You could watch John Kearns’ act for a long time before thinking of Van Gogh. But that’s the parallel Kearns invites in The Varnishing Days, which combines art appreciation, daydreaming and tales of new parenthood. Kearns has enjoyed a recent brush with breakout success via Taskmaster and the Comedy Central panel show Guessable? and tonight this oddball act wonders aloud whether to make his compromises with the mainstream. But as with Dutch painters, so with south London comedians: art is about doing what you want, not what others tell you. And so Kearns dons his trademark tonsure wig and false teeth, and delivers the finest, and not at all compromised, set of his career so far.
