Closet Cluedo | Comedy Short

 

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Closet Cluedo is a new comedy short by writer director Tom Rowley, starring Republic of Telly‘s Kevin McGahern. Here’s what Tom had to say about it:

This little sketch sprung up from the feeling that, seen a certain way, everyday homophobia is really quite strange, funny, silly. My friend calls it ‘the pink panic’ – those oddly specific things guys call each other out on, those tiny babysteps you can take away from regular ‘lad’ identity that are seen as gay or suspicious. Drinking white wine, using a satchel, ironing, going to a poetry night – it kinda feels like an endless detective game, that we and the media play at non-stop. 

My favourite one came from my friend Andy. One day at a house party he was doing a trick of firebreathing, when the alcohol flew onto his face and set it on fire. He ran around the garden smacking his face, desperately trying to smother the flames. Two guys he knew stood by, and one asked ‘Should we put it out?’. The other one gave him a look then said in a girly voice, ‘Should we put it out?….Faggot!’. I just love the idea that putting out a person’s burning face is somehow really gay, like it’s a thing gay guys do all the time. 

So that’s where this sketch was coming from (oh and Andy’s face is fine btw, it healed up grand after he put the fire out himself). We shot it in a day, and it was great fun collecting up clues, getting a new board designed, and working with very funny people indeed. Kevin McGahern, the lead actor, has this incredible quality of making even the most obnoxious line have a funny sense of vulnerability.

For myself it’s the third in a series of sketches about ‘bad inventions’ – after Foodbag with Colin Chadwick, and The Startup with Tom Walsh.