Daniel Kitson is, undoubtedly, a legend amongst comics, and does he know it. He sold over 1000 tickets in 19 minutes, for God's sake, and in the show he jokingly refers to how he is burdened with the titles of "reclusive genius" and "the greatest comedian of our generation". It makes one wonder just how he copes with the image he's created for himself.
I first watched Kitson last year in his show "After the Beginning, Before the End", which was almost more of a theatre piece than a stand up set (a single table at which Kitson sat and controlled the music bed for the show (a hypnotic cycle of twinkling percussion) as he, bit-by-bit, played a tape with a recording of himself recounting a tale his friend had told him, a false memory as it turned out, intermingled with impassioned soliloquies. The show, overall, spanned the themes of solitude and memory in a dazzling 2-hour display of lyricism, vivid imagery and fantastic, cutting, deadly funny insights into the absurdity of modern life).
This show was the first of his run of 8 with Gavin Osborn, a professional musician and long-time partner-in-crime with Kitson. Randomly dangling around the intimate Stand venue were cassette tapes from days of yore and pieces of A4 paper folded in half. The format of the show was a cycle of touching, heartfelt songs about love from Osborn, seemingly free-form and brilliant stand-up material from Kitson, a phone conversation between Kitson (alias Ken) and Linda (a phone conversation which slowly unravelled into a rather sweet love story punctuated by jokes delivered in Kitson's characteristic offhand manner) and Osborn reading from those folded pieces of A4, pieces which held a commentary of various pop songs and how they linked to some distant sweet past. All the while, Kitson and Osborn wander around the room, mingling with the audience, and Kitson's only on the stage about half the time, and he hardly uses the mic. Bolshy.
Interestingly, I was expecting something far more tight and controlled after seeing Kitson's "After the Beginning, Before the End", but this show was a bit of a ramshackled mess; the CD player wasn't working, neither were entirely sure where they were meant to go and Kitson's didn't seem to know what was going to happen next, even with the show's running order taped to the stage's backdrop! And that seemed to make the event all that more special; it was as if we were catching a rare glimpse of Kitson's creative process, as if we were watching a work-in-progress, a mad comedy scientist still nurturing his experiment.
In the show there was a rather small moment, but one that really stuck out for me: at one point Kitson tells a rather good, nicely constructed joke, to which he comments "it's twenty to two and there's finally a joke. I can see you all internally re-writing your blogs"; Good God, does he know his audience.
"A Variety Of Things In A Room" is a show that bewilders, it takes you on an epic emotional journey, from vertiginous heights of breathtaking comedy from Kitson, to the grounded songs from Osborn, and at one point Kitson lets us in on a secret: what it's like in the afterlife (he has a chilling imagination). There isn't an over-arching message in this show, though; it's just there to thrill, to delight, to entertain. And surely, that's the point of life? To just have a bit of fun?
There's no one quite like Kitson. Yes there are comedians with the same level of self-awareness of their success who manipulate it to comedic effect, yes there are some who are just as clever, maybe there are some who can just as deftly utilise the full breadth of the English language as colourfully as Kitson (damn he's good at conjuring mad images from nowhere, though he does seem to have a mild predilection to dogs and their arses), and there are plenty who espouse the joys of being alone, but only Kitson can bring all these together so brilliantly, so enthusiastically, so masterfully and marry it so well with compassionate songs such as Osborn's.
Score: 10/10
Venue: The Stand Comedy Club, York Place
Dates: Aug 3-24 (excluding Fridays and Saturdays)
Time: 11.59pm
Price: £9
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