Daniel Kitson
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| Daniel Kitson |
|---|
| Born |
| July 2, 1977 |
| Occupation |
| Stand-up comedian, comedian, actor, playwright, writer |
| Career milestones |
| Perrier Comedy Award (2002) The Scotsman Fringe First Award (2005, 2006) Stage Awards for Acting Excellence (2006) Melbourne International Comedy Festival Barry Award (2007) Brighton Festival Argus Angel Award (2007) |
| Official website |
| danielkitson.com |
Daniel Kitson (born 2 July 1977 in Denby Dale, Huddersfield) is an English stand-up comedian.
Contents |
[edit] Career
Born to a lecturer father and primary school head teacher mother, he began performing comedy at the age of 16.
He was nominated for the 2001 Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival at the age of 24 for his show Love, Innocence and the Word Cock before winning it in 2002 for the show Something.
As well as stand up, he has written and performed "story shows". The first was A Made Up Story at the Edinburgh Festival 2003, followed by Stories For the Wobbly-Hearted at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2005. The latter show opened at the Traverse Theatre for the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and won a Scotsman Fringe First Award. In 2006, Kitson took Stories For The Wobbly Hearted to the Brits Off Broadway Festival in New York.[1] In June 2006 the story show made up one half of his Regents Park Open Air Theatre appearance, where Kitson's stories were accompanied by songs from Gavin Osborn. His latest story show, C-90, opened at the Traverse for the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe. It was awarded both a Fringe First and The Stage Acting Award for Best Solo Show.
In 2007, Kitson toured It's The Fireworks Talking and the story show C-90 in the UK, Australia, New York and Paris. There was a second Open Air Theatre show in June 2007. Kitson also complemented his Australian tour of C-90 with a loosely structured stand up show titled At 10PM, Daniel Kitson Will Be Drinking Tea and Blowing Minds, a reference to a line from the movie Dazed and Confused.
It's The Fireworks Talking won Kitson the Barry Award - named after veteran Australian comedian Barry Humphries - at the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. C90 was awarded an Argus Angel Award at the 2007 Brighton Festival.
[edit] Television
Kitson has a reputation within the comedy industry for shunning television work due to the perceived lack of control over the final product in comparison to stand up. That said, he did appear in an episode of That Peter Kay Thing, The Arena, and as the recurring character Spencer in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, a move that Peter Kay said "of all the great things he's done, this is what he's least proud of, the bastard." on the show's DVD commentary.
Kitson himself has been quite outspoken in his dislike of Kay and his experiences on Phoenix Nights, vowing to eschew future television projects of this nature, and any future work with Kay.
[edit] Radio
In 2006, Kitson began presenting his own weekly music-based radio show called The Listening Club. The show, broadcast live 1am to 4am on Monday nights / Tuesday mornings from London's community arts radio station Resonance FM, mainly involves music from his own collection (some played directly from his iPod), and occasional clips of stand up comedy. In between tracks he talks about the music, tells anecdotes, and responds to the SMS text messages and e-mails that are sent in throughout the show. There were six shows in the original January / February 2006 run, with further instalments in October 2006 and February 2007.
Daniel had originally begun doing radio shows in Australia during the 2005 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, on Melbourne-based community station 3RRR. These continued, twice weekly, in 2006 and 2007. The Australian programmes are usually co-hosted with a comedian friend. Co-hosts have included Courteney Hocking, David O'Doherty, Andrew McClelland and Steve Hall of We Are Klang.
Daniel also appears in Episode 2 of the "Flight of the Conchords" radio series.
[edit] Critical reception
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[edit] 2001
"What distinguishes Kitson from the comedy crowd is his geekiness. He never styles himself an Everyman, and makes an issue of his speech impediment: "It's a stammer, not scat jazz." This outsider autobiography is interesting because it sheds light on an unfamiliar world. The shambling, charming Kitson will be a major draw when his whole act affords as distinctive a perspective."
- - The Guardian, August 7, 2001 [1].
[edit] 2004
"At his best, Kitson's a fundamentalist romantic, dropping joke-bombs in the name of idealism. At his worst - the gay material, the fart gags, the wilful immolation of this gig - he just seems immature."
- - The Guardian, August 9, 2004[2].
"There's a guy nobody knows about yet. He's a young guy from London [sic] named Daniel Kitson, and he's honestly the funniest comic I've ever seen in my life. Seeing him was the first great stand-up experience I had since Chris Rock's Bring the Pain special. I want to do whatever I can to introduce him to the U.S."
[edit] 2005
"Kitson's new show, lasting nearly two hours if he gets carried away, is a masterpiece of stand-up; his appeal is unquantifiable and unquotable, but lies in a singular alchemy of intelligence, integrity, humanity, honesty and a sense of being at home in his own skin."
- - The Guardian, August 21, 2005[4].
[edit] 2006
"In the past, Kitson's material might have seemed misanthropic. But tonight, he's less fundamentalist than I've seen him; more at ease with himself and his audience. And his arguments are smart enough to substantiate his sentiments. It's not misanthropic - quite the opposite, in fact - to contend that "the subtext of today's media is that we're all cunts deep down, and that's all right". Because we're not, and it's not, and well done to Kitson for saying so."
"Extraordinary… A master storyteller… He has an evident passion for wordplay, a scientist's curiosity for the odd turn of phrase, uttered with a weighted, enthralling inflection... engaging performance."
"C-90 is a beautifully, brilliantly written story about how little acts of kindness can bring hope and happiness in an otherwise grey world... Kitson, making full use of the lovingly detailed set, uses this basic premise to take us around the village where Henry lives, meeting the various wonderfully drawn characters who also live there. It is Under Milk Wood for all those who realise there is nothing more personal than sharing the music they love with a person they hope will love them. As narrator, he delights in his own literary ability. Whereas his quickfire delivery would normally detract, here it allows him to share with his audience his own infectious enthusiasm and genuine affection for the people he has invented. Kitson is a unique theatrical voice who has created something wonderful."
"Bastard"
- - Peter Kay, Phoenix Nights commentary, 2006.
[edit] 2007
"Loneliness, despair, futility, and, most of all, just 'being a dick' – although not as life-changing as his story-telling gigs, Kitson’s new show It’s the Fireworks Talking is as intimate and inventive as ever"
- - Ned Beauman,Suchsmallportions.com
"[It's The Fireworks Talking] is a measured and astonishing piece of, gasp, theatre. Kitson has long hinted at the emergence of such a work. In previous years, he has offered two distinct events: stand-up shows featured a contrarian lout replete with awkward bile for the things he hated; theatre pieces featured a contrarian snob replete with awkward reverence for the things he loved. The Renaissance Yob has decided to fuse his split performance urges. The result is stunning and beautifully muted."
"He represents and inhabits that place where no-one is cool, sussed, glamorous and sorted, and everyone is struggling, somewhere between absurdity and pathos, to put together a life less barren, and more fulfilled."
- - Joyce Macmillan,"The Scotsman"
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Daniel Kitson made an appearance on the quiz show Blockbusters at the age of 17. He won the grand total of £45[citation needed].
- Daniel wrote the liner notes for the 'A Hiccup In Your Happiness' single by Australian band The Lucksmiths. The song was partly inspired by a gig he did at the 2004 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
- Daniel has a stammer. He uses block modification on some occasions and uses substitute words.
- In 2007, Kitson starred in the film clip for the Darren Hanlon single "Fingertips and Mountaintops."[9].
