Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Japanese and Jewish comedian Dylan Adler got bullied for being gay and Asian. Now he’s owning his own fabulous tendencies – he has been enthusiastically singing musical theatre numbers onstage since fifth grade at school – and hoping to attract a few ‘rice queens’ while he’s at it.
His identical twin is also gay – and he describes his mother’s womb as being like a Dua Lipa concert. Amongst his backflips, vogue poses and songs about crushes, Beyonce and Paramore also get mentions, depending on which part of his emo to icon journey that he’s flashbacking to. He ping pongs between fun and more thought-provoking material on his family, sex life and homophobia in America’s heartlands. If anything, it’s too ambitious – that smart bit about the surprise gay coal miner could have been mined for laughs for a minute longer, but he quickly sashays away to the next bit about his Kamikaze pilot grandfather, or people’s surprise at him being an Asian top.
His ‘Bye Felicia’ and ‘Bye Shoshana’ attitude to life’s haters is a joy to watch, although the Haus of Dy-Lan might need a bit of tidying up or slowing down just to make it easier to follow.
Dylan Adler: Haus of Dy-lan, Pleasance Courtyard, until 24 August (not 11), 7.30pm