Thomas Jaspers: No Place Like Homo

This is Thomas Jaspers' first solo show, and is a commendable first effort. Jaspers tells his own story with remarkable candour.  It is the story of a suburban boy whose world changes when he discovers the film “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” at a young age, his subsequent coming out to his family, a failed relationship with a certain very well-known stand-up comedian, a devastating health scare, and finally his taking to the stand-up stage himself.  An opening “support act” by the name of Rhonda Butchmore (Jaspers in drag) and a number of celebrity cameos on video (which serve little purpose other than as a name-dropping exercise), could be ditched to the show's advantage.  The strongest elements are the well drawn relationships between Jaspers and the members of his family, particularly his extremely cool grandmother. Jaspers is an engaging and confident story-teller, who manages to work some genuinely touching moments in amongst the gags.