“A wry walk through the wreckage of modern life”
John Kearns arrives at the Monkey Barrel just in time. He has, he tells us, been doing a reading of A Tale of Two Cities immediately beforehand and needs a moment to adjust. But it does not take long for him to hit his mark and launch into his trademark red-faced comic indignation at the state of the world – Kearns’s relationship with professional success has often been mined for great comic effect.
He is often described as an absurdist, supported by his distinctive stage appearance and presence. He is wearing the familiar monkish wig, wonky teeth and thick glasses. But early on there are signs that Tilting at Windmills is a comparatively realist and reflective show. Kearns briefly removes the costume to recount an anecdote about his modest level of notoriety, as a precursor to taking a swipe at fellow comedians who enjoy more lucrative forms of success.
The show has Kearns reflecting on his position in life following the end of a long-term relationship, with this structured around T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land, specifically a walking tour through the poem’s London landscape. It is a deliberately despairing and serious backdrop, but this is not a show consumed by bitterness or self-pity. There are enough absurdist digressions and self-effacing jokes to prevent that, while Kearns himself is determined to focus on the light amongst the shade.
This is a refined, tour-hardened show. Coming midway through a nationwide tour, this was Kearns’s first night of a short Edinburgh run, which may explain both his near-late entrance and the microphone he later knocks over.
Kearns has a knack for seizing on quirky aphorisms and figures of speech, from wherever he finds them, and turning them into targets for his comic ire – whatever uncertainties lie behind the show’s personal material, there is none in terms of the show itself.
Listings information: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/john-kearns-tilting-at-windmills
Venue: Monkey Barrel – then on tour round the UK until November
Dates: 18-30 August 2026
Time: 16:15
Running time: 60 minutes
Fringe Box Office: 0131 226 0000