Writer: Daniel Popescu
Director: Evie Weldon
Although he’s way too young to have even heard of her name, there’s something of legendary queer entertainer Regina Fong in Daniel Popescu’s Off Beat. Featuring monologues, clowning and some very funny lip-syncing, Popescu’s show may lack a cohesive narrative, but it’s energetic and completely unpredictable. It certainly lives up to its name.
Stalwart of the iconic Vauxhall Tavern during the 1990s, Regina Fong delighted audiences eager to participate in her routines. Each Monday night, she’d pick out her most well-known sequences, and the audience would know when to swipe an imaginary typewriter to the music of Radio 4’s The New Quiz and when to open imaginary shutters to the voice-over of Chanel’s Egoiste advert. Splicing together all kinds of popular culture references, Regina Fong was a blast and is sorely missed by a certain generation.
Popescu has a similar aesthetic, and although there may be no set moves for the audience to replicate, there could be in the future. Of course, his pop references are more recent. He lip-syncs to a terrible X-Factor audition and brings in some shouty and sweary reality TV – Geordie Shore, perhaps? He snaps his fingers and pouts his lips to hilarious effect.
But it’s not all lip-syncing by any means. He raps too, and does a marvellous send-up of Central Cee’s Doja Cat: a scene that demands to be repeated in any further iterations of the show. There is some clowning with a box and a mobile phone, and some mimicking of the sitting positions of those in the front row. There are speeches by right-wing politicians, one with the golden line: ‘If they’re not coming out, they’re coming over.”
The young Portuguese performer, who was born in Moldavia, has many talents. There could even be a bit of Shakespeare in one skit, too. However, the sheer wackiness of the 60-minute show prevents it from being an audition tape to showcase his accents, his languages and range. Despite its messiness, Off Beat is as tight as anything; Popescu doesn’t miss a beat or a lighting cue.
He sets out his queer stall early. On stage, before he’s even entered with his heavy cardboard box, a bed commands one corner of the stage. As the lights come on, they reveal that glued on to the sheets are bottles of poppers, condom wrappers and some alarming globules of lube. And yet, in the true spirit of the show, this bed is never mentioned, not even alluded to once. It’s bizarrely satisfying.
And after all the laughs, the end is strangely moving. Bravo!
Runs until 12 November 2025
