The 2025 FRINGE WORLD Martin Sims Award-winning cabaret Tomas Clifford Got Stood Up went on a second date with Boorloo audiences at The Rechabite for an encore, one-off performance as part of Perth Comedy Festival. Clifford’s cabaret full of original songs and a unique point of view is already big — but it feels like it’s well on its way to something even bigger.
Clifford, backed by a live 6-piece band and a trio of singers, is not only a prodigiously skilled performer, but he’s gifted with all the necessary skills to write, compose, arrange, direct, and musical direct this funny, touching, and smart show all himself.
He tells a fairly simple narrative about how getting stood up by a date led to profound revelations about himself. He takes us back to where his search for identity and love began as a gay kid — connecting with his feminine side thanks to the young girls at school who embraced him, navigating his first crushes, humiliations and triumphs in school sports, and eventually the confusing contradictions he found when entering the adult world of dating apps.
Clifford dances around some deceptively serious points about misogyny, being ‘too’ gay, and perceived masculinity as he gets down to the core ideas of his piece. For me, Clifford’s exploration of these ideas through song was the most intriguing component of this story, couched amongst more familiar though no less important coming-of-age and self-actualisation themes.
Performing with the ease and confidence of someone who was destined for stardom, Clifford’s indefatigable energy reverberated through the main hall; he also has an excellent sense of timing, knowing when to find both booming peaks and valleys of quiet to conjure a more intimate one-man-and-a-keyboard cabaret feel. I always make sure to have a peek at the faces around me in these quiet moments, and it’s no exaggeration to say this was an adoring audience.
Frankly, this cabaret practically begs to be developed into a full-scale musical; at the very least, it will be embraced in its current form by an international fringe audience thanks to Artrage. Touring with the whole cohort of musos will be a considerable financial investment but there already seems to be such a huge community of support behind Clifford and the whole ensemble.
So, I have no doubt that where there’s a will, there’s a way for Tomas Clifford to go from getting stood up to getting standing ovations wherever he goes.
CICELY BINFORD
Tomas Clifford Got Stood Up was presented at Perth Comedy Festival on 4 May 2025 at The Rechabite. For more information on this past event, visit here.
