Daniel Kitson

Daniel John Kitson (born 2 July 1977) is an English comedian, actor, performer and writer.

Daniel John Kitson was born in Denby Dale on 2 July 1977, the son of a primary school headteacher mother and a lecturer father.

He was a pupil at Scissett Middle School and Shelley College.

He subsequently studied drama at Roehampton Institute, now known as the University of Roehampton.

Kitson began performing comedy at the age of 16.

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.

In April 2001 he could be seen at Up The Creek, often alongside Jimmy Carr.

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, 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.

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 10 pm, 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.

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.)

In January 2012, his show It’s Always Right Now, Until it’s Later played at the St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY.

In March 2012, Kitson took a brand new stand-up show, Where Once Was Wonder, on a work-in-progress tour around the UK before touring it in Australia and returning for the Edinburgh Fringe in August.

The new show comprises all new material and is made up of three stories about "the impossible".

In 2013 he took his new stand-up show entitled ''After the Beginning.

Before the End'' on a UK tour and also played a few European dates.

Kitson debuted his new play Mouse: The Persistence of an Unlikely Thought at Liverpool Everyman in 2016.

The show was released as an audio download in January 2017.

in 2017, Kitson performed his first stand-up comedy in over four years at The Roundhouse in July 2017 before taking it to The Royal Exchange, Manchester.

The show, Something Other Than Everything, was largely well-reviewed, though received criticism from a Guardian journalist who objected to an in-context use of the word 'paki'.

In 2019, Daniel Kitson performed a run at the Battersea Arts Centre for a show entitled Keep.

The premise of this show was to read aloud a catalogued list of 20,000 objects in his home, but in true Kitson style an extra narrative and much humour is delivered along the way.

In 2020, during a period where many UK venues were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kitson toured a new show ''Dot.

Dot.

Dot.'' to a series of theatres and comedy clubs, performing without a live audience, but streamed to online ticket-holders that were limited to the capacity of the venues.

The show consisted of Kitson, sat at a table covered in Post-it Notes and Polaroid photos, holding them up one-by-one as he covered vignettes of personal experiences from the start of the pandemic up until the moment of performance.

In April 2022, Kitson announced a return to the stage after 2 years.