What a brilliant premise – Johnny Trunk worked for his sister’s fan club, a renowned British porn star, and when he found himself bombarded with all kinds of depraved and plain desperate fan letters, he decided collected the more obscure ones. As the story goes, he found himself reading them to an actor friend, who read them out as if they were scripts. Lo and behold, Dirty Fan Male was born, first as a cult CD and now as an award winning Fringe show.
Trunk never judges as he reads out the letters, filling you in on the background of these randy pensioners, illiterate masturbators and self-confessed perverts as they declare their undying love and sexually graphic fantasies. The result is a fascinating, voyeuristic glimpse into the lives of these men.
But they say there is a thin line between comedy and tragedy, and that is all the more true in this show. One finds oneself feeling desperately sorry for some of these men, as they really have nothing in their lives but telling every dark secret they have to the Page Three stunners. As one man comments, she’s the only girl he is ever been in contact with.
The show is entertaining but never really pushes itself to its limits and you feel that by the end the material begins to get a little thin, resulting in a throwaway medley of three filthy poems.
However, it is still highly entertaining and you will be humming Duncan Wisbey’s musical versions of the letters long after you’ve left the Gilded Balloon.
3/5
Martin Miller
