Bottoming for Jesus at Zoo Southside – Edinburgh Fringe review

Michael R Speciàle has a fascinating past. Back in the ’00s, he, a closeted gay man, took the personal decision to convert to Mormonism: famously not the most tolerant of homosexuality. Without any parental encouragement, he found a new life for himself, one that, as he explains in his late-night Fringe solo show, provided both community and complex paradox.

It’s hard not to see why Speciàle is haunted by his history with the Church of Latter Day Saints – he remembers converting 150 Paraguayans to the church in total – but at times it can come across as overly glib and surface. While witty, with that American-brand of droll humour, it never alights with enough weight on why exactly he made such an unexpected decision.

Though billed as a “part stand-up, part cabaret, part sermon, part TED Talk”, much of the show seems to verge into one-note, confessional territory, with Speciàle monologuing more than likely necessary. You almost yearn for another musical beat or two. After the obligatory ode to Judy Garland and a welcome Avenue Q rendition, it all feels a bit piecemeal.

Nevertheless, with comprehensive diagrams of New York dating apps, witty Broadway classics and sordid accounts of years gone by, it’s easy to imagine worse nights at the Fringe. You just wish it’d lean more into the irreverence than the revered.

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