So who do you hate more then, Americans or trans people?

Actor, writer and stand-up Dian Cathal fits into both categories, you see, and it would be helpful for him to know which aspect of his being you have more of a problem with. Not that he would ever apologise for or compromise over either, and nor should he.

Combative, clever, and very, very charming, Cathal has re-tooled his Trans*Atlatic show for our shit zeitgeist. With trans people finding their very existence the topic of frenzied press debate, and Americans even more the subject of national mockery thanks to the return of Trump, this hour moves from the “funny and necessary” to the “we must legislate for this to be watched by Starmer’s cabinet, JK Rowling, and assorted Guardian columnists, in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ style if necessary”.

Cathal’s style, as befits a New Yorker, is direct, sharp, and holds no prisoners, as numerous sacred cows are pushed over with a combination of wit, irony, and logical absurdity.

Our small post-bank holiday crowd are all on board from the start, struggling even to pick a favourite prejudice (“some Americans are lovely”, professes one NHS doctor in the second row). 

Some comedians struggle with quieter gigs, but Cathal allows the jokes and the concepts time to breathe, even without the reassuring laughter breaks that this material would earn in a fuller room.

And there’s a lot of material to get through. There’s deeply personal, scarcely believable stories about growing up in a US military family, and extremely touching (and also very funny) accounts of the process of coming out, and the various, earnest, well-meaning traps set by our hero’s parents.

Cathal’s relationship with his late father is particularly relatable, as “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” comes up against reality, and a decent man trying to balance his duty with his clear sense of right and wrong.

But it’s when we get to Binfire Island – or Britain, as some insist on calling it – that this show really lights up, like a forest fire caused by a terrible gender reveal gone wrong.

Ten years in Britain both as a trans person and as an American equals a great deal of experience with dealing with absolute bullshit, and Cathal pulls no punches. 

Whether it’s the NHS, our wild bathroom police, or the recent Supreme Court ruling that has emboldened them, it’s a damn relief to hear clever and illuminating tales from someone actually affected by all this nonsense – the kind of voice that has been noticeably absent from our discourse in the past few weeks.

The show speeds by, with carefully managed peaks and troughs of emotion and laughter to allow the audience time to digest the more subtle and revolutionary points being made here. There’s only one aspect that could have done with further development, and that’s the comedian’s “biological Irishness”, in part because it’s hilariously told, and in part because there’s more to say here given our nation’s wild and very long history of persecuting this particular group. It’s only in recent decades that being Irish in England stopped being almost as dangerous as being trans now is, and I’m curious to see where this through-line could go with a writer as accomplished as Cathal.

This, though – is a minor quibble. Clamp those eyelids open, and get yourself down to The Walrus to see an extremely vital and necessary hour.