Katie Pritchard: I Kiss The Music

Edinburgh Fringe – The Stand

Live from the World Arena Tour, Katie Pritchard’s I Kiss The Music is a delightfully silly show that uses character and musical comedy to take us into a world with nonsensical catch-phrases, countless body rolls and a pink poncho.

The show is a character comedy that Pritchard has created around this multibillion record-breaking pop star on tour, and we her devoted fans.  She’s built an entire world, backstory and fanbase around this pop star, oscillating between these characteristics that we’d be aware of just from pop culture, but always with a silly twist that really pokes fun of this whole idea of superstardom, the music industry and the ridiculousness associated with that – although nothing in our reality is as close to what we see on Pritchard’ stage. It’s as if during the writing process, she overdosed this show with nonsense. The atmosphere is absolutely electric, and Pritchard’s stage presence fills and lights up the room. She uses backing tracks in her show, which give her more freedom to embrace the character in all of its musical glory and build a presence that encourages us to participate in the show.

One main take away from this show is just how if we had heard this music outside of the four walls of The Stand, it would definitely be something we’d listen to for fun to the point of it being on our Spotify Wrapped. Pritchard creates these concepts, and then just layers upon them observations that push the subject in both the smartest and the stupidest way possible. Every song is better from the last and we end up really getting into and believing in the premise. The songs vary in subject matter and if anything it goes to show Pritchard’s range as a songwriter and singer,  – to be able to write banger after banger about hotdogs to moon cups to a new James Bond theme – but also to deliver these songs as if the lyrics aren’t some of the funniest and on-point observations in the world. She plays with and structures each joke in such a way where the humour is based in making reference to something that we’ll easily recognise or be aware of without giving away as to why it’s funny, where when we find the humour it is literally the most hilarious thing in the world. Even with jokes or songs that don’t encompass a universal experience per say, we are still able to catch on quickly and rarely is there a dry eye in the room, because we’re all crying ourselves silly from laughter. 

“Absolutely electric”

The execution of the Arena Tour I Kiss The Music is just absolutely flawless. Pritchard is a phenomenal performer and we are lucky to have had the opportunity to see this hour, and be in the room. It’s everything that we didn’t know we would want from this show.

By Katerina Partolina Schwartz

Photo Credit: Karla Gowlett