Resuming his visiting professorship on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, in his sophomore hour, Thank God This Lasts Forever, John Tothill poses us with the philosophical questions of what does it take to achieve the good life, and whether it can be achieved without making a deal with the devil. In doing so, he takes us on a journey of hedonism, Faustian pacts, the arbitrariness of any kind of structure and its antithesis to the joie de vivre.
the last remaining salon of The Lost Generation
Everything about this show is completely luxurious, and Tothill does the impossible; he makes time stop until nothing else exists but this show and the four walls of the venue. Where we may see mundanity, Tothill sees romance, and over the course of the hour we begin to notice the philosophical underpinnings of the world for ourselves. Tothill shows us what it means to be a gentleman and a scholar, and his show is the last remaining salon of The Lost Generation. Structure and time are meaningless here, we would just sit, listen and contribute to the discussion in the tutorial-like vibe that Tothill creates. If the venue allowed us, we might just stay there forever listening to him and engaging him in debate to talk about life, the universe and everything. In here, life is beautiful. We completely surrender to the free-flowing segues and tangents that all wrap around one main illustrative quandary on whether everything is simply a deal with the devil. Tothill may just be the greatest philosopher of our generation, and like many, under-appreciated in his time.
For all of his rhetoric and flowery language that borrows techniques from philosophers like Socrates, Tothill adds an element of relatability to it, commentating on his own dialogue with references to the real world that momentarily sends up a flare of reality before enveloping us back into the rhythm of light academia.
Like time and PE, star ratings are restrictive and don't full encapsulate all the nuance within this show. Thank God This Lasts Forever is an intoxicating hour, that envelopes us against the harsh reality of the outside world. The atmosphere that Tothill’s comedy has an old-world and vintage glamour to it. Such things as this show just don't exist anymore in modern times.
