An entertaining hour but with untapped potential
In one of the more unusual venues in this year’s Fringe (a yurt by the Potterow underpass), Alex Kitson brings his follow-up to last year’s debut show, loosely centered around knowing the limits of your experience and how this shapes your world.
He is affable and charming with the crowd from the start, and due to the cramped nature of the packed-out yurt, some are literally camped at his feet. Despite his limited room to manoeuvre, this is an energetic hour, filled with a wide range of topics, some more connected to the main theme than others. We take a leisurely ramble over social class vs coffee shops, what a non-royal ballet might entail, trusting a non-trustworthy gut, and perils of local news vox pops.
There’s some nice insightful work about the perils of listening to the manosphere, the insidiousness of the social media algorithm and determinants of the state of the economy, but these are only ever lightly touched upon, and I’d love to see this take a larger part of the show, as he’s got potential to provide some fresh and original takes here.
He also teeters frequently on the verge of his own self-awareness, and it’s well within his talent to dig deeper into this too, but then we fall back into safer ‘middle class white men chat in pubs’ topics, such as why James Bond is a shit spy, lion facts being wrong, and bathroom anecdotes about the time their mate got ill in Thailand. It all just feels a bit generic, from someone who’s clearly got an inquiring mind and quick wit. These are generally met with laughter from the crowd with the smaller throwaway lines, but some of the bigger punchlines, particularly towards the end of the hour, fall a bit flat and markedly split the room.
Overall, this is a generally fun and diverting hour of comedy that is a decent choice for those looking to spend an hour in good company, and in an unusual setting. However, there’s a lingering suspicion that Alex is capable of so much more, and being a bit braver in his choice of topics could lead to something really remarkable.
“Alex Kitson: This Is Water” runs to 25 August, at 21:00, at Hoots @ Potterow (Big Yurt). Tickets can be bought from: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/alex-kitson-this-is-water