Live Comedy
Colin Hoult: Colin
This show sees Colin Hoult set aside his trademark characters, such as Anna Mann, to perform as himself for the first time.
After years of playing characters, Colin is finally showing the person behind them in a hugely joyous stand-up show. Colin explores his relationship with his father (also named Colin) and his son, and how more than just a name can be handed down through a family.
How can Colin understand his repressed (but quite bonkers) parents and make sure his children are given more freedom to be themselves? On the flipside, how can he live up to his 'proper bloke' of a dad who was such a natural leader with strong principles? And was his dad right to behave as he did, the 'proper bloke' who always asked 'why can't we be a normal family?'? Now with children of his own, Colin wants to leave the world better than he found it, and not repeat the complicated mistakes of the generations before him.
But whilst you can take the man out of character, you can't take the character out of the man - and Colin intersperses his stand-up with fleeting comic snapshots of his family in deliriously funny act-outs.
From gorillas and Ouija boards to Christmas memories, Colin's journey of self-discovery sees him explore his background, in his own unique way, as he looks back at his working-class roots and the importance of the name Colin: his rather drab birth right, and a handy shorthand for how literal the passing down of family problems can be!
Acknowledging that his bizarre family was clearly full of undiagnosed neurodiverse people, Colin, who was diagnosed with ADHD two years ago, talks about how in his childhood, people weren't labelled as neurodiverse or had proper diagnoses, but whispered about as people deemed simply 'not right' - and this progress made with proper diagnoses and sensitivity to difference is, at least, something to feel positive about.
2024 dates
31 July - 25 Aug: Edinburgh Festival Fringe Pleasance Courtyard
23-28 Sept: London, Soho Theatre
03 October: Nottingham, Arts Theatre
04 October: Aberystwyth Comedy Festival
10 October: Bath, Rondo Theatre
11 October: Winchester, The Arc
12 October: Brighton, The Old Market
16 October: Guildford, Bellerby Studio, G Live
17 October: Corsham, The Pound Arts Centre
23 October: Birmingham Glee Club
25 October: Canterbury, The Marlowe Studio
27 October: Norwich, Playhouse
29 October: Newcastle, The Stand
31 October: Bristol, The Wardrobe Theatre
01 November: Swansea, The Grand
02 November: Reading, South Street Arts Centre
05 November: Leeds, The Wardrobe
06 November: York, Theatre@41
07 November: Bishop Auckland Town Hall
08 November: Manchester, Fairfield Social Club
09 November: Liverpool, Royal Court Theatre Studio
10 November: Chorley, Theatre
13 November: Edinburgh, The Stand
14 November: Glasgow, The Stand
21 November: Aldershot, West End Centre
22 November: Cambridge, Junction
Press
- 7th November: Colin Hoult interview (Northern Soul)
- 22nd October: Colin Hoult: "I find it more exhausting to be myself than a character" (Bristol 24/7)
- 25th September: Colin Hoult: "It was like a religious experience." (Square Mile)
- 24th September: Colin Hoult review (The Spy In The Stalls)
- 23rd April: Colin Hoult announces 2024 tour