Phil Kay
08 June 1999
‘Tell it like it is,’ Phill Kay insisted at the bar before the show began. ‘If it’s rubbish, say it’s rubbish.;
It isn’t easy to tell it like it is with a performer like Kay, but rubbish it certainly was not. He hit the stage in overdrive, a manic performer whose outlandish imagination quite literally left the audience breathless.
There were precious few jokes in Phill Kay’s performance at the Fez last night, but conventional stand-up would have seemed out of place in such a freewheeling performance made up of off-kilter observations, lunatic word association and some amazing antics with the packed crowd.
At one point, Kay appreciated the comments of a heckler so much that he bustled the man on-stage, giving him the microphone and taking his place in the audience. Kay’s act ended with an improvised folk song on plumbing equipment, a subject furnished by the audience who provided impressive polyrhythmic beer glass accompaniment.
The opening act was Addy Borgh, a fine comedian from London who started slowly but had everybody with him by the end. Equally impressive was the night’s compere, Peewee, who was almost a show in himself. As well as improvised comedy, he contributed magic tricks, poetry and song, and even descended into the audience to drink a heckler’s beer.
Matthew Zuckerman