Brighton Fringe comedy review

It’s A Boy? is Ben Hodge’s account of his trans journey – a route that took him on so many diversions that he’s now pretty much completed the full LGBT+ alphabet.

By contrast, the show is a rather straightforward affair, delivered with few performance or narrative fireworks, in which the Merseyside-born comic speaks frankly of the experiences he went through, from his early realisations at the age of 14, to where he is today in his early 20s, having had some surgery but still suffering some gender dysmorphia.

‘No one’s talking about us,’ he says sardonically at the outset, tacitly referencing the trans panic across much of the media. Although it’s almost always male-to-female transitions that cause so much vexation, those moving in the other direction are much less visible. 

It’s A Boy? is therefore likely to resonate with other trans people wanting to hear their stories reflected back at them and validated. And for everyone else, Hodge explains what he’s been through in an honest, understated way, away from the hysteria

However, the show – still a work-in-progress and running for just 40 minutes – can sometimes be a bit flat comically, concentrating on making sure everyone is on board with the story and the terminology at the expense of jokes. Several times he offered: ’If you don’t know what binding/cis/etc/etc is…’ before serving up an explanation. Yet it was a Pixar reference that sailed over my head.

Hodges may need to bring the punchlines closer together, but he’s an amiable presence, able to deal with tumultuous experiences with a light touch and sarcastically self-deprecating about some of the choices he made and reactions he has had to face.

It makes him relatable, even if his experiences are unusual, from going through menopause ridiculously early because of the hormones  he took to trying to expand his ‘teeny peeny’. The ability to laugh at his own predicament, no euphemism intended, goes a long way, and makes him a gently endearing presence as he opens his audience’s eyes to his out-of-the-ordinary backstory.

• Ben Hodge: It's a Boy? (WIP) will be at Laughing Horse @ The Three Sisters at 6.15pm every day during the Edinburgh Fringe.

Review date: 2 Jun 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Brighton The Walrus