Opinion
Crazier than Christmas: What makes me leap for joy?
Vivienne McKee
November 19th, 2022
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This article is more than 2 years old.
Joy will rain down on Glassalen at the premiere of the Crazy Christmas Cabaret on Tuesday November 15 (photo: Thomas Petri)
Not much these days makes me leap for joy.
Leave of senses
Certainly not watching DRTV news or listening to BBC4. It’s all doom and gloom, isn’t it? Especially in the UK where, in spite of the Brits’ reputation for humour, even the jokes and memes have dried up.
I can still smile at a few though: Jonathan Pie’s rants on YouTube, a photo of King Charles with the caption “73-year-old man finally gets a job”, and Boris Johnson’s decision to leave the race to be PM prompting the tweet “First time in his life he’s pulled out in time.”
Led astray
It is not easy to be a comedian during these days of strict political correctness – anything involving #MeToo, #Black Lives Matter, green activism, racism, sexism, ageism and every other ‘ism’ is constantly under scrutiny.
During rehearsals for our Crazy Christmas Show this year, one actor was concerned about describing ‘The Dame’ – that is a large male actor dressed as a ridiculous woman, with clownish make-up and wearing a gigantic costume, as “looking like a lump of dough”. “Would this”, he asked nervously, “offend overweight people in the audience?”
Lost in Lago
This year I have set the action of the show in Florida in the 1980s, and Donald Trump (or, as I call him, Dump ) has just bought Mar-a-Lago. Determined to make a few satirical hits at the ex-president, I found myself in a dilemma.
These days news changes faster than ever. References to the classified, top-secret documents in the basement of Mar-a-Lago, and Trump’s eagerness to get his views back on Twitter, are already old news. What I wrote in August is no longer valid in November. Stand-up comedy has now become fast-forward comedy!
As I write this, the UK has gone through three Tory prime ministers in just a few months, the British monarchy has changed, and Danish royalty has been ‘re-shaped’. Apart from that, how does one write comedy about the War in Ukraine, crippling inflation and a world splattered with dictators and far-right activists?
Leap of joy
So where do I find my leap of joy? Well – we are back in the lovely theatre of Glassalen in Tivoli. My team of talented comedy actors are all happy, healthy and having fun with toe-tapping ‘80s pop music, funky fashion and the craziness of a Miami murder mystery show in which the audience has to guess ‘Who Killed Don Calzone?’
Corona may again be lurking in the shadows, but hopefully, unlike last year, when all theatres had to close down in mid-December, we will be able to run our show until Christmas and beyond!
Yes – every dark cloud has a silver lining, and perhaps, to save money on heating and electricity, and to cure your winter blues, you will want to leave your home screens and streaming services and go out to enjoy yourselves for a few hours in the bright lights and warm glow of a LIVE theatre show.
In that hope, I leap for joy!
About
Vivienne McKee
Vivienne McKee, Denmark’s best-known English entertainer, is this country’s most beloved foreign import. For the last four decades, hundreds of thousands of Copenhageners have enjoyed her annual Crazy Christmas Cabaret show at Tivoli, marvelling at her unique, wry Anglo wit and charm.
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