Fresh from a memorable appearance with Ping Pong Disco at the All Together Now festival, acclaimed performer GoblinsGoblinsGoblins is part of Dublin's spiciest queer collective Egg, who present Egg: The Proclamation Of The Irish Republegg at this year’s Dublin Fringe Festival.
Part dazzling DIY cabaret, part musical political rally for a new Egg-shaped Irish Republic. GoblinsGoblinsGoblins joins non-binary revolutionary Aoife O’Connor and the first transgender member of Cumann na mBan, Pea Dineen, plus a glittering line-up of movers, shakers and makers offering liberation through song, dance, comedy, drag and more, more, more!
We asked GoblinsGoblinsGoblins for choice cultural picks:
FILM: Talk To Me
As a child, one of the first films to really terrify me was an Xtravision rental on Halloween: Long Time Dead (2002), a very British ouija board movie set against a sexy holiday rave culture backdrop. I was pleasantly surprised to see a full two decades later that the latest A24 horror film is very much its (better) spiritual successor. Talk To Me was surprisingly brilliant in updating a tired part of the horror genre, swapping Britain for Australia and a ouija board for a cursed hand. It felt like it was based on a Clive Barker story and has just been confirmed for a sequel.
MUSIC: Journey to the Moon and Beyond by Mort Garson
When I’m working on something I prefer to listen to music that doesn’t have lyrics because I read somewhere that it's useful for concentration; this probably isn’t even true but nonetheless my favourite album for blissfully drifting along to is Mother Earth’s Plantasia (1976) by Mort Garson, a record of "warm earth music for plants and the people who love them". All his music sounds like silly synth space music and is beautifully ambient. A new posthumous album of unreleased tracks, Journey to the Moon and Beyond spans a variety of his work from advertising, to soundtracking the Apollo Space Mission for CBS News.
BOOK: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
I read Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl on the suggestion of a friend and wanted to suggest something fun. It's a straightforward modern-day retelling of Virginia Woolf's Orlando set among the counterculture of gay '90s America. However, unlike the mystery of Orlando in which their gender shifts are unexplained across time to the point of high fantasy, our protagonist Paul can simply shift their body at will and throws themselves into all the sexy adventures they desire, moving from one real subculture to another as a love letter to the author’s past (this being their debut novel, published in their 40s).
'Tight'
— Kishani Widyaratna (@KishWidyaratna) November 26, 2018
‘Deep’
‘Hot’
‘Smut’
Proofs of PAUL TAKES THE FORM OF A MORTAL GIRL by Andrea Lawlor are in and flying right out.
Coming April 2019 from @picadorbooks 💦 pic.twitter.com/6Z3c1jEI7G
THEATRE: Girl On an Altar by Marina Carr
The current run at the Abbey Theatre of Girl On an Altar is the play's Irish debut so its always exciting to see the original cast, but more so since it stars Eileen Walsh who I've been obsessed with since The Magdalene Sisters. Marina Carr is also my favourite Irish playwright, so I’m biased, and I wasn’t familiar with the story of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon before. However, the amount of humour in her work blended with detailed psychological portraits within the tragedies to hand offer a masterclass in how adapting something doesn't have to be boring or simplified.
TV: This Country
I started watching The X Files properly recently, which would be pointless to suggest even though it's mandatory viewing. Instead, I implore anyone to watch This Country; there were 3 seasons made by BBC Three and its one of the funniest shows I’ve seen in recent memory. Written by and starring siblings Daisey May Cooper and Charlie Cooper, its a mockumentary following two cousins in a very boring British town, full of odd people the duo bother, including their real-life uncle playing their local nemesis and an unseen mother screaming from upstairs. It launched their careers - now they're BAFTA winners.
