CLUB KIDS – An Evening with Jimbo the Drag Clown

Drag Show for Youth Aged 14+ Set to Tour United Kingdom in January

YULIAH ALMA – 24 November 2022 – Reduxx

A UK drag tour targeted primarily at audiences aged 14 and up is raising safeguarding concerns due to the highly graphic nature of the performer’s usual events.

“An Evening with Jimbo” is set to be held across multiple venues in the United Kingdom from January 11 to 22 of 2023. Tickets are currently available for purchase through Licklist, an online bookings platform, which describes the upcoming performance as “getting up close and personal with an evening with Jimbo.”

The posters for the event featured highly sexualized, graphic cartoon depictions of James Insell, known better by his stage name as “Jimbo,” in his various performance “personas.”

All but one of the events is slated as being for audiences 14 years of age and up, the single exception being the performance in Manchester on January 20. This is likely due to its venue being an adult gay bar, while the rest are held at comedy clubs.

But despite the majority of the shows being open to minors, Insell’s typical fare is anything but child-friendly.

Insell, 40, is a Canadian national who rose to notoriety after participating in Canada’s Drag Race in 2020 and RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK Versus the World in 2022. He utilizes multiple drag personas as part of his acts, many of which will reportedly be seen at the 14+ events if the event poster is any indication.

One of those personas, Casper the Baloney Ghost, was described by Insell as a way to showcase his “weird and wacky and wonderful clown self.” Speaking to Gay Times UK in February, Insell stated the intention of Casper was to show that “talent is always deep inside,” adding that he keeps a stack of baloney meat in his costume to “fall out of [his] man-gina.” Casper is depicted as having a zipper “vulva,” and is perpetually “pregnant.”

In April, Insell launched an official music video for his single “Free & Horny.” The video, which was sponsored by an HIV/AIDS prescription drug service, features gratuitously sexual lyrics and visuals.

Some of Insell’s various personas appear in the video, including Casper the Baloney Ghost and his signature drag character, which utilizes a head-to-toe prosthetic “female body,” complete with comically large breasts. In a photo of the suit posted to social media earlier this year, the suit is also seen to have a faux-vulva.

At one point in the video, Insell as Casper is seen watching a sex tape and slapping a large loaf of baloney sticking through his zipper “vulva.” Casper is seated on a couch watching a “sex tape” with another actor dressed as Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King’s IT. The clown suggestively strokes Casper’s “pregnant” belly while they watch the sexual acts.

In other scenes, Insell, while wearing the “female body” costume, engages in sex acts with multiple different men, at one point feeding the HIV/AIDS medication to one of his partners.

But even Insell’s live performances are littered with highly sexual content.

In September, Insell shared a clip from one of his UK drag shows with caption “The Load that Broke the Camels Back.” The video shows Insell in his “female” drag persona with a prosthetic set of testicles dangling from his backside. The prosthetic on Insell’s lower half breaks open, releasing a white fluid all over the stage. The performance’s liquid mess, paired with the suggestive caption, point to a sexual connotation.

Most of Insell’s past live performances appear to be highly explicit, with members of the audience often being invited to touch his breast prosthetics. The performances also feature highly sexual, suggestive acts, such as Insell stuffing the vagina of a blow-up doll with money while audience members cheered. Insell has also dressed as a blow-up doll, complete with inflatable vulva, during past performances.

It is unclear what Insell’s set will look like during the January performance in Nottingham, but the poster promoting the event features most of the drag “personas” he has used in past adult-only venues…