Tim Key and Jonny Sweet both won Edinburgh Comedy Awards for their shows last August. Tom Oleson heads down to the Soho Theatre to check them out.
There are two fantastic comedy shows at the Soho Theatre at the moment, showcasing two of the new breed of British comics. They're very different in style but what ties them together is their complete understanding of comedy. They both do very 'nice' comedy. Not naive, in fact it's very knowing, but it is warm and engaging. They also both use visual aids, and neither tells jokes in the traditional sense of the word. With Sweet winning 'Best Newcomer' and Key winning the 'Best Show' title, it seems that maybe in these tough times we, the audience, are craving sweet whimsy over cruel cynicism.
Jonny Sweet: Mostly About Arthur
It takes a peculiar kind of comic mind to write an hour long show about a non-existent dead brother who was the world's greatest blurbist (the person who writes the blurb on the back of books). Jonny Sweet is high fiving and hugging his audience as they enter the small top room at the Soho Theatre. His character is intensely likeable from the outset and you really want to believe in his brother. You want to believe he was the greatest ever blurbist. To be honest it seems like he's going to be hard pressed to make the joke last an hour, but it flies by and is padded out with his, very effective, use of a power-point presentation.
He makes use of the audience and, whereas one often feels bad for crowd members picked on by a comedian, here you find yourself wishing you were in their shoes. Even when he is being ostensibly mean about an audience member's chandelier impression there is no real malice there and she looks like she's having a lot of fun. The show is not all belly laughs but there isn't a point where the smile leaves your face, not even when he stands in silent sad contemplation of his deceased brother for an awkwardly long time.
Tim Key: The Slutcracker
This show is brilliant, really literally brilliant. There may be tickets left for the extra dates they've recently announced and you'd be well advised to kill for one. To enter Tim Key's world for an hour is to be blissfully entertained. He's a comic who manages to combine the timing and speech patterns of a master poet with an easy conversational style that puts one in mind of being read a bedtime story, filling you with the same childlike wonder. The constant background of classical music and jazz add to the ethereal mood and give his show the rhythm that he seems to deliberately reject from his poems. The use of the stage is superb too with props that look totally superfluous making star turns - particularly in the climactic audience-clambering last piece. There is clearly an incredibly gifted and unique talent in the room and when he finally dashes out it's like waking from a beautiful lucid dream.
The Slutcracker has a few tickets left at the Soho Theatre but will now also be showing at the Arts Theatre from 3-6th March.
Mostly About Arthur will be at the Soho Theatre until 20th February.
Both Tim and Jonny are also starring in PARTY at the Arts Theatre from 1st-13th March
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