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In its native Australia, Cherie Nowlan's "Introducing the Dwights" was called "Clubland," and you can see how that title could have been confusing to an American — or British — audience. The clubs of Sydney, where the film is set, feature magicians, ventriloquists, even a guy who imitates bird-songs.
In short, they are leftovers from 1950s-vintage British music hall — or, as we would say, vaudeville — magically preserved in present-day Australia.
Jeanie Dwight (Brenda Blethlyn) is an aging, British-born comedienne specializing in the sort of double entendre humor that used to be thought of as "naughty" but has long since given way to something much more raunchy — and much less innocent.
Somehow she's managed to hang on through all the changes in comedic fashion of the last 30 or 40 years — to hang on, but not to make a living at it. Yet she continues to live in hope. Now, she says, "I'm going to become a gay icon." But when she gets what she considers to be her big break — an audition with Australian television executives — they see her humor as "too phallocentric."
© New York Sun
