John Kearns: Tilting At Windmills comedy review – Soulful humour
A kaleidoscopic, heartfelt hour of existential musings from a restless comic mind
Weaving his frustrated search for a London bachelor pad through snatches of TS Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’, contemplating Spike Milligan at his most existential, and sharing hard-earned, paternalistic wisdom for a young fan, John Kearns’ soulful, cracked humour offers a fragmentary shore against his own ruin. Ever the aesthete but ignorant of Eliot’s verse, the poetically inclined stand-up struggles to find meaning in lines narrated by Alec Guinness, while assessing his new reality. Single and back living with his parents in Streatham, following the break-up of his long-term relationship, the fame of his Taskmaster series still clings to him. However, he’s confused by his place in the British comedy pantheon, taking potshots, or maybe punching up, at acts who are more famous but less critically hailed than himself.
Having initially forged a connection with Nina Conti through their distinctive stage personas, an offhand remark from the ventriloquist destabilises him and he seeks solace in the easy, back-and-forth banter of the British pub. In snapshots of a life both mundane and with a voracious appetite for more, Kearns is the aspirant common man, communing in the sauna until his cover is blown, then recalling an encounter with Tony Blair that made him appreciate we’re all just getting our heads down and grinding on with life. Tilting At Windmills is a kaleidoscopic, elusive hour from a restless comic mind, richly entertaining and characteristically heartful.
John Kearns: Tilting At Windmills, Monkey Barrel, until 30 August, 4.15pm.