Interview: Bertie Hodd on Dad Jokes
We met up with award-winning drag-king Dad who chucks the gender binary aside and helps unsuspecting Dads embrace queerness.
Dad Jokes | Camden People’s Theatre | 29 April – 3 May | £18
Tell us about Dad Jokes and how the show came about.
Dad Jokes is a coming-of-middle-age story about one regular dad’s attempt to understand his queer child, it’s a cabaret-drag-clown reparenting extravaganza. It’s a love-letter to the queer community and parents who perhaps don’t ‘get it’, but really try to. It is an exploration of softer masculinity, utopian visions of parenting and the queer reinvention of family.
This show is for anyone with a Dad, so I guess that’s everyone in some sense.
I started performing as Dad because I felt there was a gap in the drag scene for a character like him. I saw a lot of daddies, a good number of father figures but I thought what the queers were really looking for was just a Really Nice Dad, a man who loves his wife, who might be a little awkward, but wants to be better with his emotions. Drag is a celebratory artform and so I was less interested in critiquing masculinity directly, but reimagining what we might want it to look like.
Dad Jokes was first performed at FemFest Brighton in 2022, in a very early version, a wonderful festival that supported early career artists in Brighton and it’s grown and grown since. I’m so excited to be bringing it to Camden People’s Theatre.
Who or what are your biggest comic influences?
As a kid that grew up obsessively watching British comedy shows, I was raised on a healthy dose of Rik Mayall and Dawn French. What inspired me about them was their inherent stupidity more than their incredible wits (of which they also had plenty). Since leaving clown school I’ve been inspired by performers who use DIY aesthetics, especially clowns who fuse various forms, and complete weirdos to be quite honest. I have felt incredibly inspired watching the likes of Lucy McCormick, Betty Grumble, Lucy Hopkins and Natalie Palamides.
What advice would you give to families trying to understand their queer children?
As an artist I definitely don’t purport to have a good answer to a question like this, but I’ll give it a go. I think that as well as the pressures and beliefs of living in a queerphobic world, the misunderstandings often come from standing too close together. When you’re in a family with people, these relationships are full of projections, desires and ideals: what we want our mum to be, how we want our son to act, why is my grandma gender non-conforming. We all bring learnt ideas from pop culture, our environments and inherited family beliefs about who and what each other should be. A perfect storm for not understanding each other and causing hurt. We believe that we know our family members deeply and intimately, so my advice is to maybe have an open heart and mind about who your queer child might be. Asking genuinely curious questions, taking time to learn about what things are going to affect your child’s life and offering support where you can.
What are your favourite London haunts? (To eat, to see shows, to visit)
There’s an incredible bakery round the corner from Camden People’s Theatre on Warren Street called Miel that does an out-of-this-world pistachio swirl, and they even have a framed image of Nigella on the wall – so you know it’s good.
My favourite place to see a show is my beloved Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, it’s under threat at the moment due to the landlords selling the property, but the drag shows I’ve seen there are my absolute favourite, paired with a shimmery curtain and carpets? Ideal.
I am Joint Editor at To Do List. I like free, cheap & offbeat London, especially: cabaret, art, theatre, pop-ups, eating out, quirky films, museums, day trips, social enterprise & much more.
