Seeing Queerly was a comedy show that presented a different take to life during and after lockdown, as well as dating. Ross Kamp brought his candid and and sometimes hesitant humour to Le Village's stage with a gentle approach that charmed all watching him. Although, we couldn't get too comfortable, as at times out of nowhere, an upfront and ascerbic wit would catch us off guard when we least expected it, keeping us on our toes.
Ross Kamp has a strong future ahead of him as a comedian, as well as a writer.
Despite taking a while to relax into the material and at times letting the energy drop when there were moments of silence, Ross made sure that we were comfortable and entertained throughout. The fact he was honest about the fact he was partially sighted gave a very different perspective on how we saw life. It became a show that was made interesting with many anecdotes on how he made it through lockdown and on certain dating apps like Grindr for instance.
As he relaxed into the material gradually, it became clear that he had potential to really explore himself as a performer through this particular performance platform. He became more playful and enjoyed himself fully through the vibrant positivity he showed in his lip syncs, ukelele playing and self deprivating comedy. Maybe it would help his performance if he allowed more of that playfulness to come out from the word go and trusted himself more, even if he was deliberately being hesitant as part of the joke being set up. This way, the energy wouldn't have dropped as much. However, having said that, Ross Kamp is a performer with a lot of potential to really be someone that people will remember for the right reasons and with time, the confidence in his material will evolve well.
A particularly memorable moment was when he explored how we as individuals automatically place people in categories. For example, football fanatics, foodies, beer loving and so on. But he then yet again threw us off guard by saying that the LGBT community are equally to blame with this, such as bears, butch etc. From there, he launched into the problems of fitting in and dealing with what he called 'Twitter Gays'. It was good to see so many crossovers between the straight and gay communities when it came to dating and more, as it encouraged a lot of resonance with the material presented, as well as enabled him to be more comfortable on stage and more experimental with a lot of the 'shade' being thrown at us.
With a lot more work on being comfortable with the material, Ross Kamp has a strong future ahead of him as a comedian, as well as a writer. Watch this space.
