Nate Kitch and Caitriona Dowden's Catechism of Cliché (Volume II)

Stylistically, Nate and Caitriona's shows are completely dissimilar yet are united by the fact that they are humans saying and doing funny things.

Caitriona is a hero for our times - showing you can actually do something with a philosophy degree and that thing is tell jokes about how futile doing a philosophy degree is (the reviewer writing this says having done a philosophy degree and now finds himself in his 30s sitting at home on a monday morning reviewing comedy shows). Her jokes are meticulously crafted and well honed, retelling a life of lesbian catholicism, with a deadpan, sharp wit.

Nate then bounds on and all hell breaks loose, a completely free-wheeling and unpredictable show. Entirely dependent on audience dynamics, he plays with silences and thrives off awkward beats, like a jazz musician you could say. But then that's exactly the kind of pretentious crap he'd say. It's truly a show you can go and see multiple times, delighting in the ways it morphs from day-to-day. Forget your laddy punching-down forgettable Fringe crap, this is for those that want to see someone punching themselves metaphorically (and maybe literally) repeatedly until all that is left is a small husk of a man, with all societal burdens alleviated and a tiny egg is left, unbound from human wants and desires. A pure laughter blob that the audience can kick around until their heart is content. Go see this, you won't regret it.

It's like Bill Hicks gone mad. But you probably don't know who that is.

Nate's show is definitely different and with audience participation from the start, well for me anyway! Great use of the limited space. Gags that appeared to not work and awkward silences which somehow turned out to be funnier the longer they went on. Lots of funny unexpected moments. What a great performance. Go and see him. You just don't know what is going to happen. My only regret is we didn't get to hear the poems, maybe next time.

Catriona's show is dead pan and different filled with historical and philosophical references. She had me in stitches many times.

Both shows well worth going to see.

If you need to eat after the food at the venue is great too.

Thanks for a great hour I'm still smiling writing the review the day after the show.

Steve

This is 10/10 stuff, Caitriona and Nate are 2 golden nuggets in an ocean of by the numbers faeces that plagues this festival.

Delightfully absurdist, interesting and intelligently written comedy with the performers having an admirable strong conviction in their material.

It’s free, they’re superb and maybe just go so that you can feel smug that you’ve seen them before all the cool alternative comics you like start mentioning them in their blog.