Following his hugely successful solo debut at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe performing stand-up and character comedy in two hours, ‘Double Dutch’ and ‘Goblin’, as well as over 120 international shows and garnering over half a billion views on social media, comedian and online sensation Derek Mitchell is bound for London’s iconic Soho Theatre from 10th to 15th March performing both of his hours on alternate dates across the week. This will be part of his wider UK tour of ‘Double Dutch’ which begins on 18th February.
Englishness and Americanness. Having built a fanbase online, Derek now brings his trademark physicality and vivid characterisations to life live onstage in this laugh-out-loud celebration cultural quirks and what it means to belong – or not. Double Dutch means gibberish, a term coined by English travellers centuries ago because they found Dutch so incomprehensible (not much has changed over the ages, where our proficiency with foreign languages is concerned). Derek’s show lays gleeful hands on the culture of gibberish and the way we use it on each other, highlighting behaviours that happen every day, but maybe go unnoticed. From the way that immigrants turn into manic pixie dream girls in airports to middle-aged women compulsively confessing dark sexual secrets to gay men in aeroplanes – something Derek’s got a surprising amount of experience with.
Meanwhile, his debut solo character show ‘Goblin’ tells the story of Eliot, an emo kid in 2007 with an imaginary goblin who just wants to be loved. Expertly realised and peppered with period-specific details (awkward turtle), we watch this trusting teenager enter into a manipulative relationship with an older reality TV star and transform unnervingly and completely. Goblin showcases Mitchell’s tight joke writing, intricately woven narrative style and signature nuanced characterisations as he brings to life Eliot, his friends and family.
Derek Mitchell is an actor and comedian, originally hailing from the US he now resides in England, and has spent a surprising amount of time in the Netherlands – where he has a large cult support to go with his more-than-65,000 Instagram followers. He is well-known for his online skits having amassed over half a billion views both for his character videos as @derekscottmitchell and his sketches about immigrant life as @letsdoubledutch. He is a regular on the comedy circuits in both London and Amsterdam, recently completing a 120-date European tour, and has appeared on Apple TV’s Ted Lasso.
Instagram: @derekscottmitchell and @letsdoubledutch
TikTok: @letsdoubledutch
X: @derekscottmitch
