- Daniel Kitson
-
Daniel Kitson 
Daniel Kitson during the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.Born 2 July 1977
Denby Dale, West YorkshireMedium Stand-up comedian, actor, playwright Nationality British Years active 1993 - present Influences Paul Merton [1] Website danielkitson.com Awards Perrier Comedy Award (2002)
The Scotsman Fringe First Award (2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010)
Stage Awards for Acting Excellence (2006)
Melbourne International Comedy Festival Barry Award (2007)
Brighton Festival Argus Angel Award (2007)Daniel Kitson (born 2 July 1977 in Denby Dale, West Yorkshire)[2][3] is an English stand-up comedian.
Contents
Career
Born to a lecturer father and primary school head teacher mother,[3] Kitson began performing comedy at the age of 16.[3] He was a pupil at Scissett Middle School and Shelley College in Yorkshire, England. Kitson subsequently studied drama at Roehampton Institute, now known as Roehampton University.[4][3]
He was nominated for the 2001 Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for his show Love, Innocence and the Word Cock before winning it in 2002 for the show Something.[5][6]
As well as stand up, Kitson has written and performed "story shows". The first was A Made Up Story at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe,[7] followed by Stories For the Wobbly-Hearted at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2005. The latter show opened at the Traverse Theatre for the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and won a Scotsman Fringe First Award. In 2006, Kitson took Stories For The Wobbly Hearted to the Brits Off Broadway Festival in New York.[8] In June 2006 the story show made up one half of his Regents Park Open Air Theatre appearance, where Kitson's stories were accompanied by songs from Gavin Osborn. His story show, C-90, opened at the Traverse for the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was awarded both a Fringe First and The Stage Acting Award for Best Solo Show.
In 2007, Kitson toured It's The Fireworks Talking and the story show C-90 in the UK, Australia, New York and Paris. There was a second Open Air Theatre show in June 2007. Kitson also complemented his Australian tour of C-90 with a loosely structured stand up show titled At 10PM, Daniel Kitson Will Be Drinking Tea and Blowing Minds, a reference to a line from the movie Dazed and Confused.
It's The Fireworks Talking won Kitson the Barry Award - named after veteran Australian comedian Barry Humphries - at the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. C90 was awarded an Argus Angel Award at the 2007 Brighton Festival.
In the first half of 2008 Kitson toured his show The Impotent Fury of the Privileged. He played work-in progress gigs in January and early February before presenting the show at 28 dates during May & June. In July 2008 he began previews of his Edinburgh Festival show, 66A Church Road: A Lament, Made Of Memories And Kept In Suitcases. [9]
In 2009 Kitson performed two new shows: 'We Are Gathered Here' & 'The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church', the latter of which was toured in late 2010 and the first half of 2011. Prior to this in early 2010, Kitson also did a short UK tour of '66a Church Road - A Lament Made of Memories and Kept in Suitcases' that he initially performed in Edinburgh in 2008 (and then took to Australia.)
Television
Daniel Kitson on stage in May 2006.
Kitson has a reputation within the comedy industry for shunning television work due to the perceived lack of control over the final product in comparison to stand up. He did appear in an episode of That Peter Kay Thing, The Arena, and as the recurring character Spencer in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, a move that Peter Kay said "of all the great things he's done, this is what he's least proud of, the bastard." on the show's DVD commentary. He then said, "the bastard" each time Kitson appeared.[10] The rift is such that when Phoenix Nights out-takes were screened in April 2006, Kitson's face was pixellated out in some scenes.[10] Kitson himself has been quite outspoken in his dislike of Kay and his experiences on Phoenix Nights. According to Chortle, it is a show Kitson considers "lazy and racist".[11] He has vowed to eschew future television projects of this nature, and any future work with Kay.
In 2007 clips of Daniel Kitson's standup were shown on the one-off Channel 4 show 100 Greatest Stand-Ups where he came 27th.[12] In an updated version of the poll in 2010, he was voted 23rd. Chris Addison commented that 'Kitson is the finest comedian of his generation'. Stewart Lee also commented, after seeing a stand-up set by Kitson, that he saw stand-up 'about as good as it could get'.
Whilst in his teens, he appeared as a contestant on the ITV quiz show Blockbusters.[6]
Kitson voices an "alley rat" in the pilot episode of the Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler comedy "Penelope: Princess of Pets" which was aired in 2010 by Channel 4.[13][14]
Radio
In 2006, Kitson began presenting his own weekly music-based radio show called The Listening Club. The show, broadcast live 1am to 4am on Monday nights / Tuesday mornings from London's community arts radio station Resonance FM, mainly involves music from his own collection (some played directly from his iPod), and occasional clips of stand up comedy. In between tracks he talks about the music, tells anecdotes, and responds to the SMS text messages and e-mails that are sent in throughout the show. There were six shows in the original January / February 2006 run, with further installments in October 2006 and February 2007.
Kitson had originally begun doing radio shows in Australia during the 2005 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, on Melbourne-based community station 3RRR. These continued, twice weekly, in 2006 and 2007. The Australian programmes are usually co-hosted with a comedian friend. Co-hosts have included Courteney Hocking, David O'Doherty, Andrew McClelland and Steve Hall of We Are Klang.
