The multi-talented Sabrina Chap talks dirty!

Polari chats with Sabrina about playing live in the UK, her album Oompa!, and the shameless lyrics of “the dirty song”.

Interview by Christopher Bryant and Bryon Fear.

The first burlesque show I did was just after coming off the open mike scene, and I thought, ok, I’d better be sexy, and I literally came out in my bra and underpants, and I was like “What? Here’s my fucking costume.” All the other girls where in character.

[rating=4]
US: 111 min • Universal • DVD & Blu-ray

Is Flash Gordon the embodiment of camp? Why are there many hawkmen but no hawkwomen?

Flash Gordon earns Camp Wings from its very first frames. The camera zeros in on a dodgy papier-mâché model of the Earth, and then the hands of Ming the Merciless (played by Max von Sydow) appear sporting serious Bling. He starts his destruction of Earth – a planet he’s never heard of, even though he has a button labelled ‘Earth Quake’ on his Armageddon Console …

Signs Ten, a poetry collection from performer extraordinaire Marcus Reeves.

Introduction to the collection of poetry by Marcus Reeves, Sighs Ten, written by Polari editor Christopher Bryant.

Sighs Ten is a new collection of poetry and prose by writer and performer Marcus Reeves. Taken from the first decade of his career, the ten poignant, pointed and playful pieces reflect on themes of love, lust, loss and loneliness.

[rating=5]
UK: 83 min • Renegade Pictures • DVD and iTunes, March 2011

Polari‘s editor is impressed and deeply moved by My Kidnapper, a documentary by Mark Henderson about being kidnapped with 8 other people in Colombia in 2003, and then returning to meet two of the kidnappers years later.

My Kidnapper is an unexpected and surprising retelling of a hostage story. It is also a remarkably balanced look at a situation in which the emotions of all those involved ran hot.

An in-depth conversation with Jonathan Kemp about his novel London Triptych.

Polari Magazine talks writing, Oscar Wilde and pornography with Jonathan Kemp on the eve of the publication of London Triptych, his debut novel.

It was very important to me that it was if not sexy then at least sexual. And sexual in a very different way, one that wasn’t necessarily pornographic.

The mind behind Sister Wendy: The Musical returns to the stage.

Marcus Reeves talks about Screwged!, his take on A Christmas Carol, and his wonderful cabaret act The Singing Christmas Tree.

The Scrooge story is traditionally very dark and I think that’s what we’ll deliver, with some very rude bits added too.

Is Attitude’s “Issues Issue” helpful in any way at all?

Polari‘s editor takes exception to how Attitude tackles the issue of gay men and mental health in a publication that endorses much of the behaviour it criticises.

“Attitude’s approach to mental health issues is a problem because it is not about living your life, but instead about adopting an alternative lifestyle defined by bullet points. The devil is not in the detail but in the overall message.”

Dirty White Boy: from blog, to book, to stage.

Christopher Bryant talks with the assistant director and the cast of the play Dirty White Boy in the final days of rehearsals. We talk about settings songs to the action, the underwear scenes, and most important of all the great emotion that is at the heart of the work.

“It’s not a gay play,” Clayton insists. “It’s a social play,” Kat confirms “It’s a commentary on a certain time and a certain place.” Now we’ve really hit on something, and everyone becomes more animated as a result.

Jane Hilton’s Dead Eagle Trail photographs the 21st century cowboy.

The celebrated photographer Jane Hilton talks about her exhibition and book Dead Eagle Trail: America’s Twenty-First Century Cowboys, and the strong hold that the myth of the cowboy maintains over the American imagination.

“I mistakenly mentioned Brokeback Mountain once. That had a very interesting reaction,” she said with a mischievous laugh. “At first they denied knowledge of it, then one of them said, ‘I think I know what you mean. No, we won’t be seeing that’.”

[rating=5]
Released on March 1, 2010

Unique, unpredictable and impressive, Joanna Newson’s Have One On Me is a vituoso peformance.

Have One On Me is issued as a triple album. Dividing it into three CDs was an astute move, even when it would have fit comfortably onto two. Newsom has said that it is divided “in terms of morning, noon and night, although that wasn’t the concept when the album was written but the way that the narrative progresses”.