Stand-up show 'Thrum' by Daniel Kitson, with music running throughout, on his autumn tour.
Daniel Kitson brings his new show Thrum to Birmingham Town Hall on Sunday 1 November. It's a stand-up comedy show, but Kitson describes it as having music running more or less throughout, at least two funny voices and upwards of three jokes. The music isn't just a break between bits; it's woven into the set, so it's as much a gig as it is a comedy night.
As for the material, Thrum is built from a stream of images and phrases that don't seem to have much in common at first glance: a plant pot, figs, worms, an old dog, a daffodil in December, a smoke alarm, a tree in storage on a farm in Kent, a toilet in Hong Kong and a coffee shop in Melbourne. The whole thing is punctuated by the thought of rotting and the smell of tobacco. It's a strange, specific list of things to build a show around, and that's exactly the kind of territory Kitson likes to work in.
It started at the Edinburgh Festival before heading out on a 35-date autumn tour across 31 cities and towns. For Kitson, this is his first substantial tour since around 2013, so it's been a while since he's taken a full show out on the road like this. Birmingham is one of those dates, and the Town Hall is a proper room for it.
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If you're familiar with his work, you'll know he's never been one for a standard stand-up set, and Thrum sounds like it continues that. It's a new comedy show, but with the music and the voices, it's a bit of a hybrid. It plays at Birmingham Town Hall on Sunday 1 November.
