Thursday nights are meant for friendship. Being fortunate enough to not be plagued with Friday classes, I have reserved the fourth night of my school week for spending quality time and engaging in much needed rapport with my girlfriends. However, this Thursday night I needed change. I needed a fresh perspective and take on life that my female companions couldn’t give me. I needed to be in the presence of someone who was fashionably bold, brutally honest and unashamed of human sexuality. In other words, I needed the company of a sassy gay friend.
Northwest Campus Auditorium was packed with more than 300 fans eager to see the viral antics of Brian Gallivan, also known as Sassy Gay Friend, play out live before them instead of on their usual computer screens.
The performance began with Gallivan’s “Lady Macbeth” skit, a classic Sassy Gay Friend piece that instantly elated the patiently waiting audience. Gallivan sported his iconic florid scarf, tight black blouse and fiercely low-cut jeans, which delivered the right amount of sassiness to save his misled female friends from their Shakespearean demises and captivate the Bruin audience.
Other classic Sassy Gay Friend skits such as “Romeo and Juliet” were updated as Gallivan revamped dialogue with new lines that generated an abundance of laughs. Using his experience in improv theater, Gallivan also enhanced his performances by incorporating line flubs and even microphone malfunctions into his pieces, which added an unexpected and enjoyable element to his show.
What made the show most entertaining was Gallivan’s on-point connection with the audience. In the middle of the show, three lucky audience members were chosen to personally receive relationship advice, Sassy-Gay-Friend style. One volunteer’s friend received the most shocking voicemail of his life when Sassy Gay Friend and the audience of more than 300 called to confront him about the numerous missteps he had taken in his love life. A male volunteer made Gallivan giddy over his well-played fill-in role as Desdemona from Shakespeare’s Othello.
Throughout the show Gallivan would switch characters between his fabulous alter ego, Sassy Gay Friend, to his not so fabulous real self, 42-year-old former middle school teacher Mr. Gallivan. Not as flamboyant as Sassy Gay Friend, Mr. Gallivan performed monologues about the woes of being a gay teacher to his rowdy and unruly middle school pupils and his romantic endeavors in Ireland. The night concluded on a high note when Mr. Gallivan spat a very uplifting rap about his newfound acceptance of his lifestyle and an encounter with a grown-up and very legal former gifted student at a gay club.
Last night I realized that it’s okay to ditch the girls sometimes and switch up my Thursday nights with a little flavor. If you haven’t already got one, I suggest you ask yourself what are you doing? What, what, what are you doing and go out and get yourself a sassy gay friend.