Nate Kitch’s show could aptly be described as anti-comedy. Now that sounds bad but, while it’s not as well polished or accessible as many other shows, Kitch provides a masterclass in ripping up the comedic rulebook and thriving in an environment of total comic chaos… and freedom. Because this feels like comedy without the guardrails, he’ll exit the room and begin chatting with the door staff, facetiously berate his tech for no apparent reason, sit in the crowd and leave the mic empty for a solid five minutes of his time, have a conversation with a wall, repeat bad jokes again and again until the repetition itself becomes the joke; the list could go on. It’s comedic anarchy.
It can feel as if he’s throwing things at the wall to see what will stick, chiefly because that is the entire premise of his show, but it inevitably ends up making his show feel disjointed, and some of his ideas plainly do not work; an extended gag involving Bill Hicks felt bizarrely unfunny, and his repetition of certain jokes grows tiresome towards the end. However, it’s hard to say that these criticisms are issues with the show, necessarily; rather, they are more like inevitable consequences of what the show is attempting to achieve. If this show were some faultless, slick product, it would strip it of all that makes it work.
Kitch takes some of his time to show his audience “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich, a painting of a black square. He argues that the painting’s subjectivity is what makes it work – it contains nothing and everything simultaneously – you may project whatever you wish onto the painting simply by imagining it. Kitch’s show is similar – in all its off the wall absurdity and mania, it can be whatever you need it to be.
Nate Kitch: Tomorrow Might Not Happen; Now, 17:40, Gilded Balloon, until August 26.
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/nate-kitch-tomorrow-might-not-happen-now
