Never has a show title been more true and also an absolute lie. Something Different!!!!! is a love letter to comedy as an art form, taking the jazz rhythm of the jazz album the title also comes from to dart and leapfrog between the physical, the verbal, the abstract, and the downright ridiculous – to name but a few familiar ways of being funny that Kitch employs. Demonstrably unafraid of lulls, he’s also playing with breaking the form and building laughs that come from out of nowhere, finding new and interesting clashes of methods, he’s introducing the stupid to the serious. And my cheeks ache from laughing at something utterly different, made up of so many known parts of comedy it’s a veritable star-studded patchwork.
Kitch is unpredictable, and reliable, and over-running. It’s a delight to see him break performance walls and not only step into the audience but then out of the room entirely, snatches of his voice coming through as he talks with whoever is in the corridor, close to inviting the next room’s exiting audience in too. “Do what you like and just will an audience to accept it,” he explains as a part of the number of comedy deconstruction tangents embarked upon – “There’s no thinking here, just laugh.” And he’s right.
There’s a poignant academic element as Kitch repeats that not understanding comedy should be as acceptable as not understanding art. You can still like it. Something Different!!!!! is the QED. Go.
Nate Kitch: Something Different!!!!!, 17.00, Snug at Gilded Balloon Patter House, 17.00, until 25 August
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/nate-kitch-something-different
