The use of alliteration always adds a musical tone to the title of a show and with Woody Shticks’s Schlong Song – Schlong is Yiddish for penis – this simply rolls off the tongue. This is a quirky and naughty autobiographical look at a young man growing up. We get to hear about puritanical school days, an overbearing mother and a father who had his own issues.
This is all really funny with Woody confessing about his need to understand and control his incessant desire to jerk off. Going into rather specific detail about going into shower rooms in trailer parks; then dealing with homophobic abuse both mental and physical. His delivery is fluid and consistent and when he starts the section in his show with the sub-heading ‘What is gay shit?’, he offers an insightful and enormously funny opinion on gay culture and acceptance in society. Bearing his soul and buttocks at the same time.
Woody is not ashamed of his body and when he tells about liaisons, both in America and on his travels, he is completely naked in the show – utterly demonstrating the power of attraction and subsequent manipulation. The section where he puts a skimpy bright yellow leotard on and takes wrist sweatbands and headbands out of his crutch is laugh out loud funny. Think Jane Fonda on acid and you get the picture.
This is very good stand up story-telling and to be enjoyed as a hijinks treat, full of hanky-panky and performed with a warmth and sincerity that is bordering on the heroic. Hugely entertaining. A true celebration of being a gay male.
Photos by Peter Davies
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Schlong Song runs to Sunday 28 July at the King’s Head Theatre, 115 Upper Street, Islington N1 1QN. Box office: 020 7226 8561 kingsheadtheatre.com
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