Jake Mace
How do we reconcile, and maybe forgive, the people we’ve been in the past with who we are now? Dee Allum takes this question at a very literal level in her debut comedy hour exploring her transition, and manages to extract a hefty dose of laughs along the way. Allum’s snappy wit, fantastic timing, and clever callbacks intertwine with a disarmingly honest exploration of what it means to be Trans in the UK – from coming out to the deepest darkest horrors of Luton.
Dee states early on in the piece that she expected to have a largely cisgender audience for her show, and was surprised to find the front two rows were almost all gender non-conforming people. While this did mean the crowdwork she had planned suffered slightly, I still found as a gender non-conforming person that the content was hugely relatable, and that generally speaking appealed widely to both audiences.
There are two main tensions explored in Allum’s set here – the expectations cis people have around trans people and how her life story both subverts and sometimes slots in with those expectations. A lot of the jokes centre on the crux of Allum experiencing trans-misogyny in her day-to-day life, but later reconcile with her finding acceptance in places she might have never expected. Allum works this line deftly – and with a light touch that keeps everyone on board. She checks in with the audience on the more squeamish jokes, which helps build and puncture this pre-established tension with hilarious results.
The second tension revolves around Dee’s predisposition to cringe at things she’s done in her past, which she anticipates correctly that many of the audience share. Dee has the slightly more interesting position of having completed parts of her social and medical transition, and so sees these events in a different light to some given how this transition has changed her personality and how she views the world. This is a remarkably soulful ethos, which allows people who may not even be remotely familiar with the day-to-day tribulations and joys of the Trans experience connect with her stories and jokes on a universal level.
Dee also handles the profound challenges of being Trans with deftness, and a level of honest bare-all gusto that provides a whimsical optimism, even in light of insanely long waiting lists and the awkward social situations she recalls, Dee manages to avoid being self-referential in making light of her experiences in transition, instead packing in crease-inducing, well set-up punch lines throughout.
I was initially pretty shocked at the fact that Dee was willing to reveal her deadname and delve so fervently into her past life, but she carries the whole show with such charm and spirit that you can’t help fall about laughing while also being captured by the bittersweet sentimentality.
Recommended Drink: Deadname is best paired with an Old Fashioned – neat, bittersweet, but with a refreshing zing.
Catch Dee Allum: Deadname until August 25th at 16:30 at Pleasance Courtyard – Below. Tickets are available through the EdFringe Box Office.
Phoebe Bakker
