“Of course you’d get the Indian to take it!” the Donald Trump impersonator screamed across the King’s Head pub, as a group crowded in to take a photo.
Doughnut munching, Diet Cola guzzling, Nazi saluting, penis exposing and woman grabbing. Simon Jay has watched a lot of Donald Trump. Perhaps too much.
Dressed in his classic navy suit, with a ridiculous tan as red as the Republican tie hanging from his neck and a shining smile as white as the dubious powder splattered across his lapel, he welcomed people into the theatre with all the confidence and bravado of the man himself.
How we laughed, little did we know the joke would be on us as the results started to roll in a few hours later.
The finger to thumb hand gesture and constant repetition of the last words of sentences made it spooky, hilarious and often awkward, especially for the many Americans in attendance.
The election night special of this one-man show gave an enlightening insight into the potential future of a Trump-led America.
Jay combined verbatim quotes with exaggerated misogyny to express his utter disapproval of the presidential bid in an hour-long improvised routine.
Nobody had come for a lesson in politics but at times it felt like the Islington audience was being given a warning and Jay was more than happy to hammer the Americans and overtly sexualise the women in the audience to reiterate his point.
The Trump parody proudly danced into what he described as his ‘victory party’, commencing with the opening of congratulations cards from ‘friends’ Nigel Farage and Vladimir Putin, the latter he hilariously claimed several times to have had lunch with before but had never met.
The audience were treated to live updates of the election from ‘Harvey St Clare’, Trump’s ‘BBC journalist’ assistant, who was greeted with genuine gasps and cries upon informing the crowd that Trump had won Ohio.
Alas, Harvey actually meant that Trump had sold more cookies than Hillary Clinton in a fictitious Ohio bakery and the show went on, leaving behind one Californian who had to take a moment to compose himself.
But – a few hours later – Trump actually won Ohio, a state that has supported every President of the United States for the past 56 years.
A grilling Q&A session took place with an audience growing in hostility, in which Trump defended sexual assault claims and attempted to justify comments about wanting to date his daughter.
“It’s not a wall, okay, it’s a freedom divider!” he cried, shortly before performing a high-pitched impression of his wife ‘Malaria’.
Jay briefly broke character to mischievously remind the crowd that ‘Trumpageddon’ had sold out at Edinburgh, before concluding with a personal reflection.
He dramatically fell down in the middle of the stage, crying to the heavens that he did not want the presidency, as Jay parted ways with Trump and admitted that although he started the act before Trump was ever the Republican candidate, he never thought it would go this far.
Never thought Trump would go this far … he was not alone.
