Show Details
Daniel Kitson: It's The Fireworks Talking
Show type: Edinburgh Fringe 2007
Starring Comic:
Daniel Kitson

Daniel Kitson: It's The Fireworks Talking


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Description

With stories about swimming in the sea, the courage of kindness, and telling your parents you love them. Words will swell with hope and float into the sky until they explode like fireworks and suddenly your tummy is flipping, your heart is thumping, your eyes are wet and your skin is tingling with some forgotten magic.

At least, that's the plan.

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Reviews

Original Review:

Show Rating:Daniel Kitson: It's The Fireworks Talking rated 5/5

More than 10,000 miles from home, and Daniel Kitson is still in a league of his own, with another faultless stand-up show balancing the unlikely combination of romantic whimsy, uppity intolerance, intellectual arrogance and withering, often self-deprecating, wit.

This 90-minute monologue exerts such a strong emotional tug that it fully immerses the audience in his quixotic ideals. He sets out his utopia, defined by such simple pleasures as fireworks, making footprints in virgin snow or paddling the sea, so convincingly and so touchingly that no one could ever disagree. Even when he temporarily punctures his own spell with the frequent razor-sharp lines that make this such brilliant comedy, the uncomplicated beauty of his desires remains robustly intact.

In Melbourne, he’s occupying an 850-seat theatre for the month and, treating success with his usual suspicion, is slightly vexed that he’s filled it on an otherwise sluggish Monday night. Simple maths dictates many of the audience will be newcomers to the wonderful world of Kitson, so he sets out his stall. ‘Too many comics chase laughs and applause,’ he says. ‘I strive for mildly perplexed apathy.’ Then, turning on the rampant egotism, he reassures them. ‘Don’t worry, I’m excellent.’

And, of course, he is. It’s that sort of switch that gives Kitson’s work its power. He can swing from delicate beauty to savage putdown in the blink of an eye. The vivid images he paints of an idyllic world ruled by love and awe brings richness to the show; the stark reality that such simple dreams are invariably ruined by the very existence of other people gives it the edge. The ethos is misanthropic towards strangers, but adoring towards friends and family.

It’s The Fireworks Talking is a show about the magic moments away from the daily drudge that make up life’s highlights, and more particularly about the bond between parents and children – and how Kitson becomes enraged by mothers and fathers who put their selfish, immediate whims ahead of the wellbeing of their offspring. Inevitably, this comes around to his own relationship with his parents – the secret love that must never be spoken of in a middle-class English family.

The ideas are all encased in beautiful storytelling and informed by astute insight, perfectly expressing aloud for the first time what many of us have surely thought. Come for the jokes – you won’t be disappointed – but it’s the delightful imagery and touching emotion that will have you hooked.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Melbourne, April 2007

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Comments

I've seen this show twice, once in Manchester, once last Sunday in Edinburgh. I have never laughed so much in all my days. With nothing diminishing the second time round. I defy anyone to dislike Mr Kitson as either a comic or as a clearly warm person.

Gareth Vaughan, August 2007


Saw the show last night, and it was brilliant. Went on for an extra 20 minutes as well; good stuff. Really heartwarming comedy, and at the same time hilarious. Loved every second of it.

Jamie Carmichael, August 2007



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