Channel 4 OddmentsGleaned from the Channel 4 Website... Oh Yes
"A one-man avant-guarde whirlwind" - Guardian.
Once described as "the most dangerous man in Britain", Blackpool born THE DIVINE DAVID began his career in cabaret. Emerging as a cultural terrorist, he is both macabre and flamboyant, and with his merciless invective gives a savage twist to contemporary camp, unleashing a warped view of the world by daring to say the unsayable. His past credits include: Celluloid Icons: The Street, A Straight Guide to Queer, and more recently, 4 Later's The Divine David Presents, as well as Comedy Nation.
The Divine David's Spatial Awareness No1...
The Divine David has developed a near religious cult following for his anarchic appearances. His recent Channel 4 series The Divine David Presents…had the public up in arms while the critics had nothing but praise for his shocking yet blisteringly accurate observations on Fascism, shoe shops and the private life of Princess Margaret. The show also featured a woman making love to a cabbage, a perky song about compost, and a masterclass of make-up techniques for the modern urban gentleman. He also showed us how to decorate a Christmas tree with pork products, and told us how what he saw in Santa's grotto ruined his life.
Publicity blurb for the Spatial Awareness show...
An introduction to the curious world of the Divine David… a man on a mission to bring the avant-garde to the masses. Featuring Mrs Reid, the Blackpool landlady who emerges from the primordial slime, plus special guest the Spirit of Humanity. A showbiz experience bursting with music, art and contemporary dance. Or as the Divine David would say, "Welcome to my laboratoire for an evening or traditionalist situationist comedy." Show directed by James Neale-Kennerley.
What the critics say...
The critics have said a lot about this man because he's a man about whom a lot can be said.
"Wearing a slung-on dress, a matted wig like a dead cat and drooling make-up, he looks like a decomposing Liza Minnelli (and that's on a good night)", (he does!) "His themes - sex, death and loneliness - are always taboo, and his opinions are always outrageous. He can provoke audiences to violence or render them speechless and choked with tears. His sense between tension and comic timing is unique, and nothing, but nothing, is sacred.""There's this feeling with David's performances that you never know what's going to happen next. You feel that anything could happen: he might burn the place down or just walk away," comments Amy Lame, Duckie club hostess.
"The gay press ignored him for as long as they could… and even now they avoid taking him seriously… That's easier than dealing with he's really saying… His work is about a crisis of identity and no one else approaches him in terms of ferocity and skill." (Time Out gay editor Paul Burston)
"It's virtually certain that the Divine David can, like drag queen Lily Savage, make it outside the gay clubs… He comes from an altogether older tradition. He is the fool who dares to speak the truth, the outside who dares to say the unsayable."
All the above from an article by Louise Gray (The Guardian Nov 96)
"The Divine David may think of himself as mad, but at times like these he's little short of a genious." (Paul Burston again)
"Quite the scariest, funniest, smartest, truest, noblest thing you can see for three quid." (Mark Simpson, The Guardian Aug 97)
"Ridiculous but frequently priceless, the Divine David shouldn't be allowed on television, which is precisely why it's so nice to see him there." (The Observer)