Edinburgh Fringe 2014
Tim Key: Single White Slut
Tim Key
Genre: Stand-Up
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Key (37 now) wades back to Edinburgh, climbs into his poetry clothes and leans against his mic stand for another hour. Now charming, he will recollect simple tales of love, gaze dead-eyed at the ladies, recite verse and do basic talking. A lot of fairly grubby water’s sloshed under Key’s bridge of late so he’ll be churning that up. He’s also fairly interested to lift the lid on Hollywood. There’ll be some Indian poetry, Indian beer and, if he can get his act together, a spotlight. Other potential themes will be owls and maybe fairies.
Review
Tim Key cuts a strange figure. With a giant gingery beard cascading from his face, an unexplained but frequently referred to denim onesey covering his body and pointy brown boots, he sets himself up to be a figure of fun, but one we will definitely be laughing with rather than at. Single White Slut is not stand-up, although there is stand-up within it, and it is not quite theatre. Instead Key has created a sort of hybrid, with a bit of weird dancing thrown in for good measure. Many other performers could in no way pull this off, but somehow Key manages – engaging his audience from the very start by calling us all imbeciles. Charming!
Using a pack of poetry-adorned pornographic playing cards, he structures the show loosely around these bizarre and hilarious dittys, some witty and others such complete non-sequiturs that they are also very funny. We are also treated to some marvellous tales of his attempts at female seduction, with the most hilarious being an attempted threesome in India where his friend put on the audio book of We Need to Talk About Kevin to help create some atmosphere. I hope for everyone’s sake it isn’t true, but somehow looking at Key, and hearing his other ‘flirting’ techniques you suspect it might be.
There was also a nice bit of fun-poking at the genre of stand-up comedy, especially much of what is peddled at the Edinburgh Fringe. Early on Key asks if there are any lads in the audience, and the muted response is telling of the sort of audience he commands. However, throughout the night he frequently gets the lads to whoop about something or other, which they warm to over time, and which becomes very funny as it becomes apparent just how much of a ‘lad’ Key is not.
Following his success as Sidekick Simon in the recent Alan Partridge film, Key’s career seems to be on the up, and his sold out audiences at the fringe seem to confirm this. His clever humour and self-deprecating wit are a nice combination, and Single White Slut was a good choice to make out of the mêlée of other comedy options at the fringe.
Show Website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Key
