A Closeted Gay Mormon Walks Into the Edinburgh Fringe: Inside 'Bottoming for Jesus'
A man who converted to Mormonism at fifteen, spent years as a missionary converting 150 people in Paraguay, and lived as a closeted gay man through all of it is telling his story on the Edinburgh Fringe stage — at 22:40 each night, in a show he bills as "part stand-up, part cabaret, part sermon, part TED Talk."
Michael R Speciàle's one-hour show Bottoming for Jesus runs at Zoo Southside through 30 August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe, the world's largest arts festival, which takes over the Scottish capital every August. The official Fringe programme describes it as "A show about holes... and the lengths we go to fill them" (Edinburgh Festival Fringe). The production's own website confirms the run dates of 7–30 August at the Zoo venues (bottomingforjesus.com).
WhatsOnStage, reviewing the show on 19 August, reports that Speciàle converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 2000s — with no missionaries required to bring him in, according to the Fringe programme listing. He went on to convert 150 Paraguayans during his time as a missionary (WhatsOnStage).
The show folds that biography into a grab-bag format. Speciàle delivers an ode to Judy Garland, sings a number from the Broadway musical Avenue Q, and projects diagrams dissecting New York dating apps alongside Broadway classics, according to the WhatsOnStage review. The late-night slot — 22:40, running one hour — fits the Fringe tradition of programming material that sits outside daytime family-friendly fare.
The Fringe, for readers unfamiliar, is an open-access festival: anyone who can book a venue and pay the registration fee can put on a show. That structure means thousands of performances run across Edinburgh each August, from established comedians to first-time solo performers, in spaces ranging from purpose-built theatres to converted university rooms. Zoo Southside, one of the longer-established Fringe venues, programmes a mix of theatre, comedy and cabaret.
A show about reconciling fervent religious belief with a sexuality that belief condemns is not unusual Fringe territory — the festival has long been a platform for solo autobiographical work on identity, faith and secrecy. What gives Bottoming for Jesus its specificity is Speciàle's own arc: a teenager who sought out Mormonism unprompted, became an active proselytiser, and then had to reckon with the gap between the life he was converting others into and the one he was living himself.
The production photo accompanying the WhatsOnStage review was taken by Roman Udalov. The show has an official website at bottomingforjesus.com, and the Zoo Festival programme lists the 22:40 performance time and one-hour duration (Zoo Festival).
Tickets and full scheduling details are available through the Edinburgh Fringe's official programme and the Zoo venues' website.
