Camp Tomas Ford | Various | Until 17th February | ★ ★ ★ ★
Tomas Ford has been delivering his brand of alternative cabaret and comedy for decades now, but his newest show is something different.
It’s raw, real, brutally honest, hilariously funny, and to describe it as over-sharing would be seriously underselling the no-holes-barred telling of tales as we take a rocket ride into the artist’s life upheavals.
Ford’s marriage ended, he found himself back living with his mother in Rockingham. He was largely broke. He scored the dodgy car in the separation, and he was emotionally shattered.
While he’d always identified as being bisexual, his new single life saw him dive headfirst into exploring his male attraction. He discovered that the suburb that had seemed so homophobic in his teenage years was actually filled with testosterone filled sailors from the nearby navy base, burly dads into a bit of wrestling and beers, and a very busy nude beach.
In this intimate and wild show Ford, armed with a ukelele, draws on a journey that involves mental breakdowns, bad behaviour, rebuilding your life, finding new love, and exploring all of the options life has to offer while living in Rockingham, Bunbury and then Midland.
Cole Porter may have composed a song called You’re the Top, but Ford’s got one about discovering that you’re not the top. In fact, you’re the one who quite likes to be pinned down.
With a bush ranger beard, plaid shirts and a sensible hat, Tomas Ford may look like’s been spending too much time at the camping shop, but he’s coming out of the tent (literally) and here to share oh so much of his adventures, heartbreak and discoveries.
This may be the only show at Fringe that has a detailed song about fisting. It’s definitely the only one that shares the etiquette for what to wear to a sports themed sex party, and few can have an ode to just how hot your high school tech-drawing teacher was.
This is the perfect late night, small venue show that is sure to make its trip to fringe festivals across the nation and around the globe.
The other day a friend lamented that Fringe World had lost some of the innovative, boundary pushing, shocking and delightful shows that drew crowds in its early years: Folks – here’s Tomas Ford!
See Camp Tomas Ford until 17th February. For tickets and more information, head to fringeworld.com.au
Graeme Watson is an editor at OUTinPerth. He has a background in journalism, creative writing, dance, theatre, radio and film working as a performer, producer and writer. Graeme writes for a variety of publications and has been working as a reviewer since 1997.
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