REVIEW: Steve Porters, How to Flirt: The TED XXX Talk by Daisy Doris May – Melbourne Comedy Festival
Steve Porters is a self-taught feminist, but also a ladies’ man who has some tips for getting the girl… the right way. With consent. Consent is key. But also be funny, be interesting and if you get knocked back, remember it’s okay. (Also, it’s a numbers game, so if you strike out with one woman, there’s always another. At the bus stop. At the coffee shop. In the audience of a Comedy Festival Show.)
How to
Flirt: The TED XXX Talk is not just satirising the pick-up artist movement; it’s pulling it
apart and putting it back together. Steve – living proof that gender is a construct
- is the creation of Daisy Doris May, actor and drag king, whose performance rides
the line between ridiculous and genuinely heartfelt. Daisy knows that joking
about the men who use negging to trick women into bed is easy pickings. So, they
have created a character who, while full of himself – in his backward cap and
basketball jersey (number 69, of course) and baggy pants – is genuinely
romantic and knows the right things to say. With some help from the audience.
The show
relies a lot on audience participation, so be warned. Steve introduces himself
as we’re waiting in line before the show. He also introduced himself to me on
the way out of The Splash Zone, so I really did feel like a VIP when I
sat on the aisle in the second row. But as much as he wants us to all let down
our guards and compliment a stranger, at least I didn’t get dragged up on
stage!
How to
Flirt is a knowing deconstruction
of the mechanics of meeting and flirting and dating. It plays with gender and
expectations and upends what you might expect from a dude who thinks he’s an
expert in what women want. It would be easy for this kind of show to fall into
the trap of just playing misogyny for laughs. Daisy Doris May is smarter than
that. And Steve is more thoughtful and giving than you might expect on first
glance. Don’t tell anyone, but he loves to spoon.
How to Flirt is a laugh riot, cleverly subversive and the character of Steve is delicious in concept and execution. Just don't tell him that.
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