Big, black and bearded, with a voice at its best like a grizzly bear gargling melted Bournville, British-Nigerian drag artist Le Gateau Chocolat has, he says, spent a lifetime dealing with 'difference'. So it's ironic that his London solo debut should plump so merrily for cliché.
He links obvious song choices ('Creep', 'Nothing Compares 2 U', a slew of Streisand) with bite-size dressing- table confessionals and self-help platitudes that wouldn't be out of place on the 'Britain's Got Talent' he rightly derides.
A graduate of 'La Clique' and (grateful) reject of the Royal College of Music, Chocolat has a gift for physical comedy, infectious delight in his fantastical costumes and a vulnerability that wins trust – even as he's forcing audience members into Lycra.
But, as the programme admits, he is still discovering who he is and what he wants to say. Borrowing excitedly from the great Taylor Mac and 'La Clique' colleague Camille O'Sullivan, he overlooks their lessons in cabaret as craft.
Nobody should pass up the opportunity to hear 'Ol' Man River' sung by a man in rainbow eyeshadow and window-wiping falsies, back fuzz glistening with sweat above a gold lamé bodystocking. But a naturally glorious presence doesn't excuse him from putting in the graft.