PRIDE REFLECTS: Baby Gorgeous
1.02.24 Q Theatre Loft, Auckland
Pride Reflects is a collaboration between Rat World and Auckland Pride to document and celebrate the creative output of our local queer arts sector. Every week of Auckland Pride Month, two creatives will respond to their experiences of witnessing shows and events across the Auckland Pride Festival. We’ve given the creatives agency to respond in any way they like, which might range from traditional reviews to photoessays to anything in between.
Flora Xie (she/her) reflects on Baby Gorgeous: A sketch comedy revue
“Baby Gorgeous is a state of mind,” Marshall Lorenzo sings in his opening Baby Gorgeous theme song—and what a truly fabulous state of mind it was.
Taking on a one-person show is incredibly daunting, but Lorenzo remained as steady as ever—even in the face of technical mishaps. The show had a slower start because of this, but as Lorenzo professes, he’s always late. Dealing with tech issues alone on stage takes guts, and to play it off as smoothly as he did and still managing to keep the audience entertained is a whole other feat in itself. Personally, I wouldn’t have the courage to do that.
From there on out, Lorenzo had us hooked. He was connecting with people so effortlessly. The slower start set the tone for the rest of the show; it was incredibly laid back. And because of the smaller audience size in the Q Loft, it also felt very intimate. It felt like the show was being performed to you alone, like you’re scrolling through your TikTok feed, watching one clip after the other. Lorenzo was switching between various characters and accents without a second thought.
Lorenzo is incredibly witty and charismatic—there is no doubt about how good of a comedy writer he is. His humour is biting, edgy, and some of the sketches deserved way more laughter than it received. He is a great improv comedian as well. Lorenzo joked about switching to do stand-up permanently but in all honesty, he would do quite well at it too. He’s so naturally funny himself that sometimes when he’s in a character it feels a little forced.
The sketches were reminiscent of Saturday Night Live with the parodies and bizarre commercials, but in the form of a one-person show and in much shorter bites. However, the transitions in between each sketch did bring down the energy of the whole show a bit. Of course, I appreciate that doing a one-person show makes it difficult to do more seamless transitions, and going to see the show on its opening night probably didn’t help that either.
The musical numbers in the show were lively and really catchy—so much so that I still have the theme song and ‘Slut for Drama’ stuck in my head. The latter is incredibly relatable; we’re all a little bit of a slut for drama (some of us more so than others), whether you admit it or not. And as a lover of Chicago, I was delighted to see Lorenzo perform a partial rendition of ‘Cell Block Tango’ as Marcus, an actor who can never get their lines right.
It doesn’t matter if Lorenzo was actually Baby Gorgeous or Fully Delulu, his Second City-style sketch comedy revue was an entertaining way to spend 45 minutes of my night. It was light-hearted and casual, and Lorenzo’s performance felt like it was directed straight at you.
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Click here to learn more about the show and other events on during the months of Pride!