Comedy Festival 2018: Tim Key scores a strike in Megadate ★★★★

IMPISH Englishman Tim Key laments the loneliness of later-life dating with a masterful multimedia experience.

ONE of England’s finest imps and mischief-makers has returned to Melbourne a little older, a lot lonelier and as daringly ambitious as ever.

Megadate recounts an epic first-date adventure through London landmarks and the agonising aftermath of awaiting a response from the other party. Standard stand-up subject matter but this is far from a standard stand-up show.

Underpinned by a smoothly eclectic soundtrack throughout, Key employs his trademark deadpan comic poetry, black and white film vignettes (which feature some high-wattage co-stars), multiple costume changes and surprise appearances in all parts of the room to tell his story.

JOEL CREASEY: BLONDE BOMBSHELL’S HYPE REEL FILLING FAST

ROSE MATAFEO: BIGGER VENUES BECKON FOR TOP TALENT

And it’s decidedly his story. Regularly referring to his own stage, TV and film work and maintaining the conceit that he never leaves the house without his Perrier (the Edinburgh Comedy Award that he won in 2009), Key ensures that despite the literary layering, we’re never in any doubt about whose psyche is being mined here, however ironically.

While previous festival offerings have seen Key plunge into water-filled baths and lounge in a double bed on stage, Megadate consists of just him and a screen, tellingly a return to the format that won him that top gong at Edinburgh.

In cocksure mode, Key trades wonderfully well in mangled portrayals, engaging in borderline worrisome behaviour with a self-confidence that appears enviable but heavily hints at darker aftermaths. A (hopefully fictional) story of an early-morning alcohol-fuelled solo-bowling trip is relayed triumphantly, before a filmed depiction that is still played for laughs but displays the bizarre ‘reality’.

Tim Key’s self-confidence appears enviable but heavily hints at darker aftermaths in Megadate. Picture: Supplied

Key marches from one end of his stage to the other throughout, only occasionally making use of his microphone as he bellows florid prose, but while inarguably highbrow this is no impenetrable theatre piece.

As well as some spit-take-inducing storytelling (his mother’s cheese-consumption ritual is a particular highlight), Key regularly deviates from his splendidly scripted turns of phrase to merrily engage with the crowd, maintaining a know-it-all arrogance underpinned by enough vulnerability and twinkling, sad-sack charm to keep the room on side.

DUMMIES GUIDE TO THE COMEDY FESTIVAL

IVAN ARISTEGUIETA: AN EXHILARATING RUN WITH THE BULLS

Key has collaborated with Daniel Kitson previously and while there are some similarities to be seen in their approach to storytelling and mutual affection for the underappreciated joys of everyday life, Key’s brasher persona and tendency to obfuscate can require a little more digging to unearth the worthwhile emotional reward within.

It would be a stretch to say that everything lands (his short poems in particular seemed to have a higher hit rate in previous years) and his ambitious efforts are a little cruelled by the flat expanse of the Lower Town Hall when this show would seem more suited to a tiered Arts Centre venue where he’s previously been stationed.

Still, an exceptionally funny and unique offering that pushes the stand-up form to the outer limits of its potential. And you don’t see that every day.

Tim Key, Megadate

Lower Town Hall, until May 8.

comedyfestival.com.au