Mike Delamont’s “God is a Scottish Drag Queen” is coming back to Surrey, this time as a Christmas-themed comedy show in a larger theatre.
The Victoria-based performer will again dress as a middle-aged, Scottish auntie for his solo show Friday, Dec. 16 at Bell Performing Arts Centre.
Other shows in Delamont’s “God” series played Surrey Arts Centre in recent years, prior to the pandemic. Now he’s back with what he calls his favourite, a Christmas special.
“It’s a great look at not just Christmas but all the things that went in to form Christmas, so yule and all the other holidays that happen at the time, everything from Festivus to Hanukkah, so it’s neat,” Delamont told CBC Radio host Jeanne Armstrong during a recent tour stop in Fredericton.
“The version we’re bringing is the most accessible because it’s all about the holidays and has very little to do with the Bible, but God has very strong opinions about eggnog.”
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The show contains coarse language and adult content, and is not suggested for audiences under 13, says a post on bellperformingartscentre.com, where tickets fetch from $35 to $44, or call 604-507-6355.
Delamont’s website highlights scripted comedies and also his many cruise-ship gigs doing stand-up comedy. In May, he’ll be at Coquitlam’s Evergreen Cultural Centre with “The War of 1812,” in which “a young boy hates Canada until the ghost of Pierre Burton takes him on a tour of Canadian history, from the tennis ball battlefields of York to a Laura Secord mega-musical, all in a Birchbark Time Canoe.”
His “God is a Scottish Drag Queen” character was given life 15 years ago during a sketch-com show in Victoria.
“We had a sketch come up where I was going to be playing God,” Delamont told the CBC’s Armstrong. “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the image of God in the Sistine Chapel. A lot of people don’t think about it but if you look at it, and it’s worth a Google (search), God is wearing this gentle pink negligee that looks like a silk robe. And we really liked the idea that this very angry looking character was wearing this quite feminine little garb in this famous depiction, so we decided that our God would wear something floral and a little soft, and that’s how the drag side started.”
He tried a few accents, but Scottish seemed the best fit for the God character.
“It was all kind of accidental – the perfect storm, I guess,” said Delamont, who wrote the four “God” shows with his wife.
“I think what has attracted people to keeping coming back over the years is there’s a lot of heart and sweetness and there’s no dismissiveness to the character. The shows don’t say that God doesn’t exist and that God isn’t, you know, exactly what people think he is.… It’s been fun to evolve this character.”
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tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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