At a fringe noticeable for the polish even of its rookie standups, here’s another debut showing no signs of callowness. The co-writer of Chicken Shop Date with Amelia Dimoldenberg, you wouldn’t bet against Dom McGovern being a TV fixture soon, such is the smoothness – and good humour – characterising this account of the Hounslow man’s troubled relationship with his body. So are we talking about men’s mental health? Not if McGovern has anything to do with it. His scepticism of that phenomenon, and the performative (straight) male vulnerability it entails, forms one amusing section of his show.
There’s precious little emoting or “trauma comedy” at play in Prize Hog, which doesn’t soft-soap McGovern’s difficulties with body dysmorphia and bulimia, but doesn’t over-dramatise them, either. They’re all just fodder for his sharp and gossipy chat with the audience, about a recent trip to Brazil (suboptimal destination for travellers already unconfident about their looks), and about Jesus and his unhelpful dieting example. Brought up in an Irish Catholic family, McGovern couldn’t ignore the influence of that “ripped little twink on the cross” – but 00s slimming culture cast a darker pall. At least until he undergoes therapy, under the charge of a South African counsellor rejoicing in the name Wendy Christmas.
