Come Over Your Auntie - Press Release

Imagine the "drawn line" in Comedy. Imagine toeing that line. Now... Imagine doing a round-house kick across it.

That's how I would describe "Come Over Your Auntie", the Character Comedy Solo Show, as part of the Camden Fringe from 28^th-30^th July at The Rosemary Branch Theatre, written and starring Variety Cabaret Artist & Writer, Henri J Rex, from Norfolk.

"Come Over Your Auntie" was originally written as a Radio Comedy/Satire Podcast around 2017 time when I needed to give myself a new challenge as I had only written for stage beforehand, I wanted to see what it was like to write a script where all the jokes are purely audible and imagined. So that's what I did, I wrote a couple of 20 minute episodes and then... didn't do anything with it as I went into Cabaret full-time as a Drag Artist and Magician.

So it's been a few scripts just... sitting in the dust essentially till... now! I was encouraged to apply for the Camden Fringe by a fellow Fringe Performer Friend of mine and... I never really thought that I'd be applying for a Fringe Festival this year as I didn't have anything "ready", but I gave the application a look over and went through a load of old scripts that I've written or started to write and I knew that due to funding, it would have to be a show with the smallest cast, set and props possible... and I rediscovered "COYA". At first, I thought that a script written almost 10 years ago would be outdated by now... nope!

It was just as funny and important now as it was then, or even more so! With the rise of "anti-woke" celebrity has-beens and apparent comedians, to me it's so important to highlight how awful and actually ridiculous these people actually are whilst having some fun on our end.

This show dives into the surrealist ideas of a) someone being absolutely outrageously tragic and allowed to not just get away with it, but somewhat celebrated for it and b) you're actually there... as an audience member within this universe, and an apparent fan enjoying their entertainment.

It's not a philosophical show and doesn't intend to be; it's comedy, it's silly, I want you to have fun, BUT! I do want us all to have a good think afterwards about late-stage capitalist entertainment (like Deal or No Deal, The Chase, or any other show exploiting poor people for views) and how celebrity worship (Trump, Elon Musk, Jeremy Clarkson, Joe Rogan etc.) is commonplace in our society now and is slowly destroying us as a human race.

There’s something quite fascinating about the idea of an Agony Aunt or a Newspaper Horoscope Writer etc. the idea of a woman (usually, or a gay man, almost never a cis het man) who is famous for just… having an opinion and it apparently being Gospel. The same with people who are famous for being fashionistas or interior designers, like Gok Wan for example, I adore him as a person, but we all went mad over his fashion ideas in the early 2000s, you couldn’t have any TV Channel on without him being featured on some sort of programme, and now we look back at his fashion choices with absolute cringe. I feel like I do explore this phenomenon in “COYA” by making Gilly Tuppence’s main character trait as being as hateful and useless as possible. She’s actually not that good at her job, but she’s absolutely loved and adored in this universe for the pure fact that her word is taken as absolute Gospel Truth and that’s what she’s famous for… because she’s just a manufactured product that hasn’t changed in 40 years… and refuses to.

I hope you see the vision of this WIP Stage Version of a Satire Radio Comedy Series written almost 10 years ago come to life. It’s a fun piece of work for Queer Socialists, Punks, Anti-Capitalists, Anti-Zionist Jews and fans of Julia Davis, Alan Partridge and Chris Morris; you guys will LOVE this show! “Come Over Your Auntie” is the first Produced Theatre Show by H.J. Rex Productions and also our Fringe Premier. 

Buy Tickets:

https://camdenfringe.com/events/come-over-your-auntie/