John Tothill: This Must Be Heaven

Pleasance Courtyard

It is that time of year again to contemplate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in John Tothill’s new hour, This Must Be Heaven to the point of academic dissection. 

 

Over the course of this hour, Tothilll recalls how he practice what he preaches and how we deserve to indulge in gluttony in a world of greed. Whether we’re learning about Edward Dando, the bleakness of cruises or  Tothill’s medical emergency during last year’s Fringe, we can’t help but be drawn in and revel in the indulgence that is this show. It goes without saying that Tothill is a skilled comedian and can effortlessly make us laugh at the smallest things. But this isn’t a small hour, it’s one of grand ideas and experiencing something more than what lies outside of the show’s hour and four walls. It’s an hour that takes us to another world, another venue, that has far-reaching implications for how we may live our lives. Because it’s a reminder first of all, how bleak some realities are, but how we can make it more.   Each tangent and example circles back and only serves to amplify Tothill’s argument, to the point where we’re presented with multiple Chekhov’s guns that wraps everything up neatly in an unarguable rule for how to live his own life. 

“A show aptly named, This Must Be Heaven indeed.”

Something as mundane as the fourth wall doesn’t and can’t exist in Tothill’s presence. It’s a salon discussion with jokes thrown in more than it is a stand-up comedy set, which is what makes Tothill and his comedy so unique and compelling to watch. It’s aspirational in his painting of‘the good life’. In every part of this hour, Tothill engages us, putting ourselves front, back and centre, ensuring to relate every argument back to us in a way that forces us to really listen and apply the central message of this hour to ourselves. Watching his performance is a wake-up call, that invites us to be selfish and ask how this philosophical enlightenment of Tothill’s comedy affect us.

 

Making the yearly pilgrimage to once more learn at Tothill’s feet is always worthwhile. Stepping into a John Tothill show is like stepping into another world, where mundanity sheds and falls away leaving only the romanticism and glamour of being alive. A show aptly named, This Must Be Heaven indeed. 

 

By Katerina Partolina Schwartz

Photo Credit: Rebecca Need-Menear