GIG: Haus Of W.I.G. - The Hausparty
I love a drag show and the Haus of W.I.G. girls throw a good one. Over the years, it's been a pleasure to watch them grow from strength to strength, from hosting an amateur drag lip sync competition and an Olympics of online drag during lockdown, to regularly selling out the Sugar Club with a circus of guest performers. The W.I.G. trio are Donna Fella, a funny faux-Italian chanteuse who plays the piano, Shaquira Knightly, a very blonde, very limber, singer and dancer to all things Beyoncé, and Naomi Diamond, duel lip sync comedian and power ballad angel. Though they perform in brunches all over the place, its these shows with the family of other performers they've gathered that have all the flavours (19th Aug at The Sugar Club, Dublin)
Also, the last MATE Comedy Variety Hour marked a year of them, with a short hiatus until September. The brainchild of best friends who seem like they hate each other Mikey Fleming and Kate Moylan (Mikey + Kate = MATE, a fact most of us didn't realise for months), it's on each month at Wigwam as part of the MOB Theater Comedy family, and the shows all have a theme: breakups, drugs, catfishing, friendship, matchmaking, therapy, rejection, what have you. Its become one of the funniest comedy nights with most of the best improv, stand up and sketch acts in Dublin. All interjected by the hosts taking your anonymous confessions based on that week's theme and being the worst agony aunts you could wish for.
The MATE Comedy Variety Hour returns to @MOBTheatreDub in Wigwam. Come see us fail miserably as agony aunts. pic.twitter.com/bZUqBJrKkQ
— Best Man - Underbelly (@MrMikeyFleming) August 24, 2022
ART: Carmen Quigley
Have you ever wanted a drawing of a mermaid in a glass of Guinness? Or a siren minding her own business? Or any combination of animals and monsters misbehaving? Carmen Quigley is a Dublin-based artist who creates both unique creature sculptures and amazingly detailed monochrome scenes reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch. All of her work has an eclectic sense of humour exploring themes of mythology, tarot cards, pop culture, archaeology, and weird Irish vintage. With the latest in an ongoing series of Greek vases depicting an odyssey through Real Housewives fandom. Other side projects and passions of hers include a prolonged investigation/harassment campaign to find out what's in the lighthouse on the Jervis Street Shopping Centre roof and an illegal art collective exhibition on the DART.
PODCAST: QAnon Anonymous/Casements Leftovers
If there was a silver lining to the QAnon conspiracy theory responsible for hundreds of people being trialed for storming the Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021, its that it gave us this very funny investigative journalism podcast. The three hosts of QAnon Anonymous (with pseudonyms for their own safety) peruse the latest in online conspiracies so you don't have to, and report back from the depths. Highlights include the Central Park mole children, the self-proclaimed Queen of Canada, and Roblox Nazis.
Closer to home we have Casement's Leftovers, three very funny hosts Glen, Helen and Matt carry on the legacy of the gayest republican: Roger Casement, and they wont stop until they have a guillotine. Exploring the pressing issues of Irish politics and beyond by both interviewing experts on issues from housing to AI Art and fighting among themselves. Highlights include the trio dissecting Leo Varadkar’s old blog posts he probably forgot to delete, putting RuPaul on trial, grilling unsuspecting interviewees live from Pride, and yearly battles over Eurovision.
TECH: Shudder
The only thing that kept me from recommending another film, Skinamarink (2022) a slow-burn horror endurance experience in anticipation - Half radio play, half found footage analog horror - as because of its limited availability. It is however available on Shudder. A subscription horror streaming service, I enjoy it because I like watching whatever cult horror movies come out and it also works on a laptop. It is also is the home of The Boulet Brothers' Dragula, the increasingly popular Rupaul's Drag Race competitor for people who smoke cigarettes.
THE NEXT BIG THING... Raves
I swear, raves are back baby. More and more groups are starting them and in the digital age they're so much easier to organise. With the Dáil's proposed bill allowing later licensing laws and opening hours still a vague mythic possibility that I will be too elderly to benefit from, people are taking things into their own hands. The children yearn for the raves. Rave culture has always existed as a litmus test for the cost of living being in crisis, as it was in the 90s. When people haven't got houses to have parties in, or they rent with strangers, and pints cost €9 the price that the government reaps is a bunch of people dancing under a bridge.
Egg: The Proclamation Of The Irish Republegg is at the National Stadium's Ringside Bar on September 16th, as part of this year's Dublin Fringe Festival - find out more here.
