If the exhibitionist known to his mother as Harold Martin Tillman is, as yet, a superstar only in his own mind, it's not for lack of trying.
He may still be trawling venues the size of this basement cupboard, but his 12-month plan envisages gigs in Vegas and collaborations with Elton John. It is easy to scoff, but the modest success he has already had represents a triumph of the will.
Har Mar may be short, mustachioed and, not to put too fine a point on it, fat, but he sees these as plus points. At any rate, it hasn't stopped him selling himself as a heavy-breathing love god: picture a 5ft 4in, Caucasian Barry White. Or rather, a mullet-maned sexual misadventurer who strips to red Y-fronts on stage.
Amazingly, the more clothing Har removes over the course of 30 minutes - first a sequined waistcoat, then T-shirt and trousers - the more he is egged on by girls in the front row. When he is finally naked but for underpants and smirk, fans invade the stage, nearly trampling him. "Hey, I'm fucking awesome!" he shouts, with some justification.
Apparently, he incites this reaction at every show, and it is easy to see why. Har Mar's business is spreading love, and it seems that the combination of semi-nudity and grinding cabaret-R&B never fails to get the message across.
The music itself, most of it from the forthcoming album You Can Feel Me, is nondescript, functioning mainly as a rhythm track for him to strip to. He can sing a bit, the musical highlight being the jaunty, Prince inspired Power Lunch, delivered from the bar countertop.
He later trots out a creditable falsetto on a cover of Stevie Wonder's Sir Duke, but the thrust of the act is Har himself. A kind of Divine for heterosexuals, he directs his self abasing performance at men like him, who cultivate not six-packs but entire crates.
Despite resembling the "before" picture from a Slim-Fast ad, he is proof that personality will out over looks. If his dreams of Las Vegas and Elton don't materialise, Har Mar could make millions on the motivational-speaker circuit.
· At the Barfly, Glasgow (0141-204-5700), tonight.
