Willy Hudson starts his show as he means to go on – hiding his inadequacies with a towel and sheepishly retrieving his dinosaur print underpants from under the seat of an audience member.
It’s a taste of joyous silly things to come – or in the aptly named Will’s case – things not to come.
This is a one-man Odyssey , complete with tiny guitar – another metaphor ? – into queer life at the coal-face of sexual encounters- and it’s very very funny.
As the title suggests, it’s about your position in life and in bed. And Beyoncé is a key influencer, especially her song Love on Top.
She’s a central character in this mash of stand-up, monologue and interchange with the audience.
Willy has a boyish silliness which is totally engaging and though he makes his own inadequacy the butt (get it ?) of many jokes, he overcomes it with a very insightful analysis of what makes a man a man.
It’s a comic look at topness and bottomless, as stereotypes, at first , second and third dates, at Tinder and Grindr.
And it’s about all the things men mean to say to each other when they are trying to start a relationship, and how they fail to do so. As Willy points out “we define our positions so we can play the game of sex” .
But Willy’s challenge to us is “why should we ?” In his journey of self-awareness, maybe he’ll become the person he really wants to be . We needn’t feel unloveable and unloved.
A great springboard for his next show? I hope so!
Bottom plays throughout August at Sumerhall, Edinburgh
Review by Brian Butler
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