Tim Key: Masterslut
When you enter the room to find the act already prowling the
stage, greeting the audience
with welcoming nods and wielding a gerbera, you know you’re not in
for a regular stand-up
show. Key’s ‘Masterslut’ is, in fact, anything but a regular
stand-up show.
His proper entrance to the stage, after the lights dim, is
unorthodox to say the least. His
mix of music-backed poetry, storytelling, short film clips and
audience interaction is
eclectic, but Key has the charismatic stage presence needed to
blend it all into an
extremely enjoyable and oddly coherent hour of comedy. One
particular ‘elephant in the room’
helps to glue the elements together by providing a recurring theme
(and also a logistical
challenge for the stagehands for the tight turnaround between
Festival shows).
Key is probably best known for his poetry, a fact which he has
declared in interviews is
somewhat embarrassing as he doesn’t actually consider himself to
be a poet. He has suggested
this may be his final show featuring his own particular style of
left-turn-at-the-lights
verse; this may be a shame for his growing and loyal following,
but they should be in no
doubt that his mind would turn up something equally inventive to
replace it.
His exit at the end of the show is equally spectacular to his
entrance. And if you want to
know what the ‘elephant in the room’ is, catch the show at
London’s Soho Theatre from 8
December to 7 January.
– Emma Watkins
