Everything You Need to Know About SMUT! Verbal Burlesque, the Safe Space for Celebrating Love, Sex and Everything in Between

To begin, what led you into doing what you’re doing now?  
There were two factors that really got me into the weird career I have today. First, I had grown up loving myths and legends that come from the ancient world, and I studied Classics at the University of Nottingham. We see so much of ourselves in the characters from those stories, and that echo of similarity doesn’t change. We all want stories about love, sex, vengeance, and triumph, and there’s everything in ancient literature, from the deeply erotic texts of Ovid to the profane, incredibly human moments that we can all connect with. Then, the second factor that got me into this career was an interest in comedy. 

How did your comedy career begin then?
I started by doing stand-up. But, at the time I started it, I wasn’t confident enough in articulating my sexuality, and felt I had nothing much more interesting to say that other privileged, white, middle-class guys hadn’t already said. For me, my stand-up wasn’t very interesting. So, I stopped doing that, and instead got into sketch and improv, writing plays and one-man shows that led to me finding an interesting set of things to talk about again. Through all that, poetry came up too, along with many other interests. It’s all for the best, though, because if I went through my life restricting myself to comedy or poetry, then events such as SMUT! would not come about.  

What improv events do you do around Nottingham today? 
In Nottingham, I am one of the directors of a group called MissImp, who are one of the UK’s longest-running open access improv theatres. The easiest way to get involved with this improv is to come to the sessions we hold every Thursday at Malt Cross. There’s a core group of people who regularly participate, but there’s no threshold to joining and you don’t have to audition, so come along. There are certain genres and stories we like to work in: musical improv, improv inspired by video games. We have a show, for example, where we tell the lost stories of the Star Wars universe. It’s mad and brilliant. 

Why do you think improv, theatre and performance have so much appeal? 
There is a fascinating statistic about the difference in play time between children and adults. Children usually spend about 30-40% of their day in play. When you become an adult, that goes down to 3%. Upping that a little bit does so much for your mental health and confidence. Playing imaginative games, telling stories, allowing yourself to fail is so vital, and I think improv plays a role in that. 

Could you tell me a bit more about SMUT! How did the event come about? 
SMUT! Verbal Burlesque is a spoken-word poetry burlesque event. It started off as a kind of antidote to poetry nights. I love the Nottingham spoken-word scene, it’s where I got my grounding, and there are so many talented writers - but a lot of that scene is aimed at the poets rather than the audience. I wanted to create a night instead that focused on its audience, and which had a freedom to share poetry which doesn’t normally get shared. I wanted to make a space where you didn’t have to worry about traumatic things. Still, everything there is aimed at celebrating love, sex, and identity. 

What attracted you (no pun intended) to the themes of sex and sexuality in poetry? 
Well, sex is fun, which speaks obviously to the ‘SMUT!’ part of the event, and it’s playful, which reflects the ‘Burlesque’ part. Sex is also quite a universal experience as well; no matter the setups or preferences, it's something that we all have a basic connection with. One of the interesting things, however, is balancing sex and sexuality, because I think in a lot of queer spaces, it’s seen as quite a promiscuous thing. But actually, just because we’re talking about sex, does not mean that’s happening. It’s rather about finding connection through expression and experience. 

How does this event add to Nottingham’s queer scene?
Queer spaces in Nottingham are excellent, but the city is also lacking sober queer spaces. At SMUT!, even though drinking is welcome, it’s not at all obligatory. Also, so often, queer spaces like this become highly stylised and fit into the same categories, such as drag performances. This is not to say that drag is not valid and artistic in its own right, but SMUT! is all about opening queer performance into other forms. It’s about celebrating the fact that we don’t need to even define what these performances of ‘sexpression’ are. Anything goes. 

Finally, how are SMUT! events usually structured? 
So, we start the event and have half an hour for people to get settled and sign up if they want to perform. Then, we have an invocation poem to set the mood for the event; essentially a poem telling the ethos of the night through poetry. After, we will go through our spoken-word performances. As opposed to many other poetry nights, we go through people’s first pieces very quickly, and then anyone who wants to do a second or a third piece (time permitting) can do so. That keeps things turning over quickly. We also have a community poem that we start off in the interval, so before the event I come up with a first line, and then people carry on, and I perform the poem at the end of the night. They are excellent - in the worst way possible!

SMUT! Verbal Burlesque will next take place on Wednesday 10  May at The Playwright

theplaywright38.co.uk