Has there ever been a time in our community that we needed to have a laugh about gender roles more than we do now? Taylor has an uncanny ability to have you questioning yourself and our society at large while in fits of giggles imagining transvestite pigeons. Having seen many young performers attempt to tackle jokes about gender, it was refreshing to see it done by such a professional and while there are stereotypes and themes to challenge you, they’re done remarkably well.
For those who caught Taylor’s MICF show 10 Things I Know About You, you already get why he is touted as ‘one to watch’ and rest assured 1 Man Debate is Taylor at his clever, witty, professional finest. He truly connects with an audience, makes them a part of his show and roll with the punches (including late audience members) with the ease of a performer much older than his years.
Going through what he refers to as a ‘quarter-life crisis’, Taylor is on the quest to find out what on earth is going on with men. As a white, privileged male in a Western country, he hasn’t had a great deal to crisis about however we live in a time with no clear cut transition from boyhood to manhood, no longer do women rely on men and no longer do men need to conform to any stereotype. So what do they do? What is their use? And is masculinity relevant or is simply handy explaining how much you bench pressed at the gym?
In his usual style, Taylor is honest and open about his own experiences growing up, falling in love, being hurt and figuring life out. He creates a room full of empathy and genuine affection from his audience and uses comedy to move forward and have us in tears of laughter at his misfortunes and his crazy Gen Y ways.
In 1 Man Debate, you learn, you laugh and you leave pondering the relevance of masculinity, how ‘gay’ straight weddings really are, quintessential Australian sayings and all sorts of uncouth ways to talk about data. Taylor has such a bright future ahead of him; did he mention he writes for Leno? See this show when you can and support this boy/ man/feminist/legend so you can talk about how you knew him before he was famous.
