The last time I reviewed John Kearns, he mentioned being the father of a young child. Three years on, life has changed for the comic: he has separated from his partner of 12 years and is living back home with his parents. It’s a story that emerges through Tilting at Windmills, his most personal show yet.
It could be a sad 70 minutes, but Kearns, an absurdist comic who performs in a tonsure wig and false teeth, mines the comedy of a man fast approaching 40, assessing his life choices after what he describes as an awful year.
The show, which I saw at Wilton's Music Hall in London, is a sort of shaggy dog story using TS Eliot’s The Waste Land as a jumping-off point. (Don’t worry, there’s no need to have any knowledge of the fiendishly deep work, as Kearns avers he hasn’t read it either.)
Threaded through it is a sort of travelog as he describes a walk from the centre of town to his parents’ home in south-west London, describing some of the characters he meets, and musing on life as he goes, with observations prompted by something as mundane as opening a bag of crisps.
Sometimes the tone is hushed; at others Kearns delivers the material with mounting mock fury. Under director Jon Brittain, it’s well paced, and the show moves in all manner of unexpected directions. Kearns’ previous life – as a tour guide in the Houses of Parliament – serves him well as a captivating storyteller.
It’s done with delightful self-mockery. Referencing Amazon Prime’s huge hit Last One Laughing UK, in which comics try to make each other corpse, and on to which he wasn’t invited over two series, Kearns says drily he found out about the show the same time as we did. He then tops the gag: he’d be a shoo-in as it's years since he laughed at some of the participants…
Along the way, Kearns talks about his search for a new home, the journalism of Rod Liddle, meeting Tony Blair, shopping at Aldi and the true value of Lighthouse Family’s music.
He has a lovely turn of phrase, too; recounting a story about sharing a sauna with strangers, he describes one woman as “She looks like she’d be a bit loud at a brunch.”
Tilting at Windmills is more comic monologue than stand-up, but the gag count is high and it’s funny and poignant by turns.
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