He has appeared on the BBC Radio 4 show Loose Ends.[15]
Kitson also appears in Episode 2 of the Flight of the Conchords radio series.[16]
Live shows
Show name Notes 2001 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Love, Innocence and the Word Cock Stand-up 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Something Stand-up. Won Perrier Comedy Award Tartan Ribbon Comedy Benefit Benefit in aid of Waverley Care The Stonewall Gala Benefit in aid of Stonewall 2003 UK Tour Overrated and on Tour Stand-up 2003 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Something Stand-up 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe A Made Up Story Story show Stand Up for Freedom Benefit in aid of Amnesty International 2004 UK Tour Lover, Thinker, Artist and Prophet Stand-up 2004 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Daniel Kitson 11pm at The Stand Stand-up 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Daniel Kitson 11:30pm at The Stand Stand-up Stories For The Wobbly-Hearted Story show, won Scotsman Fringe First Award 2006 UK and Australian tours Weltanschauung Stand-up 2006 Regents Park Open Air Theatre Weltanschauung and Stories for the Wobbly Hearted Stand-up and story shows with Gavin Osborn 2006 Brits Off Broadway Festival Stories For The Wobbly-Hearted Story show 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and UK tour C-90 Story show, won Scotsman Fringe First Award and The Stage Acting Award for Best Solo Show The Honourable Men of Art With Andy Zaltzman, Alun Cochrane, Demetri Martin and David O'Doherty 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival It's the Fireworks Talking Stand-up, won MICF Barry Award 2007 Regents Park Open Air Theatre It’s the Fireworks Talking and The Ballad of Rodger and Grace Stand-up and story shows with Gavin Osborn 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe It's the Fireworks Talking Stand-up 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Australian and UK tours The Impotent Fury of the Privileged Stand-up 2008 Regents Park Open Air Theatre The Impotent Fury of the Privileged and The Revenge of Heckmondwyke Stand-up and story shows with Gavin Osborn 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe 66a Church Road: A Lament, Made Of Memories And Kept In Suitcases, By Daniel Kitson Story show, won Scotsman Fringe First Award The Honourable Men of Art With Andy Zaltzman, Alun Cochrane and David O'Doherty 2008 Melbourne International Arts Festival and Australian tour The Ballad of Rodger and Grace Story show with Gavin Osborn 2009 Regents Park Open Air Theatre Stories for the Starlit Sky Three interlinked story shows with Gavin Osborn 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Interminable Suicide Of Gregory Church Story show, won Scotsman Fringe First Award 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and UK tour We Are Gathered Here Stand-up 2009 Sydney Opera House 66a Church Road: A Lament, Made of Memories and Kept in Suitcases Showing 24–13 December 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe It's Always Right Now Until It's Later Story show 2010 Latitude Festival unknown title Story show References
- ^ http://www.metro.co.uk/home/2494-daniel-kitson-comedy-interview
- ^ "The Times: Comedy out on his own .". London. 3 November 2002. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article819147.ece. Retrieved 12 May 2009.
- ^ a b c d "The Independent: The hirsute of happiness .". London. 23 August 2001. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/daniel-kitson-the-hirsute-of-happiness-666592.html. Retrieved 12 May 2009.
- ^ "31 Years of Discovering Comedy Genius". Fosters Edinburgh Comedy. http://www.comedyawards.co.uk/comedyshow.asp. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
- ^ "If.Comedy Awards (formerly Perrier Awards) Past Winners and Nominees". http://ifcomedy.com/past-winners.html.
- ^ a b "IMDB biography of Daniel Kitson.". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1146744/bio. Retrieved 12 May 2009.
- ^ Merritt, Stephanie (27 July 2003). "The Guardian: I want to tell you a story.". London. http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2003/jul/27/edinburghfestival2003.features. Retrieved 12 May 2009.
- ^ Wobbly Stories
- ^ Royal Exchange Listing
- ^ a b "That Peter Kay Book: Part two". http://www.citylife.co.uk/comedy/news/7513_that_peter_kay_book__part_two. Retrieved 12 May 2009.[dead link]
- ^ "Chortle Article: He's spitting Peter Kay.". http://www.chortle.co.uk/books/2006/09/23/3612/hes_spittin. Retrieved 12 May 2009.
- ^ "100 hundred greatest standups. IMDB.". http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0996593/. Retrieved 12 May 2009.
- ^ "The Apiary - Penelope: Princess of Pets Pilot.". http://www.theapiary.org/archives/2009/05/penelope_prince_2.html. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
- ^ "British Comedy Guide - Penelope: Princess of Pets.". http://www.comedy.org.uk/guide/tv/penelope_princess_of_pets. Retrieved 22 July 2009.
- ^ "BBC 'Protests greet male Perrier shortlist' article.". BBC News. 21 August 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/2208132.stm. Retrieved 13 May 2009.
- ^ BBC Radio 2 Comedy
External links
Categories:- 1977 births
- Living people
- English comedians
- English stand-up comedians
- People from Denby Dale
- Alumni of Roehampton University
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
