French American comic Celine Kuklowsky (@celinekuk) is, in their own words, a gluten-and-lactose-free, socialist, with a sugar-baby, which they admit, is the epitome of everything the far-right are so angry about. Performing a WIP of their newest hour show Bed Boy at Top Secret Comedy club last night, Kuklowsky’s comedy is quick, satirical and easy to enjoy, packed with anecdotes about flat-sharing in London and navigating today’s far-right politics.
Kuklowsky is confident and comfortable on stage, starting us off with relatable gags about the eccentricities of living with broke twenty-something artists in London, who like to do cute and arty things like re-purpose broken street furniture into lamps. Kuklowsky’s riff on having a sugar baby – essentially, the opposite of a sugar daddy – is a particular audience favourite, and has the room in bits. The punch-line reflects this sentiment, as Kuklowsky admits that they bring other things to the relationship; they’re funny.
The second half moves on to politics, and Kuklowsky offers thoughtful and smart takes on the subject. Eloquently, they ask: how can the world be hurtling so quickly towards the future in technology, but be so backward politically? By the time we have robots and visit mars, they thought homophobia and misogyny would be things of the past. However real, this section is dexterously lightened with well written gags, as Kuklowsky has fun spotting the differences between far-right and left meet-ups; referencing one texting their boys to ‘live out their GTA dreams’.
Confident, smart and satirical, Kuklowsky’s Bed Boy is a strong work in progress that left me excited to see the full debut hour.
