Jon Bennett has an extraordinary ability to share bizarre experiences in a wonderfully winning way. The same stories told by others would probably sound prurient, scatological and juvenile. From Bennett, however, the embarrassingly honest, insightful exposures endear him to us because they a clearly true (aren’t they?) and if we haven’t experienced something similar we can certainly relate to it empathetically.

Although his judiciously modulated delivery often ramps up to a breakneck speed that makes it seem like a spontaneous, authentic, gut-level sharing, it becomes clear he has carefully structured his story.

You’ll have to see it to know why the anchor-location for the story is Montreal Airport despite excursion to many other locations; why he performs most of the show in a peachy-pink frock; why the catalyst for the whole story – told to an imposing female security officer – is an innocent can of pepper spray.

So why is it called How I Learned to Hug? Well it all goes back to his first love, at the age of six, and progresses through all the girls and women he has loved since – made real in the first instance by his excellent PowerPoint slides then embedded in our emotional consciousness as generators of his profound emotional experiences.

It builds to what made him phobic about displays of affection in public then brings us to the relationship that cured him of it. Thus the presence of the pepper spray in his luggage is explained.

His hand-written poem in the free programme challenges Pat Benatar’s asserting that ‘Love is a Battlefield’ and includes a mind-boggling revelation – which come to think of it doesn’t quite square with the story of how he lost his virginity. He refers to his previous shows – Pretending Things Are a Cock a lot with some of his favourite images,Fire in the Meth Lab about his brother, andMy Dad’s Deaths – which is a bonus for those who have seen them and tantalising for those who have not. We are introduced to the verb ‘to Forrest Gump’ with appropriate audio-visual accompaniment.

Catch him if you can: the intimacy of BATS Studio is another bonus but it’s selling fast. How I learned to Hug is endearing, shocking and heart-warming. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer