2010 Edinburgh Fringe
Alex Horne review
A few years ago a clean-shaven Alex Horne did a nice show about a birdwatching competition he'd held with his dad, with lots of nice gags about bonding and birds (winged). Now the beard-sporting comic is trying to explain complex theories about probability, quantum mechanics and, most geekily, golf. Excessive facial hair can do that to a person.
Sporting funky trainers to offset the fuzz, Horne gives off a whiff of trendy science teacher as he buzzes around this small but nicely shaped room, and tries to interest us in what could be a rather dry topic: how likely it is that he'd hit a hole-in-one before his 32nd birthday, and other queries of that ilk.
The humble chap admits early on that there are only three actual jokes in the show, and, true, it is one of those Edinburgh efforts that more traditional comics used to moan about in the initial post-Gorman era: big on theme, short on good old-fashioned gags. But there are more than enough regular punslingers to go around, and their stuff is all being thieved on Twitter by aging children's entertainers anyway.
Horne takes the lecture format to the next level, as he's clearly so fascinated by this subject that he's happy to devote great gagless swathes of the show to enlightening the audience, whether or not they want to be. Thankfully he's likeable enough to hold the attention, and seems blissfully unaware of the occasional glazed expression and what looks like Ian Rankin sitting right in his eyeline.
As a stand-up Horne is a lot more animated than punters only familiar with his left-hand-man gig on quirky quiz show We Need Answers might imagine - he even seems to have picked up a few of Mark Watson's mannerisms - and there's a proper, non-rubbish audio-visual display here too. You need some nice graphics if you're going to talk to tipsy folk about molecules.
Like all the best trendy teachers (you know, the ones in the adverts) he really grabs our attention by getting us involved, so there are games of skill and speed and the odd bit of gambling built in along the way. Indeed, this may well be the first Edinburgh show in which an audience member has run to the toilet at the comedian's behest. Want a bet on it?
