Joel Creasey in Naked

Joel Creasey says that his show is all about his fear of nudity – which sort of crushes the mainly gay audience’s hopes of seeing him naked as soon as it all begins.

He knows that his marketing (he’s almost naked in the program promotion) and the show title will draw in the fellas and he cleverly (and un-sexily) lets them know in a round-about way – that this performance is about campy banter, not sexy boy in the raw as the image implies. Joel is not going anywhere near that… at all.

This twenty-two year old is so gay! And so is his show; and of course for the Feast Adelaide Queer Cultural Festival, this goes down a treat.

Creasey has a knack for telling a story, and can he talk, non-stop!

He is your quintessential gay stereotype – the flapping fairy, the girly boy at school and the just dumped by lover lad driving home crying; and he easily makes all the transitions as he screams from one real life story to another.

It’s a witty conversation with his audience rather than down-pat stand-up and that’s what gives Creasey a style all of his own.

He doesn’t really take us anywhere new. In fact much of his chat is about rather average moments of his not that exciting childhood. But his ability to keep us interested, his unashamed effeminate manner and his confident fluking of funny moments, sees things move along swimmingly – more often than not.

His obsession with the Spice Girls, Xena the Warrior, Serena Williams, Celine Dion and Meryl Streep all get an airing, and give us an insight into the childhood escapes and innocent delights of a boy who was never going to make the football team.

Towards the end of the show he tells a tale about being chased out of a country town by an angry homophobic mob while touring his show; and while he makes light of it, he also makes an important point – how essential it is to have festivals, venues and creative outlets for queer artists and audiences. And Adelaide’s Feast Queer Cultural Festival is quite wonderful for just that reason.