Daniel Kitson, ‘After the Beginning, Before the End’
(seen at Toomler 24 June, 2013)

http://www.danielkitson.com/Site/Kitson.html

Daniel Kitson has a bit of a cult following, particularly among the cult called 'Comedians.' When it was announced that he’d be playing a one-off of his show in Amsterdam on a Monday, the word spread as quickly as the expectations. He did not disappoint.

‘After the Beginning, Before the End’ features Kitson, sitting onstage behind a couple samplers. He accompanies himself with a minimalist soundtrack. His through-line is a recorded line of dialogue that gets longer every time. Technically, it wasn’t ‘stand-up comedy.’ It was much closer to what the Dutch would call ‘Cabaret,’ to what many people would call ‘performance art.’ It reminded me of the shows I’d go see in Edinburgh: early Simon Munnery or Noble & Silver.

To start things off, Kitson analyzes time-honored aphorisms, such as ‘You can’t take it with you’ and gets strong laughs:

‘They say “You can’t take it with you.” Meaning you can’t take your money with you, and you should spend more time on your loving relationships. But you know what else you can’t take with you? Loving relationships.’ After setting up & knocking down a number of them, Kitson concludes: ‘If it’s snappy, it’s crappy.’

Kitson thus begins the wonderful theme of his show, which is to question everything. His show felt like a comedy version of Rene Descartes presenting ‘Discourse on the Method:’ all we truly know is we are thinking at this moment ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Kitson questions if his own feelings about people are genuine. Are his feelings about himself genuine? Is his definition of self at all accurate? Why do people remember things about him that he’s edited out long ago? Miraculously, Kitson manages to tease out the Big Questions into genuine laughs. It’s like Louis CK’s bit with his daughter asking him ‘Why?’ But in this show Kitson is doing the asking. And he really does not stop.

What is The Self?

‘My definition of Self is based on a collection of memories. Which ones do I keep? And which ones do I conveniently edit out?’

He encounters a new fizzy drink, which he likes but doesn’t know why. He stops and meditates and realizes it’s because of a memory he’d shut out long ago, involving him essentially sucking on garbage.

At one point Kitson even admits he may have taken his self-analysis too far:

‘I bought a video projector and one of the bulbs broke. So I decided to take it all apart and see how it worked. And after I took the not-appropriate tool and had all the pieces spread out across my living room rug with some key pieces missing, I realized I’d never be able to put it all together again. Now it sits in a box in my loft gathering dust. I feel like I’ve done the same thing with my psyche.’

What is Truth? If everyone experiences everything differently, how can there be any universal truth? Is there any such thing as objectivity, when everyone’s version of events is so hopelessly corrupted by selective memory?

The show ends with the conclusion of the through-line story, whose narrator is – of course – unreliable. At least that’s the way Kitson remembers it.

It was a great show, and apparently he’s only got a couple performances left. Thankfully there were so many members of the Amsterdam comedy scene on hand to witness it. He raised the bar for everyone.

 Daniel Kitson, Comedian ‘After the Beginning, Before the End’

(seen at Toomler 24 June, 2013)

Daniel Kitson has a bit of a cult following, particularly among the cult of comedians. When it was announced that he’d be playing his one-off of his show in Amsterdam on a Monday, the word spread as quickly as the expectations. He did not disappoint.

‘After the Beginning, Before the End’ features Kitson, sitting onstage behind a couple samplers. He accompanies himself with a minimalist soundtrack. His through-line is a recorded line of dialogue that gets longer every time. Technically, it wasn’t ‘stand-up comedy.’ It was much closer to what the Dutch would call ‘Cabaret,’ to what many people would call ‘performance art.’ It reminded me of the shows I’d go see in Edinburgh: early Simon Munnery or Noble & Silver.

To start things off, Kitson analyzes time-honored aphorisms, such as ‘You can’t take it with you’ and gets strong laughs:

‘They say “You can’t take it with you.” Meaning you can’t take your money with you, and you should spend more time on your loving relationships. But you know what else you can’t take with you? Loving relationships.’ After setting up & knocking down a number of them, Kitson concludes: ‘If it’s snappy, it’s crappy.’

Kitson thus begins the wonderful theme of his show, which is to question everything. His show felt like a comedy version of Rene Descartes presenting ‘Discourse on the Method:’ all we truly know is we are thinking at this moment ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Kitson questions if his own feelings about people are genuine. Are his feelings about himself genuine? Is his definition of self at all accurate? Why do people remember things about him that he’s edited out long ago? Miraculously, Kitson manages to tease out the Big Questions into genuine laughs. It’s like Louis CK’s bit with his daughter asking him ‘Why?’ But in this show Kitson is doing the asking. And he really does not stop.

