I’d forgotten we were even going to this until the day before (and then forgot again, at one point, on the day of). Sam booked this on the strength of a recommendation from Vito from Northern Ireland + a £15 ticket price + an aggressive anti-self-promotion stance from Daniel Kitson himself.

Kitson came out wearily, riffing on his own discomfort and the low energy of the crowd. I got the sense that this was both true but also part of his act. He clearly had an act prepared but I guess his style is to lean into tangents and digressions and just sort of riff, and wander around without taking the mic with him. At this point he’d just shout really loud, which I think maybe he did to try and keep his own energy up, maybe. And then he'd come back to his planned act, sometimes with a detour to his cue book to make sure that he hadn't forgotten anything. Which, again: necessary brain-jogging or part of the act?

He made some jokes about how uncomfortable he was or how he wasn’t being funny or how he was coasting on the strength of his reputation; I felt that the underlying truth of that confession undermined the joke, but it’s possible that for some audiences the truth makes a joke more moving.

I think he was also maybe going for a thesis of everyone is a real fully-fledged human being but also not every hill is worth dying on. Both of those are worthy things to remember.