Tina C Goes Down Under: The Aborogynal Monologues

Telegraph Review

Any self-respecting comedian is capable of coming up with a few reasonably amusing country-and-western parodies. But she sang a ballad on her Election Night BBQ Special that felt pretty dark to anyone who's entertained the thought that the ascendancy of Barack Obama could incite some sharp-shooting crazy to leave his mark on history.

Listen carefully to Tina C Goes Down Under: The Aborogynal Monologues and almost every line crosses one boundary of good taste or another. But Tina C's delivery is so sugary and breathy that it's easy to miss some of the acidic asides.

What you can't miss is her mispronunciation of key terms on this tour of Australia. Aboriginal becomes aborogynal, and indigenous is indigynous. This gag, where the emphasis settles on 'gyn' in both words (pronounced as in 'vagina'), was repeated relentlessly in last night's programme. I was just losing patience with it when Tina's Australian press manager tried to correct her. It was a funny scene, revolving around Tina's clearly ferociously angry face, and her venomous dismissal of the point. Anything else that Australasians are touchy and weird about? she spat. Maybe because of repressed guilt?

Elsewhere Tina (aka Chris Green) left very little free of insult. This being Australia, some local 'enduring symbols' came in for her treatment. We heard about the Sydney Oprey House, and how, when faced with a spider, she decided to fight it. [/q]I'm going to wrestle that spider,[/q] she drawled, and I'm going to do it for Steve Irwin. And his daughter Bimbo.

Chris Green's outrageous comic Country and Western creation tours Australia, exploring the country's obsession with country music. This Englishman's impersonation of a Tennessee woman trying to do an Australian accent promises to make for unique listening.

Tina C, country superstar and US presidential hopeful, is also the queen of doubles entendres. Even her name is a play on words: she hails from Nashville (Tennessee). Her alter ego is comedian Christopher Green but for the next four weeks there's no sign of him as Tina tours Australia, pushing the boundaries of good taste to the absolute limit. Her pronunciation of the words 'Aborogynal' and 'indigenous' introduces groins where they've never been spotted before. This is a comic creation in the style of Kenny Everett's Cupid Stunt. I love her, but she's not to everyone's taste.

It's sensible to parcel up the latest effusions from Christopher Green's alter ego, the American country superstar Tina C, in four 15-minute snatches. A little of her goes a long way. Green's ability to stay in character is impressive - as is his way with a pastiche country song, notably a highway song that's just a list of fast-food outlets - but Tina is essentially a three-joke character: there's the ignorant American joke; the condescension towards other, non-American, cultures joke; and the wilful mangling of English joke, which this time takes the form of the subtitle to the series - The Aborogynal Monologues. That's 'vagina' mixed with Aboriginal. If that floats your boat, listen on.