Kent Valentine is deceptive. At the onset of his new show A Fistful of Rainbows he seems like a bread and butter comedian, delivering good solid stand up with an easy, nonthreatening style. But by the end he shows himself to be much more than that, an accomplished storyteller, worthy to be listed amongst the best.
After a little bit of warm up stand up, A Fistful of Rainbows covers two stories, one talking about childhood petrochemical adventures and the other about an unexpected journey of friendship in Denmark. The link between the two is, you guessed it, rainbows.
The show begins a little shakily, with some nerves showing through and a lukewarm warm up, but it is through his stories that Kent builds up the warmth of the show, ultimately bringing it to the boil at the climax of the action. Kent adeptly straddles humour and pathos in this show, never saddening his audience enough to break down their will to continue laughing at his tales. He turns his tragedies into joys in a way that might be described as ‘feel good’, but this phrasing carries with it associations of vapidity that do not do Kent justice. In fact, the one thing that could be said about this young man is that as he builds up his story piece by piece he brings to it pure substance and real life honesty.
Kent Valentine is too polished a professional to ever bring a bad show to this festival. This show is yet another example of a terrific show, resplendent in detail and a sense of authenticity. It is simply a matter of time before this young comedian goes from splendid to superb, but in the meantime you cannot walk away from a Kent Valentine show without feeling greatly satisfied.
View the comedy festival website for bookings and further details