Above: Award-winning comedian AJ Lamarque concluded his touring of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne with a show at The Vanguard, Newtown, which was recorded live.
A show advertised as a Gay Cruising 101 could cause a strong swell even in our broad 2025 minds. We may well be excused in reaching for our sunnies, strapping on the floaties, plunging into a life preserver way up past our Budgie Smugglers. We could imagine getting ready to weather waves of kitsch souvenir quips about sun-drenched queer hedonism, turbulent tawdry tales of escapist seamen and near-death drop-zones for shallow tourists letting it all hang out on the deep seas.
But this was not the case with AJ Lamarque’s well written comedy show and smooth-sailing style of delivery ensured and informed, intelligent itinerary of voyage vignettes. This show was much more than a string of oversexed, inaccessible anecdotes of debauchery on-deck, bitchiness at the buffet or viagra in the V-berth.
This hour-long tranche de l’humanité flottant was an effective and layered tutorial. At the same time it celebrated and poked thoughtful fun at the holiday option of an all-team-alphabet tour of duty. Many themes and approaches to life that the gay/queer/trans /bi and label-plus tourist still needs to navigate even in our modern times were on-board activities offered up entertainingly.
Engaging and safely infectious here was this racy raconteur’s cheeky accounts of cruising. Everything from boarding the ship on hallucigens for the non-sober, through dance parties, party costuming, 24-hour-cafe conversations to six degrees or less of separation during intentional or accidental dance floor coitus was heard here.
As well as these colourful caricatures, Lamarque gently, thoughtfully guided us past some sharp icebergs of seriousness, wrapped in the warm glow of humour and holiday-style surface glint of flippancy. This country’s perilous non-eroded class system, and the inequality of alphabet-community members to all enjoy similar standing or public acceptance as each other were two such interesting ports of call.
Above: AJ Lamarque at The Vanguard Newtown.
Identity, especially being in the majority or minority depending on how and where you get to cruise through life, is also telescoped in this show. Exploitation, fake tourism and renovation in part of poor islands or countries to accommodate cruise ship passengers on desperate day trips was also a brutal cruiser’s bingo-card cross-off here.
Lamarque’s explanations flowed in honeyed, agile and charming voice. His constant catering to the need for full understanding by non-queer audience members was notable. This inclusivity helped to explain lifestyle meds, phalluses, the sex party vibe and non-heterosexual sub-cultures. Lamarque demonstrated fabulously buoyant communication skill and a mastering of his craft with a show that steamed ahead as a progressive, account of how humans react to life.
The years of being the ‘other’ still does not make for an easy or intrinsically comfortable route for members of the queer community. The old habits or subconscious weight of being is a force that can rock the beautifully decorated boats in which queer people party and play in as a group.
Lamarque’s telescoping of such baggage, and of passengers in an all-gay escapist environment is an interesting, elevated study.
Also rewarding for gays, queers and others who made it up the gangway to the old-world elegance of The Vanguard Newtown was the need to embrace difference as the years pass stereotypes reduce in intensity. It was a true success that Lamarque’s sentiments were clear also concerning being yourself whilst being part of a huge, exclusively rainbow population, set to party as they became the majority on leaving the mainland.
These included discussion of taking breaks in partying, communicating with those out of our age-group, drinking or doing drugs (or not) and embracing body shapes various. embracing a range of personality types, our cultural diversity as well as the need for a healthy grinning at ourselves on vacation or otherwise. Tales of the temptation to belong, to be proud, to be individual, to not be pressured plus to be all at sea but safe was a lifebout ride towards the future in this fun-filled comedy anchored in common sense.
I for one can’t wait to wear the AJ Lamarque lanyard next and to gently have my ship rocked to new destinations in future fine shows.
