Alex Kitson gives a rollercoaster of a performance in his new hour Now Look Here, weaving an overarching tale of the danger of focusing too much on the one dream in the form of ‘the big light’, tech’s contributions to the problem and the woes of a comedian without a social media following into a giddy and warm hour of good fun gags and SNL-worthy impressions. What occurs in the Big Yurt is one of those once in a lifetime Fringe performances that once seen will live rent free in our heads and will be remembered at the most inopportune moments.
Throughout this hour, Kitson is quick to prove his comedic aptitude, going so far as to grant us a cold open in the form of Yurt Admin, seemingly to help us prepare us for the conditions under which we are to watch this show, when in fact it gives us a chance to brace ourselves for the force of nature that Kitson is as a performer. And it is that kind of fluid and energetic approach to his material that allows him to adapt or sometimes outrightly ignore well-known comedy mechanics, effectively creating a style that is uniquely his own, mitigating or substituting any deviations from the form through other means; for example, his pace of delivery smooths any abruptness that may otherwise occur due to his his disregard for segues. Now Look Here is so tightly packed with jokes, the laughter for one practically spurs and becomes the building block any laughter evoked by the next, a level of energy that Kitson steers through with nothing short of sheer determination, perhaps not resting on his laurels for as long as many parts of his material deserve. At times, the combination of speed and Kitson’s occasional lack of diction makes the odd set-up and punchline a little muddled, but again, the speed and energy of Kitson’s performance just means that we have to power through and lock in to avoid missing any of the rest rather than reflect on what we may have missed.
“What occurs in the Big Yurt is one of those once in a lifetime Fringe performances that once seen will live rent free in our heads and will be remembered at the most inopportune moments.”
Despite the assumed gravity of the topics that Kitson covers over the course of Now Look Here, his perspective and performance is truly the bedrock of each joke and what makes it memorable. Kitson truly has a unique comedic voice that would make it highly difficult for anyone else to replicate this hour with the same element of pizzazz that he does. The rather overt and sometimes borderline concerning self-deprecation creates a kind of conversation between himself and the audience, a dynamic that only serves to increase our enjoyment of the material. Kitson is unafraid to be the mockee rather than the mocker, and there’s a gleefully impish, mischievous undercurrent to every punchline that not only grants us permission to laugh at him, at his occasional positioning of himself as ‘the bad guy’, but that gives an indication that Kitson is very much in on the joke with us.
It’s not just that time passes in the Big Yurt because we’re having fun, it’s because Kitson barrels headlong into the show, committing to every bit, every punchline and every moment of improvisation with so much wild abandon that he just wins us over practically immediately. It is Kitson’s innate talent and enthusiasm for comedy and storytelling that makes Now Look Here the triumph of a show that it is. It is very much his moment, his Fringe and the rest of us are along for the ride.
By Katerina Partolina Schwartz
Photo credit: Dylan Woodley
Pepper & Salt 
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