Queer comedian keeps faith in touching show

A COMEDIAN who describes himself as a queer Christian says he tries not to proselytise.

Sam Williams says he is “very excited” to be performing a work in progress of his new show, Touch Me Not, when he comes to Honk! Henley at the Relais Henley next Wednesday.

“I really like coming to Henley because I used to row as a teenager so that’s always quite nostalgic,” says Sam.

“I came and froze my hands off at the Upper Thames head of the river race a couple of years in a row. Also, my sixth-form job was on the meat and fish counter at Waitrose in Maidenhead.

“My act is like watching someone whose first job was that, do stand-up. If any of their kids are doing Waitrose counter jobs then they can come and see where their kids will be in a decade.”

Now living in London, the 28-year-old self-described “bisexual patron saint” will be including some theology among the gags.

“The show has a very confessional register,” he says.

“I’m trying to explain, how does a queer person come to faith? We’re kind of in a moment where a lot of young people are returning to faith, which I don’t think is an entirely good thing. My show doesn’t seek to answer the question of why are people doing that, it’s more a testimony to life events that I have gone through.

“I stopped being an atheist when I was 21 and I was baptised when I was 27.

“When I realised I was no longer an atheist, it took me six years from that point to go to a church. I guess the person I’m really making this for is for who I was when I was 21, so that they don’t feel so alone in that experience.

“I felt very isolated, I felt like what I was going through was like realising I was queer all over again. It was like, ‘Oh, god, this is going to add some complications’!”

Churches are becoming more open, according to Sam.

“Almost everyone is secular now. The church kind of lost everyone and a lot of the people who have remained or are going back in now are queer.

“I’ve got a mate who is an Anglo-Catholic priest and he estimated that the percentage of people that were queer in his seminary were, he said, at least 50 per cent if not more.

“There has been a big drive in inclusivity, even in the Catholic Church, in recent times, with Pope Francis’s tenure, where attitudes are changing.

“Rather than trying to drive up numbers, I think theological positions are being arrived at that lay bare the fact that has been true forever, which is that queer people are made like that.

“In secular terms, we’re made in infinitely diverse ways to make life more interesting. In divine terms, we’re all intricately woven by a loving creator.

“I didn’t realise how historically queer so many really important figures throughout church history are.”

The show is not all about religion and belief.

“For Henley residents, there’s a healthy contingent of anti-Maidenhead material that they will probably enjoy. There are some good, borderline illegal tourist tips for exploring the Brecon Beacons.

“There’s also an interaction with a very popular psychic medium, like a sort of folk hero from South Wales, so anyone that likes speaking to the dead will probably also enjoy that bit.”

Sam adds: “I mean, this show is about how my being born again doesn’t happen when I get baptised, but it actually happens when I get pegged for the first time by an Olympic champion figure-skater. This show balances exalting divine experience and much smuttier stuff than I’ve ever written before. I’ve often considered ministry and stuff but I also don’t think I’m really settled yet in a denomination.

“I just hope that it broadens people’s perspectives on who faith can be for, not in an evangelising way but just in a way that hopes to blow the cobwebs out of people’s notions of what church can look like.”

Also on the bill is Jessica Fostekew, with both comics doing previews of their shows before the Edinburgh Fringe.

“Jessica was the MC at one of the mixed bill gigs that I saw, that really made me want to do stand-up,” adds Sam.

“She was emceeing and Olga Koch and Evelyn Mok and Catherine Bohart were on, at the End of the Road Festival in 2018. I absolutely loved her show, Silence of the Nans, about doing shows on a cruise ship and then Hench, that was nominated at the 2019 awards, that was brilliant as well. I think she’s one of the best comedians in the country so it’s really cool to be able to do works in progress next to each other.”

l Sam Williams and Jessica Fostekew are at Honk! at the Relais Henley on Wednesday, July 23 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost from £11.55. For more information, visit linktr.ee/honkhot