TikTok sensation Callaghans Questions brings their hilarious, historically and scientifically accurate exploration of all things sex to Lambeth Fringe next month. #Hysteria: A History of Human Sexuality with Callaghans Questions sold out at Brighton and Camden Fringe and enjoyed a successful run at Edinburgh Fringe this summer. The show runs at Bread & Roses Theatre in Clapham on Monday 20 & Tuesday 21 October as part of Lambeth Fringe. Combining scripted comedy, stand up, burlesque and audience participation, the show invites audiences to learn the unhinged and shockingly true history of human sexuality.
What first sparked your fascination with the “shockingly true history of human sexuality,” and how did it evolve into this stage show?
I have always been the antithesis of ‘it’s not that deep’ I think depth is not only all around us, it’s quite easy to submerge yourself in the ocean of education.
As for the history of sex specifically, it’s all just so much darker (and dumber) than anyone really realizes. I’ve always been drawn to the macabre and the skipped chapters of history, as it were. For example, I think sex workers are treated appallingly, and more than that being an affront to human dignity, it’s just so boring.
Prostitutes literally settled the Wild West. They were the backbone of the economy; investing in businesses and schools, demanded their places of employment be violence free zones, played critical roles in community education by funding schools and fostered women’s suffrage.
That’s a history that deserves respect, not despite their jobs but because of them. All of history is people having the same arguments and we look back on them retroactively with our smug, self satisfied attitudes of ‘ha! What fools, how could they be so stupid?’ While having the exact same debates and repeating the exact same mistakes, but in a different font.
I’ve also always been someone with an almost pathological need to supplement my learning. So, when I read The Delectable Negro in 2015 or so it really stuck with me. All I could think was ‘more people need to know about this’. Our bodies, particularly the bodies of BIPOC, are inherently political, whether we like it or not. And, we exist in context, whether we like it or not. I think having a better understanding of how bodies have been destroyed, consumed, owned, reclaimed, cherished etc is inherently linked to sex and attraction, in the same way it is inherently linked to art and science. All of humanity is trying, and perhaps it is a futile effort, to communicate the beauty and pain of our distinct lived experience and feeling so misunderstood and alone while simultaneously never having a single unique experience. I am so endlessly fascinated by that paradox.
And then there is the entirety of religion and how it’s impacted bodies, sex and identity which I could honestly talk about for days…There’s just no time.
So I will conclude with this; I was something of a late bloomer (growing up queer in a small town full of dangerous bigots will, as it turns out, stunt your development pretty significantly) and I think my mindset has always been ‘If I learn everything I possibly can about topic X then I will be prepared for any eventuality.’ I wasn’t convinced I was ever going to get to experience love or romance or anything like that but I figured if the opportunity did present itself I’d rather be good at it than fumbling and ignorant.
The production blends comedy, burlesque, audience participation, and science—how do you keep the show both laugh-out-loud funny and historically accurate?
A lot of the facts are in themselves funny. Anti masturbation devices for example had to be tried, tested and advertised. That’s as hysterical as it is bizarre. I also have formal teacher training and my go to strategy for the classroom was to be as engaging and entertaining as possible even when delivering dry content. The best way to prevent poor teenage behaviour is to make sure they never know your next move and we all have that inner child and inner awkward teenager who wants to know things. Who wants to be given permission to be a weirdo.
The best comedy, for me, is a bit dark, a bit biting, driving a point home (without being condescending) while punching up. And with science and history facts, that’s easy to do.
Your background spans five Honours degrees and a master’s in film. How does that mix of science and arts training shape your writing and performance style?
The separation of arts and sciences is, to me, a detrimental detachment from the enlightenment era. We use science to drive our need to create; architecture, music, paintings, literature. Someone had to do the maths to make an aesthetically pleasing load bearing column, had to work out the tempo to move us to tears, had to find the chemically stable pigments to last a lifetime, had to manufacture the paper and ink. Or, in the modern era, someone had to build the laptop I type up my thoughts on.
I think for me, the blending of art and music and chemistry and physics feels natural and seamless and it inevitably bleeds into my work. The show is periodically interrupted by ‘CallaghansQuestions’ – an exaggerated mediated persona based on my time as a teacher; this character is really fun because no one is expecting to learn about the scrotal raphe after a bunch of pretty low brow dick jokes from the Duke.
As a TikTok creator with over 170,000 followers, how has your online audience influenced what you bring to a live theatre space?
When I first started taking and answering questions online I got, not exaggeration, thousands and thousands of emails from people asking about sex, sexuality, anatomy, health, pregnancy, the menstrual cycle, etc.
When I first went viral I expected to start getting hate comments or threats the way so many other AFAB people do online, but I never did. It was like something small and sacred; we come here to ask, to learn, to help each other, and I’m very proud of that.
It also made me realize 2 things; 1. People are more comfortable asking an internet stranger these ‘embarrassing’ questions (thank goodness I’m qualified to answer because yikes is the internet full of grifters trying to sell ‘hormone balancing’ supplements and the like!) and 2. People of all ages have been severely short changed when it comes to sex and science education.
So to a degree I feel a responsibility. Yes the show is funny and silly with camp drag and over the top burlesque, but it is also genuinely educational and I think as someone who is knowledgeable and unflappable in the face of these kinds of taboo subjects I actually do owe it to the people around me to provide educational resources.
I’ve even done impromptu CallaghansQuestions live where friends and even total strangers in pubs have asked me anything and everything because I create a very relaxed, secure environment to ask. I don’t want anyone to feel stupid, I want people to feel like they know more than they did and like they had a good time.
You’ve said the show aims to “destigmatise the taboos that persist around sexual health.” What’s one myth or misconception you most love busting on stage?
The hymen and the construct of virginity is a persistent one. There is no valid biological marker or test for virginity, and different people define sexual experiences differently, making the idea of ‘a virgin’ scientifically meaningless.
It’s a concept that exists to control, coerce and police sexuality, specifically for women but no one escapes the patriarchy unscathed. I know several men who were very proud to have ‘lost their virginity’ to a much older partner and will vehemently deny the predatory nature of what they experienced. And I can’t blame them; no one wants to face the trauma of their first time as coercive, especially not someone who has been conditioned to think of themselves as a ‘real man’ as a result.
Very few people know what an abortion actually is or what happens during one so that is another thing I go over with very objective, scientific, accurate information. Also pregnancy and the menstrual cycle are bleeding out with misinformation, so giving a crash course on how that all actually works is something I know audiences will actually find useful for the rest of their lives.
After sold-out runs at Brighton, Camden, and Edinburgh Fringe, what excites you most about bringing #Hysteria to the Lambeth Fringe audience?
The show is just so damn fun. It’s never failed to dazzle and delight audiences and I love getting to be in a room with people for an hour with the sole purpose of orchestrating a nice time for everyone there.