OVEREXPLAINING OVEREXPLAINED: THE MUSICAL. SORT OF. B*GGER. SEE BLURB FOR TITLE. – PWYL

“The title should be self-explanatory”, they said, blissfully unaware that telling an autistic person to come up with a length-restricted piece of text that comprehensively summarises a thing while still piquing interest is the equivalent of pouring salt on a slug.

When people have heard of you, you can have a cool title with a neat formula: [your-name] : [up-to-3-words]. If nobody’s heard of you, having your name in the title is a pointless conceit. Andrew O’Neill can give their show an arcane name like “Geburah” and it will draw the audience in, like moths to an obscure, mysterious flame. Whereas if this was called “Paul Dennis: Ecce Hobo”, you’d be forgiven for muttering “pretentious tw*t” and then seeing some other show.

Self-explanatory implies leaving nothing to the imagination, which means the title ceases to be useful as a selling point. Comedian Plays Funny Songs, anyone? I fell asleep while I was typing it.

So, what is the show about? Nothing, really. It’s not a neurodivergence reveal party. It’s not a therapeutic confessional. It’s more like an album drop meets a book launch. I’ve got new songs to play you. I’m excited about that because they’re hilarious, but also because there’s a story behind them as well as the story within.

I’ll explain their origins. Of course, I’ll also talk about the ‘Tism, the Spice or whatever you wanna call it. But that’s not a thematic decision. It’s just who I am; the reason I think about topics like office friendships, dating strategies, the shadowy underworld of karaoke and musical comedy itself the way I do.

The title is just a summary of my thought process as I tried to think of one.

1. There are explanations. Experience has taught me these will be considered surplus to requirements.
2. I will argue against that.
3. There are songs, therefore it’s a musical.
4. But, not really.
5. And now the title has lost its punchy edge.
6. I’ll just have to explain it in the blurb. ¯_(ツ)_/¯