A side-splitting social anthropology lecture

An American, a Dutchman, and an Englishman walk into a bar – and Derek Mitchell is ready to take the piss out of all of them. An absolutely brilliant, jam-packed hour of frenetic accents, absurdist character comedy, and crowd work worthy of Nobel Peace Prize. 

Mitchell bursts onto stage in clogs, and the energy stays at eleven for the entire hour – the physicality of their comedy combined with the quickness of their jokes barely leaves the audience time to register the true depth of a lot of Mitchell’s bits. There’s references only a few people will get (Derek, if you’re reading this – I understood the Liza with a z joke); but it doesn’t feel alienating. As Mitchell speaks on their experiences immigrating from the States to the Netherlands to England (and there and back etc.), there is a real intellectual grounding to the surface-level comedy. 

As someone who grew up moving from country to country every few years or so, Mitchell’s show rings very true – but more than this, as participants in a society that is growing more and more multicultural, we recognise parts of ourselves in Mitchell’s pastiches. Our obsession with where people come from and why they are here – but Mitchell doesn’t seek to make us feel bad for this. Instead, they deliver a side-splitting social anthropology lecture as to why our differences, though not insignificant, should not divide us. 

Mitchell is quite possibly one of the wittiest and most physical comedians at the Fringe – so whether you’re American, Dutch, English, or none of the above, make sure you catch Double Dutch.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/derek-mitchell-double-dutch