Who is popular today?

Natalie Palamides’s drag king show remains both raucous and subtle, as it explores grey areas around consent
There can be sacrifices when live comedy transfers to TV – and I expected them with Natalie Palamides’ hot-button anarcho-clown show Nate. But sometimes – it turns out – comedy can be more electrifying on screen. Yes, Nate was extraordinary first time around, when its bull-in-a-china-shop inquiry into gender and consent became the talk of Edinburgh 2018. But at a fringe festival, its ingredients (nudity and cross-dressing; unstable audience interaction; giant rubber cocks) are par for the course. On Netflix, they feel like a major provocation.
Comparisons are already being made with Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, another fringe graduate that upended mainstream standup. Nate is so untoward, it comes with a pre-show warning from producer Amy Poehler. It’s not required: Palamides can soften you up and get you going without help. S/he begins with a swaggering two-minute burlesque on machismo, all shades, chest hair and heavy metal, playing the daredevil and chugging beers. It is gloriously ridiculous – but things soon get complicated. Nate asks for permission to grope people in the audience. He instructs us in the need to secure consent – while violently chopping wood, which sends a mixed signal. Continue reading...