Writer and Director: Ginger Johnson
Now that Ru Paul’s Drag Race is a global mega-franchise with variations running in multiple countries, it is easier than ever to recognise subgroupings of contestants. The two most prominent types are those who allow being a former Drag Race queen to shape their professional career afterwards and those who capitalise on the publicity to bring new audiences to their (newly elevated) performance style.
Ginger Johnson, winner of UK series 5 in 2023, is firmly in the latter category. The comedy performer has constructed a tale about her long-stated desire to become a daredevil for her 70-minute show, newly arrived in London after a season at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She wants to be, she declares, the most dangerous woman in the UK – “but not in a J K Rowling way,” she points out in one of several sideswipes at those spouting anti-LGBTQ+, and specifically anti-trans, rhetoric.
But although Johnson’s comedy does involve takedowns of other people (including some hilarious, and potentially accurate, barbs at a couple of her fellow Series 5 contestants), primarily it is focussed on the clowning silliness of a fart-obsessed comedian indulging in an escalating series of stunts. From the relatively low stakes of chugging Coke and Mentos together to a longer and more involved game of Russian Roulette (replacing guns – “they’re not camp” – with confetti cannons to the face, one of which has been spiked, literally, with drawing pins), Johnson’s comedy combines carefully planned ad libs, sprinklings of stage magic and a bucketload of charisma.
Throughout is threaded the tale of seeing a circus performer called Zsa Zsa perform a human cannonball stunt, which Johnson seeks to emulate with her own onstage cannon, “Big Bertha”. Together with her perpetually unsmiling stage manager, a life-size “stunt double” doll to whom Johnson becomes romantically attracted, and several original songs penned by cabaret legends Bourgeois and Maurice, Johnson structures a show that continually raises the stakes while delivering a genuinely show-stopping finale.
At one point, her auburn wig getting slightly dishevelled as yet another antic pays off in hilarity, Johnson describes herself as “a seven-foot, Millennial Lucille Ball”. The height may be slightly off, but everything else is true: Ginger Johnson’s zany stylings could turn the most mundane situation into comedy gold. That she starts with a ridiculous premise as the basis for some unparalleled entertainment makes Ginger Johnson Blows Off! an unmissable evening of drag gold.
Continues until 12 October 2024
