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Dean Arcuri - Who Needs a Vagina Anyway?
by CHRISTINE YOUNG
The title of Dean Arcuri’s first Comedy Festival show – Who Needs a Vagina Anyway? – is confronting and will, for many women, be considered offensive
Before reading the background information about the show, I was coming up with all sorts of comebacks to Arcuri’s question: ‘So, I’ll just piss out of my nose, then, shall I?’; ‘If, by vagina, you mean a woman, you don’t deserve one, if that’s your attitude!’; not to mention ‘I’d rather have a vagina than boy germs!’. Ha! Take that!
But Dean Arcuri’s show is not intended to offend women even though the attention-grabbing title might get the pulse racing. Of course, it’s the Comedy Festival and the mission is laughter. Mostly, it’s at Arcuri’s expense.
Who Needs a Vagina Anyway? is Arcuri’s unique approach to ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ so he gets all gussied up in a littlish black dress to explore his feminine side and see if he can get some insight into the female psyche. Looking beyond the title, Arcuri is confident there is plenty of scope for women to enjoy the show. “Here we have a man who thinks his life will be better if women were no longer in it, except he’s finding the withdrawal so hard that he’s wearing his girlfriend’s dress. Not only will they hear some fantastic music numbers, I think women will walk away more satisfied than ever!”
In his quest for understanding women and whether he can live with or without them, Arcuri says he’s still none the wiser. “If anything, I have become even more clueless. Whether it’s ‘Four n Twenty’ versus quiche lorraine or Better Homes and Gardens versus Saturday night footy; the battle of the sexes becomes a big migraine when you look at things on the other side of the fence. I did a lot of research, from coffees with my mum to Cosmopolitans with my girlfriends, and one thing is for sure: if all it took to step into a woman’s shoes was to slip into her outfits, most men would probably never leave the house!”
Despite the emotional and intellectual strain of exploring the battle of the sexes from a female perspective, Arcuri has mostly enjoyed putting on the face, the dress and the bling. Except for shaving. “I can't begin to tell you about the chaffing! I‘ve had no luck getting a date on a Saturday night either. But seriously, it isn’t all bad, I get to wear taffeta and my dress has more sequins than the disco ball at Elton John’s wedding. Plus every night I get to sing my way to sobriety and look at life on the other side of the fence.” I hear ya, Sister!
This article was originally published on Wednesday 4th April, 2007 and is reproduced here with the kind permission of Inpress Magazine
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