CLINTON BAPTISTE - STRATOSPHERIC
Baptiste - the psychic wonder of the age
Is there anyone funnier than an unconvincing charlatan? Well maybe not if you are a victim of their lies and deception. Ben Jonson perfectly captured the hilarity of the guller and gulled in his 1610 masterpiece, ‘The Alchemist’. Now, four hundred years later comes a descendant of Jonson’s hocus pocus faux wizard. Clinton Baptiste, that wonderfully theatrical name is the character created by Alex Lowe originally for the Peter Kay series, ‘Phoenix Nights’. Lowe inhabits the outrageous part of the blond-wigged mountebank whose absurdly high-pitched voice crashes over the cadences of Kay’s Lancashire world. In the best traditions of comedy, he is a grotesque figure, a psychic phenomenon with feet of clay and mushy peas. There is also something disturbingly Donald Trumpish in that wig and misplaced self belief. Baptiste is a proper Lancashire loon.
Is Lowe actually from the North West? ‘Well, I’m from North West London, far away from Clinton’s birthplace,’ admits Lowe. The role of Baptiste was originally offered by Peter Kay to Lowe who was making his name as a serious theatrical actor working with such luminaries as Kenneth Branagh. When Lowe asked Kay permission to develop the character in its own right, the Lancashire comedian was fully supportive. ‘ I check everything with him; I send him scripts and make sure he’s OK. He even gave me the costume and the wig’, says Lowe. What began as a cameo part written by Kay, buried deep into Alex’s psyche. Out of this Baptiste was born as a comic figure seen on Youtube, podcasts and a national tour. A tour developed and during lockdown, Lowe conceived of a second show based on Clinton’s supposed appearances in Las Vegas. Already the tackiest of men, one can only guess at the effect of playing in Sin City on our naive ‘Bolton boy’.
When we spoke, Alex Lowe had just completed four shows on his national tour. He had recently performed at the Hackney Empire which by all accounts was a hoot. Audiences, says Lowe, love the ‘old fashioned’ humour; gag laden, character driven and definitely nostalgic ‘end of pier’ in its 1970s cheesy beige world. Baptiste has been developed through a series of podcasts and video clips so that his paranormal persona is becoming very well known. The current show reveals more of Baptiste’s life but there will be the expected series of readings – miscommunication with the ‘spirits’.
In true Jonsonian style, there have been audiences who don’t get the joke and have come as believers. Says Lowe, ‘A whole row of people at a venue in Canterbury got up and walked out when they realised I really wasn’t able to contact their loved ones.’ That was more sad than funny. In a different smaller venue, two students of the paranormal told Lowe that they could see his ancestors sharing the stage with him. Was this the blithe spirit world getting its own back?
Whatever the truth, Clinton Baptiste is a fully rounded figure of fun, a see-through conman who is all the funnier for his transparently blank sixth sense. The show promises to conjure up an evening of pure laughter – so needed in the spirit of our age.
CLINTON BAPTISTE: STRATOSPHERIC. From Bolton to Vegas…..and to the Stars
The Junction, Monday 20 September, 8 pm. Tickets £20
https://www.junction.co.uk/clinton-baptiste
