The Honourable Men of Art
It was refreshing to see Daniel Kitson up on stage at the Stand, relaxed, mucking around with his mates and in control of the rowdy late night crowd. The last few times I’ve seen him perform have been so intense, still funny and joyful, but more alone and serious and heavily scripted. The Honorable Men of Art is definitely Daniel’s show. He is our honourable host and the other gentlemen take there places in the far flung darkened corners of the room from which they basically heckle or otherwise interject with pithy comments. The others taking part were David O’Doherty, Andy Zaltzman and Alun Cocrane.
Daniel wanted us all to know that he was ‘in a mood’. Apparently the audience at his beautiful, sweet play 66a Church Rd had been overly noisy and had applauded at the end of each monologue so that they missed the beginning of the carefully pre recorded segments. His fellow gentlemen quickly cheered him up with some much needed gentle teasing. They each then introduced themselves to the audience from their various positions, with their name and a childhood prize/medal they’d won. Audience members were then invited to acknowledge their own childhood sporting triumphs. It made me wonder if it was the Olympics that had driven everyone mad?
All of the Gentlemen were given their turn at being on stage to give us a bit of a taste of their show (I know because I’ve seen them all) and we were given a break at the interval of this two hour show. Yes, it finishes at 2am, so you might want to have a little nap during the day, or sleep in or something. It all ended with many seats being pushed aside with the rare permission and assistance of Chris the stage manager. A clearing was created down the middle of the room, so a race could take place between David O’Doherty and an audience member who had a skiing medal. DO’D won by a second and was awarded a trophy prop by Andy Zaltzman after complaining that the loser had been awarded sweets.
It is obvious that the evening will be a different show each night and is quite a different experience to the version (without Alun Cocrane) that I had seen in Melbourne this year. That had more of a mellow, intimate feel, like we were all in Daniel’s living room after his gig and we all ended up playing online boggle as a team which just felt so special. Still, this was a fabulous show of camaraderie and bonhomie that is such a contrast to other late night shows that have the reputations for being scary pits of sweaty hell. If you feel more like a relaxing laugh among friends for a couple of hours before bed, this is the show for you. It’s lovely.
Visit the Fringe Website for booking details.