It’s refreshing to see a drag king act at the Fringe, considering the current saturation of their drag queen counterparts in entertainment. Kate Smurthwaite uses the medium, and her alter-ego, Milo Standards, to deliver a sometimes compelling but deeply flawed burlesque of alpha male standards. She takes to the stage as an all too familiar archetype of recent years – the airheaded misogynist railing against what he sees as double standards. Her character is a proponent of Russell Brand, Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson, and the like. It should be easy to pick apart such detestable public figures, but Smurthwaite seems to flounder much of the time, slightly unsure about what her show is supposed to be.
Take the beginning, for instance, where she comes out wearing a bear mask; she makes a point about trying to make women feel less comfortable around teddy bears, but the joke comes out quite confused and bizarre. She has some fine moments, such as a section satirising men who objectify women, crafting some sharp punchlines, and her material surrounding Russell Brand is witty if slightly unoriginal, but there are too many moments where she will beat a dead comedic horse firmly into the ground for no discernible reason – such as an aside about “favourite wars” and a section elucidating, in tortuous detail, sixteen keys to management. The only laughs during these sections are nervous ones.
At times it looks like Smurthwaite is really having fun with her lecherous bro character, deconstructing masculinity with a blackly comedic edge, but most of the time her material is either strangely out of place or extremely played out.
Milo Standards: Penis De Milo, 19.40, PBH’s Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth, until August 25
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/milo-standards-penis-de-milo
