Jamie Kilstein: Can’t Tie Knots comedy review – Emotional exorcism
In a viscerally vulnerable and uncensored hour, the comedian paints a harrowing portrait of battles with depression and grief
Emerging on stage holding a noose (yup, that’s the ‘knot’ of the title), Jamie Kilstein makes no bones about the fact that his show is about to present a difficult hour of personal trauma and turmoil. Vacillating between fidgety and fizzing with energy, the US comic details a tough decade or so in his life, recounting suicide attempts, divorce, run-ins with Joe Rogan and the death of a close friend. Part theatre-piece, spoken word and conventional stand-up, Kilstein’s story merges its inherent downbeat nature with an engaging series of strange coincidences and what if? brushes with stardom.
Discussed in the same breath as Aubrey Plaza and John Mulaney at the beginning of his career, his impostor syndrome leads him into increasing obscurity, as well as a close friendship with Robin Williams, whose own suicide derails him. He’s an engaging, at times alarmingly vulnerable, presence on stage, describing the extremity of his personal trouble with the self-awareness of a walking cautionary tale. Many moments of open-heartedness have a genuine emotionally wrenching impact, while rarely failing to deliver on inventive or politically biting jokes.
By the end, his warts-and-all emotional exorcism has unabashedly painted him as both villain and likeable sad sack of his piece, and as a walking avatar for a particularly North American series of cultural anxieties. Although his conclusion never quite reaches for anything other than platitudes, feeling more like he’s simply expended his energy than reached a point of genuine resolution, the journey is palpably varied and enlightening enough to make Jamie Kilstein a worthwhile if regularly troubling companion.
Jamie Kilstein: Can’t Tie Knots, Gilded Balloon Teviot, until 31 August, 9.50pm.