Writer: Alex Lowe
Clinton Baptiste: Roller Ghoster! takes Alex Lowe’s hapless psychic character on his fourth nationwide tour. Clinton tells the audience anecdotes from his life, summons his spirit guide Taruak and, if his spirit is strong, uses his psychic abilities to pass on messages from the other side.
Clinton first appeared as a character in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights, where he appeared for less than five minutes in one episode, starting a riot in the club when the spirits inform him that one of the patrons is ‘a nonce’. Since then, Lowe has performed the character as part of the Phoenix Nights live show and developed him through the podcast, Clinton Baptiste’s Paranormal Podcast, and in previous shows.
It’s a bit of a shame that Roller Ghoster! is presented like a stand-up, with comedian Mike Cox acting as a warm-up while Clinton “opens his third eye”. This isn’t because Cox is bad, he wins the audience over and warms them up well, but it breaks the illusion that this is a genuine psychic show and makes the stand-up structure inside it more apparent. For most of Roller Ghoster! Lowe is essentially doing crowd-work, talking to the audience and insulting them through the medium of being a medium.
The character of Clinton Baptiste is gloriously end of the pier. His references are not only dated but kitschly dated; has Cheryl Baker ever been a punchline in a joke since the turn of the millennium? (There’s one gag about INXS that has older members of the audience trying to explain Michael Hutchence’s demise to the younger).
Clinton has a huge pompadour of white hair and a tight, glittery white suit. He walks onto the stage, places his hands to his head in an impressive, mystic manner and then utters a camp ‘hiya’ to get things started. As he says, he might need to ‘butch up a bit’ if he wants to become Clare Balding. Since his time on Phoenix Nights, he’s developed a habit of emphasising certain phrases in a shrill voice that gets grating very quickly and stays grating throughout.
What is really well-observed are the little phrases and gestures of his psychic performance. When a ‘bit’ isn’t going well, he says he’ll ‘park that there’ and give a mystical flurry of the hands. When a person says their name, he’ll try and pre-empt them to make it sound like he’s intuited it. When he actually guesses a man called John, he’s ecstatic.
Roller Ghoster! is not a high-brow show, there are plenty of innuendos and puns and the subject matter is frequently sexual or bottom-focused but it does come with trigger warnings, “for all the feeble types out there”. However, for anyone who likes to hear campanology described as “being surrounded by dongs all weekend”, it should bring a smile and a laugh.
Runs until 12 May 2024 and then tours until November
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