Helen Duff has gone from strength to strength, after her hilarious yet heart-breaking
I can’t be the only one who thinks Duff would be the best sex ed teacher anyone could ask for.
Where Vanity Bites Back dealt with Duff’s experiences with eating disorders, Come With Me deals with orgasms, relationships and female empowerment, but her distinctly subversive and interactive style remains, using laughter to reveal something altogether much more profound. One could very easily describe Come With Me as a clown show about orgasms but that’s far too reductive for such a brave, beautiful and bloody brilliant show.
Dressed as a bright blue sperm, Duff bounds onto the stage singing Salt-n-Pepa’s classic Let’s Talk About Sex before moving on to tell her own hilarious and cringe worthy stories, oh and she also dresses up as a vagina (the costume was adorably made by Duff and her mum). It could all be horrendously uncomfortable but Duff’s perfect mixture of self-deprecating charm and childlike exuberance means she we’re like putty in her hands.
The Gaulier-trained Duff is reminiscent of other contemporary clowns such as Trygve Wakenshaw and Doctor Brown whilst also retaining her completely unique identity – if you liked other contemporary clowns then you will love Helen Duff.
It’s also important to note that she’s no stranger to audience interaction and gleefully convinces us to contribute to the story, from asking us to describe orgasms to giving Duff impossible tasks, culminating in one of the most boldly ridiculous yet joyous finales anyone could ask for. All I’m going to tell you is that there’s party poppers, mangoes, Super Soakers and much much more.
Duff is ridiculous, honest and utterly inspiring – I can’t be the only one who thinks Duff would be the best sex ed teacher anyone could ask for.
