Before a small predominantly female crowd on Friday, April 20, Poppy Chaplin began her night of stand-up comedy with a moment of silence for the students lost in the Virginia Tech tragedy. Then, quickly switching gears and lightening the mood, she polled the audience for alcoholics.
Among the audience Chaplin found an old high school friend, whom she immediately asked, “Are you a lesbian now?” When the woman replied negatively, Poppy Chaplin revealed the story of discovering her own sexual identity, a journey that began with a fellow McDonalds employee.
Most of Poppy Chaplin’s material was a continuous mix of banter and audience participation. She easily conversed with audience members finding what percentage was homosexual, and what students were PE majors. The atmosphere maintained an open and rambunctious ambience.
She featured two rap segments, one in the middle, and one at the end of her skit. Much of her material also included comments about Provincetown in Cape Cod, and its favoritism towards the gay male population, rather than the lesbian community, noting that Lesbians have one event… in October.
Chaplin finished her performance with a final rap about eating, while most of the audience circled around her, joining her on the stage. At the end of the night, one student expressed that, “Most of it was funny but she lost me on some of the lesbian bottom and top stuff.”