MICF: Tim Key

Tim Key write shows about being a slut. I was a Tim Key virgin; shame on me!

He started performing in about 2003, won the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2009, was a MICF Barry nominee in 2103 and has been Alan Partridge’s Sidekick Simon since 2010.

Single White Slut opens with a cheap bed on stage and a story about his trying to sleep with women after shows. There’s doubt that this scruffy bearded ginger in a faded denim boiler suit can seduce, but by the end of the night, I wanted to join the long line of those happy and willing to indulge in his sluttiness.

He tells stories about failed seductions, owls and near-threesomes on holiday in India with Cobra beer and milk and a soundtrack of the We need to talk about Kevin audiobook, but he’s really a poet and reads his Tweet-sized, mostly-crude poems that are stuck to the back of a pack pornagraphic playing cards. And there’s a balloon. It’s unexpectedly seductive and bloody marvellous.

I wanted to say that breaking my Key cherry was was a bit like seeing Daniel Kitson for the first time – not that he’s like Kitson, but in that he’s kicked stand up in the balls to create a form that is totally his own, and anyone who tries to copy it will fail miserably – then I found out that he’s worked with Kitson. Can someone please bring Tree (written by Kitson, performed by Key and Kitson) to Melbourne.