What is The Self?

‘My definition of Self is based on a collection of memories. Which ones do I keep? And which ones do I conveniently edit out?’

He encounters a new fizzy drink, which he likes but doesn’t know why. He stops and meditates and realizes it’s because of a memory he’d shut out long ago, involving him essentially sucking on garbage.

At one point Kitson even admits he may have taken his self-analysis too far:

‘I bought a video projector and one of the bulbs broke. So I decided to take it all apart and see how it worked. And after I took the not-appropriate tool and had all the pieces spread out across my living room rug with some key pieces missing, I realized I’d never be able to put it all together again. Now it sits in a box in my loft gathering dust. I feel like I’ve done the same thing with my psyche.’

What is Truth? If everyone experiences everything differently, how can there be any universal truth? Is there any such thing as objectivity, when everyone’s version of events is so hopelessly corrupted by selective memory?

The show ends with the conclusion of the through-line story, whose narrator is – of course – unreliable. At least that’s the way Kitson remembers it.

It was a great show, and apparently he’s only got a couple performances left. Thankfully there were so many members of the Amsterdam comedy scene on hand to witness it. He raised the bar for everyone.

Exam Season for Rutte: Let’s not repeat another year

Here's something political.

As a fan of DutchNews.nl, I’ve been following the news in Nederland closely. I was just taking a look back at the news of the year so far. And – since it’s exam season in the Netherlands – let’s see how the Rutte Cabinet is scoring.  

At least Rutte didn’t follow the trend of student exam cheaters this year. But maybe he should have. 

Does the Rutte Cabinet need to repeat a year? Actually, it feels like we just did.

Taking stock of where we are since 1 year ago, it’s remarkable how little has changed. It’s not for lack of trying.

- Insurance Reform.
Since Mark Rutte’s VVD kicked off the coalition with Labor PvdA, they promised some real reforms. They started with health care. My reaction was ‘why health care?’ Maybe, like Obama, they thought ‘this will be a nice warmup for what we really want to get done.’ Or it ends up taking your whole first term. As it turned out, Rutte didn’t get that far. His proposal for new insurance premiums drew so much criticism – from the EU as well – that they took it off the table. Back to the drawing board!

- Mortgage Reform.
This is a biggie. The Dutch rules for mortgage deductions are begging for reform. The Dutch mortgage system is so bizarrely Byzantine that even Wall Street circa 2007 would be impressed. The only people resisting are – everyone with a house. I myself have a mortgage based on the new rules from the 90s, whereby I’m paying, but not really paying. The reforms Rutte suggested would not have even affected me, just new homeowners starting in the future. But no! It was too controversial. Rutte took it off the table. Back to the drawing board!

- Budget Cuts.

A real kick in the teeth. After 2 painful rounds of budget cuts in previous years, the Rutte Cabinet now needs to cut even more. For a while, it looked like we might not have to…

- Labor Reform.
One of the VVD’s biggest priorities is labor market reform. They want to make it easier for businesses to hire & fire people. For this huge priority, Rutte delegated it to Labor. Actually, it seemed to pay off. Labor Vice-Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher assembled a classic ‘Polder Model’ meeting of Government, big business and labor. Together, they came up with a plan to allow more redundancies – as long as we put off budget cuts for at least another year. Rutte agreed. We had a deal!
If only Mark Rutte could sell the plan to the EU. But no, they insist that rules are rules. To keep the budget deficit at 3%, the Dutch will have to cut next year’s budget – and not by 4.3 billion. But 6-8 billion.

The labor deal is off the table.  Back to the drawing board!

One bright spot may be the Dutch Chairman of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem. Finally a chance to provide Dutch leadership in the EU! Dijsselbloem was the first to suggest that failed banks should ask investors to share the burden with taxpayers. For this novel idea, he’s been effectively sidelined. How will the Dutch provide EU leadership? Back to the drawing board.

Don’t forget: Dutch energy policy needs a complete overhaul, as reported this week. Back to the drawing board.

Add to that the FYRA transport debacle. Back to the drawing board.

If there’s a theme to the past year, it’s ‘The Hokey Pokey Dance.’
You put your insurance reform in, you take your insurance reform out.
You put your mortgage reform in, you take your mortgage reform out.
You put your labor reform in, you take your labor reform out.

And you shake it all about…

Maybe a shakeup is what’s needed. A year ago, the Netherlands was being run by a ‘caretaker government’ – just to get us through until elections could be held. A year later, it still feels like a caretaker government. Is the Rutte Cabinet trying to tell us something?