How To Mate: The TED XXX Talk theatre review – Satire of teenage boys
Love and Lynx jostle for starring roles in this piece which affectionately pokes fun at young men and their strange ways

Gather a posse of your pals, grab a few pints then catch How To Mate: The TED XXX Talk, performer Daisy Doris May’s lairy but ultimately sweet-hearted follow-up to last year’s How To Flirt. For the uninitiated, May plays the bantering but earnest Steve Porters, a teenage boy who pinballs between shouting ‘Oggy! Oggy! Oggy!’ at his audience to syrupy re-enactments of the first time he met his one true love.
And love is very much the name of the game here. Taking the form of an educational seminar with ample audience interaction, Porters (his voice barely broken, his obsession with Lynx deodorant and David Beckham’s perfume range belying his awful dating tips) gives audiences guidance to find the connection he’s enjoying with his new ‘long-term’ girlfriend (who he’s been dating for two months). Cue plenty of wandering the aisles, pulling members of the crowd onstage for a dance and inciting singalongs of Daniel Bedingfield for an excitable party atmosphere.
Porters proves to be a loveable companion, an evolution of the angst of Kevin & Perry to accommodate internet culture and the phenomenon of young men who (mistakenly) believe themselves to be pillars of wisdom after mainlining YouTube videos. May has created an affectionate satire of teenage boys, and she orchestrates the cabaret late-night chaos with an admirable sense of spontaneity. He may have cut back on WKD but Porters is still bringing the fun.
How To Mate: The TED XXX Talk, Assembly Roxy, until 24 August, 9.45pm.