There’s something odd going on here.  If you’ve been around the Gilded Balloon you might have run into Nate Kitch, storming out of his own show, talking to the techies about his audience – making his audience laugh from outside the door of the venue.

 

On power cut day Nate Kitch took his audience out into the street and carried on – attracting a bigger and bigger crowd.

 

Never mind the fourth wall – Nate Kitch cannot be contained by mere architecture.  And never mind the rule of three.  He dreams of finding the rule of four.  The holy grail.  The impossible dream

 

The problem is, Nate tells us, all the jokes have been written.  All that is left is bits and beats, bits and beats.

 

So he tries to find another way.  He appears and disappears.  He narrates a commentary on the show as a member of the audience.  He tries on different comedy styles and tries to generate a completely new one.

 

And there’s something in it.  In one part of the show Kitch repeats a weirdly meaningless joke from different standpoints, until, in a flash of quicksilver, it suddenly, unexpectedly becomes hilarious.

 

There are bursts of harmonica, spoof newspapers that report headlines from the show, there’s a story about a sad baby.  A Gaulier clown unzipping his fly.  For some reason Nath putting on a tie in harmony with the theme from Thunderbirds was the bit that cracked me up

 

It’s comedy theatre, arty, stylish and cool.  And there’s something extraordinarily watchable about Kitch.  He builds up a rapport with the audience as well – even though he occasionally blames them for the artistic torment involved in making the show.

 

I don’t know if he’s got it yet.  I’m not sure where it’s going.  But it’s definitely going somewhere. As long as tomorrow happens we should all be alright.

 

 

 

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