Tim Key: Loganberry

Last year I did a 10 week creative writing poetry course, 2 hours a week, not 70 days straight through. At the beginning of the first class, after initial introductions, our tutor - a well respected and much published poet - said that being a poet was hard work. I found it hard work not to laugh at this, while, at the same time, as I looked around the room at my fellow students, I could hear in my head the voice of Jarvis Cocker saying, "Yeah … Well, I can’t see anyone else smiling in here." My poetry career is still at a nascent stage.

Tim Key has worked hard at being a poet, his latest collection L.A. Baby! launched at the tail end of June. His style is unique, perhaps something there of the late Tom Lehrer, a very sideways view of life. I made a rare trip through to Glasgow to see him chat about the book with Frankie Boyle and read some poems. A thoroughly enjoyable hour it was. Managed to find my way back to Queen Street Station without getting lost, which is always a win.

But there is more to Key than poetry. Weirdly, given how prolific he is - he pops up on TV all the time, he’s been in loads of films now - he’s still kind of under the radar. This despite this year’s runaway success of The Ballad of Wallis Island, the film he co-wrote and co-starred with his friend Tom Basden. It’s lovely, seen it twice, hello, hello, maybe I’m a Tim Key fan?

Where he seems to be most at home though is on the stage. His latest show - "a 58 minute concert" - Loganberry, is on at the Pleasance Courtyard. TBH I’m not a fan of stand up comedy, but this transcends the usual. There’s a lot of self-referential material, standard, meat and potatoes stuff for most comics, but that only works if you have enjoyed success. And Key has, he won the Perrier Award in 2009 - mentioned several times. Not only has he built on that but somehow brought his audience with him, not exactly as friends, but we’ve all grown older together, even if Key isn’t entirely sure of his age. It’s all very knowing, and very, very funny.

Only a dozen nights left, don’t hang about. (Infants under 2 years old do not require a ticket for this show.)

Update: If the Edinburgh run is sold out by the time you read this - very possible - or you can’t be arsed travelling from the Big Smoke to Edinburgh, he’s doing some shows near Wapping later this year. Details …