking on people in the audience. Throw in a comedy song here and there, and that’s an hour in the can. Clary talks as if he has nothing planned, and is merely having a good old gossip with a couple of hundred friends. He is easily distracted and it’s often funnier than the story he was trying to get through. While a lot of the jokes are telegraphed a mile away, and the songs are really more speaks to music, it’s a fun opener, and so clear that this is what Clary does best.
Act Two Clary gets his victims – sorry, volunteers – up on stage. Six men are chosen to audition for Clary’s Cowboy themed bid to break America, The Glorious Seven Inches. Your reviewer was unfortunately stuck at the very back of the balcony, so cannot give advice on how to attract Clary’s roving eye, although it sounded like a very funny selection process as he wandered the stalls, clad in pink lamé. A brief bit of chatter and an audition before the six Dad bods are cut to four. And when Clary finds out one of them is a hunky fireman, it’s pretty obvious who is going to get the staring role! All of the men he selected at Harrogate were wonderfully funny and (mostly) well up for the comedy, with a special shout out having to go to the retired banker who ended up playing the sexy saloon owner herself.
Unfortunately this little skit is the least interesting part of the show even while it’s a fun concept, as it’s very clear this is Clary mildly phoning it in. It isn’t necessarily unfunny – Clary phoning it in is a lot of people’s making a real effort – but it does still have an air of slapdash to it. Harrogate is only night three of a thirty night revival tour however, so it’s to be hoped that it’s just working out some kinks (if you’ll excuse the innuendo!).
Overall, a person could do much worse that spending a night with Julian Clary. Fistful of Clary is a funny, warm, and excellently filthy experience. And his final song, about how sometimes It Isn’t Cool to be a Queer, is a timely reminder that Clary’s brand of wonderfully camp celebration of many sexualities and gender identities is something still judged negatively in a staggeringly large number of places. With Britain’s recent ruling on the definitions of womanhood causing waves of legitimate concern for trans, intersex and non-binary people across the country, as well as a documented rise in homophobia across the world, it’s a doubly important message, raising what on the surface is a silly little comedy show, to a political act of rebellion. Long may Clary continue to make his audience both laugh and think.
Reviewed on Friday 2 May 2025
