Review by Steve Bennett

‘Anti-comic’ Tim Key kicks off with three words to strike dread into an audience’s heart: ‘Yes, it’s poetry’.

Looking shambolically louche, he pronounces his disjointed sentences to dubious backing tracks, requiring weary dialogue with the unseen, unheard sound technician.

Anyone expecting poems that rhyme, scan or even finish properly might be disappointed, the device mainly exists to give him reason to put awkward pauses and notebook-shuffling into the distracted, hesitant act, adding to the haphazard feeling. The subjects of his verses are suitably obtuse: one, for example, being little more than a list of animals he thinks he can fit into.

It’s an act that’s deliberately unsettling, sporadically very funny, thanks to some sly, smart gags, and sporadically very odd – but designed to be an antidote to slick stand-ups.

Review date: 10 Jul 2009
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: The Tabernacle