On the seventh day, god created standup comedy… and he made local comedian Mike Delamont the king. Delamont’s UNO show, God Is a Scottish Drag Queen, at its core is a trumped-up comedy act. Except that’s like calling heaven a pretty decent place to chill out.
From the moment Delamont hits the stage in his womanly power suit, sporting a thick Scottish accent and librarian glasses, it’s clear this isn’t just a standup comedy set. Also indicative of this are the pretty impressive banners and screens that now surround God, which, at last year’s Fringe, was a stripped-down yet constantly sold-out event at the comparatively tiny Fort St. Café. The Metro Studio is more Delamont/God’s speed, and the packed house was belly laughing right from the elaborate musical intro (hint: live bagpiper).
The impressive thing about Delamont’s show is how focused he is, despite the running joke being that God is off another one of his rambling tangents. If the spirit of UNO is to highlight individual performers’ abilities to command and control a stage on their own for an hour, well, let’s make God the poster boy for all eternity. Delamont is so zoned in here, not only on the hilarious religion-based jokes, but on the body language, facial expressions, choreography and mannerisms. You truly believe he is god. Dressed in drag. With a Scottish accent.
Delamont stays locked in character as the audience files out, shaking hands and signing autographs (“Last night I signed a Bible and a boob…. it was a great night,” he jokes). All I could think of saying to him on the way out was, “Tears of joy, God, tears of joy,” for which he thanked me.
But I should be thanking God. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long, long, really long time.