The Portland Club, Inverness, 25 November 2005

AS PHIL KAY shambles on stage, fumbling in the pockets of his ragged tweed jacket and fidgeting with his Rupert bear scarf, you could be forgiven for imaging that all this activity was the result of a sudden attack of stage fright.

Phil Kay

The truth, however, is very different. Kay is more conjurer than comedian, and as he slowly unwinds his act he is, in fact, casting a spell. Summoning, from deep within his unconscious, the demons of comedy that he is about to let loose upon the stage. Kay is an expert in sleight of mind.

Phil Kay’s comedy performances are always unpredictable. You never know what is going to happen and neither does he. Once he has unleashed his comedic demons he is unable to control them and they rampage around the stage with a wicked glee that is sometimes frightening to behold.

The excitement of Kay’s performance is that you are watching a man following his imagination and prepared to go anywhere it might lead. Kay is a genius of improvisation, his mind is alive with comic possibilities, and sometimes you see him pause in mid-thought as another weird and wonderful idea flashes across the cortex of his brain.

Kay is a courageous comedian – his willingness to follow any new idea as it flashes into his mind is a dangerous policy that few comedians would dare to follow. He has the confidence to expand on the thoughts that come to him in the belief that the audience will be as entertained as he is by his bizarre musings.

If you are prepared to suspend disbelief and go with Kay on a fantastic journey into his imagination he is definitely worth leaving the house for

There were only a few occasions here when he found himself in a comedy cul-de-sac, and on those occasions the audience, fascinated by this mental magician’s trickery, were more than willing to forgive him. Kay’s great skill is that for the best part of two hours he was able to entertain his audience with his own unique brand of clever and very funny ramblings.

The audience at the Portland Club was disappointingly small, probably the result of too little publicity and foul weather that was about as likely to attract you out of the house as a street full of flesh eating zombies.

Those who did venture out where treated to a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a phenomenal comedian. If you like your humour as a series of structured gags about women with large breasts, or “knob gags” are what tickle your fancy, Kay is probably not for you.

If, however, you are prepared to suspend disbelief and go with Kay on a fantastic journey into his imagination he is definitely worth leaving the house for, zombies or no zombies. It is likely that we will be seeing more of Phil Kay in future as he has recently settled in Findhorn and wants to do more local gigs.

A small American contingent had found their way into the Portland club on Friday, and very much enjoyed the gig. During the show they mentioned how much they enjoyed a US comedian on cable TV they knew only as “the cable guy.” At the end of Kay’s gig one young American woman shouted out, “Wow, you’re better than the cable guy!” Praise indeed.

© John Burns, 2005