320 West 13th Street
New York, NY 10014
PROGRAM:
Lucian James, The Divine David Presents (Episodes 1, 2 + 6), video, 1998/9
"GOOD EVENING UND WELCOME
WE ARE ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF THE AVANT-GARDE
I AM THE DIVINE DAVID."
Production company, World of Wonder, took a chance on a very different kind of queen a decade before it begot RuPaul’s Drag Race. For a brief season at the close of the 20th Century, The Divine David Presents brought its distinctly sick and jaundiced views to late night UK television. Hosted by "transgender cultural terrorist," David Hoyle, the program showcased bizarre performance videos, fabulously outré "masterclasses" in painting, beauty or contemporary dance, giving regular vent to Hoyle’s lacerating and demented brand of social commentary.
"THIS ISN’T AN ACT
THIS IS A STATE OF BEING."
David Hoyle is a performance artist, avant-garde cabaret performer, singer, actor, comedian and film director. Hoyle began his career in the early 1990s, appearing in Manchester gay clubs, where he eventually developed the "anti-drag queen" character known as "The Divine David." Eventually taking this character to television, Hoyle made two shows for Channel 4 in the UK, The Divine David Presents (1998) and The Divine David Heals (2000). In 1998 Hoyle also appeared in Todd Haynes glam rock musical Velvet Goldmine. In 2000, he decided to bring an end to The Divine David, publically killing off the character in a farewell show at Streatham Ice Arena entitled The Divine David on Ice. After a five-year hiatus, Hoyle returned to the spotlight in 2005, appearing in Channel 4 sitcom, Nathan Barley, written by Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris, and returning to the stage, collaborating with Justin Vivian Bond for When David Met Justin and launching a string of shows at Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London. In 2010, Hoyle directed and starred in the film Uncle David and in 2013 he played the lead in The Psychiatrist. Most recently, Hoyle has appeared in the New Cabaret Neo Reality Show at Warehose 9, Amsterdam, in May 2013.