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Usually a stand-up comic, and a dab-hand at improvisation, Kate Berlant has now got her very own Soho Theatre play after a successful US run. <\/p>\n
Look closely at the stairs up to her one woman debut \u2013 called Kate \u2013 in the iconic London venue, and you will find stickers of her unremarkable one-syllable first name, like, everywhere. <\/p>\n
The stickers set the show up well. As does a video montage of Kate striking overly-sincere poses, channeling a hubristic artist with the self-awareness of a paintbrush. <\/p>\n
But Kate \u2013 real Kate \u2013 isn\u2019t much like her on-stage character of the same name. Behind performance-Kate\u2019s hilarious vacuous ridiculousness is an astute comic pro with the confidence of a white man. Which, obviously, we love.<\/p>\n
This was never more stark than when Metro.co.uk<\/strong> asked Kate for her advice to aspiring comedians. <\/p>\n \u2018There is literally no advice,\u2019 she said. \u2018Unfortunately, you\u2019re completely on your own. There\u2019s nothing anyone can tell you that\u2019s going to help, I believe. It just takes time.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s just a lifestyle and you have to give over to it entirely.\u2019 <\/p>\n And that she has. Like Liz Kingsman and Megan Stalter \u2013 two queens of comedy who are also sizzling right now \u2013 Kate parodies the one woman show genre with silky ease, and rip-roaring results. <\/p>\n The 36-year-old is taking down the ego of showbiz one laugh at a time with her play, which sees on-stage Kate\u2019s one woman show dreams descend into chaos as she tries very, very hard to cry; an action Kate presents as the purest symbol of performative authenticity, and star-quality. <\/p>\n It\u2019s inspired from questions and preoccupations Los Angeles-born Kate has always had with comedy, she explained. <\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s an inability to stop observing ones-self or the desire to be perceived as marketable.\u2019 Indeed, if the stickers are anything to go by. <\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019re reaching this commodification of the self,\u2019 she continued. \u2018It\u2019s becoming increasingly exhausting and kind of\u2026. Pathetic.\u2019 <\/p>\n I don\u2019t think real Kate would get on much with on-stage Kate, because, truly, that hits the nail on the head. On-stage Kate is<\/em> pathetic. <\/p>\n So is this why the era of Kate, Kingsman and Stalter has got us all in stitches? Yes, because on-stage Kates are everywhere. <\/p>\n \u2018I think we are in this world now with social media where everyone can be reduced to an actor, because we all have smartphones and we\u2019re generating content daily,\u2019 she explained. <\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s like people who aren\u2019t even performers are expected to perform, and have a clean narrative self, and an identity.\u2019<\/p>\n But Kate\u2019s show \u2013 filled with zeitgeisty references and bookended with the West End trope of a cockney boy sweeping the stage \u2013 isn\u2019t aiming to change the world. <\/p>\n \u2018It seems so simple, but I just hope people laugh,\u2019 she said. \u2018That remains the goal.\u2019 <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/metro-parent\/img\/fallback.png\")
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