Kevin Eldon is Titting About

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Incredibly, having appeared in some of the best TV comedies of recent times (Brass Eye, Alan Partridge, Smack The Pony and Big Train among them), Titting About is Kevin Eldon’s solo Fringe debut. And it’s undoubtedly justified the wait. The exceptional variety of characters, songs, standup and assorted set pieces are all unfailingly brilliant, but what truly impresses is the quality of the writing, original, wide-ranging and, above all, ingenious.

Paul Hamilton, Eldon’s established performance poet creation eases us into the hour, his blithe confidence in the supremacy of his dreadful verse and smug opinion never obscuring the fact that he’s a fully rounded, compellingly familiar character. Framing everything thereafter around a concern over what type of show this first Edinburgh offering ought to be, Eldon simply hurtles from one genre to the next: a stock Northerner deconstructing himself to bits; a pension consultant rapping his way into your home; Shakespeare portrayed by the Carry On team; Hitler voiced by Beatles producer George Martin; an exaggerated Michael McIntyre impersonated with sadistic glee.

With a carefully controlled energy, at times manic, at others restrained yet threatening release at any moment, there’s a constant, charged anticipation of which direction he might take off in next. Mesmeric all the while, a song about music formats reiterates Eldon’s mastery of his dramatic art. The sheer attention to detail he brings to the recreation of a CD sticking, as much a tour-de-force accomplishment as The Pension Rap, is dazzling.