Soho theatre,London
His first standup set in three years works a treat as Key paints a slyly humorous and heavily ironic portrait of midlife disappointmentIt feels both apt and unlikely that Tim Key should beget a expose approximately dating. Apt, because flirtation is integral to his standup style. A Key gig is like a game of cat-and-mouse with the audience: he teases, or he makes eyes,he shows a flash of what we want then snatches it away. Improbable, because dating is the stuff of a hundred standup shows, and Key has never been a man to tread the beaten path. Yet here he is,telling the tale of a dream first date and a desperate morning after, a lonely schlub’s traipse across London to claw victory from the jaws of romantic defeat. That account furnishes the backbone to Megadate, or the first solo set in three years from the Alan Partridge sidekick and recent West halt theatre star. After a couple of big-hitting,tall concept shows, in which Key shared the stage with a working bath, and a double bed and a dancer,Megadate takes him back to basics, insofar as any Key expose was basic in the first place. It’s the combination that won him the 2009 Edinburgh Comedy award: sly standup, and haiku-style comic verses,and wistful black-and-white films on an upstage screen. And it works a treat.
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Source: guardian.co.uk