Comedy news: Robin Ince Star Corpse Apple Child Edinburgh review

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Robin Ince is something of a quiet giant of the comedy world. He has written for Ricky Gervais and Alastair McGowen and has performed across many formats. He presents a radio show ‘The Infinite Monkey Cage’ with Brian Cox, whom he calls the “sexy face of science”. His show ‘Star Corpse Apple Child’ is similarly all about physics and entropy and stuff...

Ince delivers part comedy tract, part talk about the wonders of science. He encourages us, as others have done, to see the beauty in science. It could be that I merely agree with him, but I liked this show very much.

He muses on the idea that the more you learn the less you know. “You become stupider the older you get”, he says, meaning that with time one comes to realise how small a slice of the entire pie of human knowledge we are aware of, to use his metaphor. Yet he says we should never stop asking questions about everything.

He illustrates his points by quoting Feynman and Sagan straight frombooks, which, as my philosophy tutor once told me, is quite effective. It all sounds very deep and serious, but it isn’t. Rather, it is delivered with professional comedy finesse and witty little stabs at Creationists and their like.

The show had two guests, Jon Ronson, who read from his new book in a very entertaining fashion, and Helen Arney who provides brilliant comedy music interludes. She is very charming (you can also see her filling Carol Vorderman or Rachel Riley's shoes on ‘Comedy Countdown’, another show which is well worth a look, especially if you are a bit of a geek*).

This show is not really like a show so much as a montage of clever comedy entertainments, sort of like Thai food, lots of interesting little bites. However, it is the most enjoyable thing I have seen this year. If you are a thinking man/woman, this is your bit of festival crumpet.

*‘Comedy Countdown’ is Countdown, literally, but with comedians carrying out the roles. It is a bit like being the studio audience for a radio 4 comedy – but clearly Countdown wouldn’t work for radio, unless the listeners wrote it all down... well actually considering the people who watch Countdown... hmmm, I might ask myself why I enjoyed it so much... yes I guess if you are a pedant and like getting a word that nobody thought of you will definitely like this (it’s very funny too).

http://www.robinince.com/

http://helenarney.com/