Baba Brinkman's Rap Guide to Evolution

Charles Darwin may not be an obvious topic for rap, but award-winning comic performer Baba Brinkman is waxing lyrical about just that in a bid to assist the teaching of evolution in schools around the United Kingdom.

Brinkman is known on the comedy circuit for his unique performances at the Edinburgh Fringe and around the world, garnering five star reviews and widespread acclaim in recent years.

In 2009, he secured a Fringe First Award for his show, The Rap Guide to Evolution, having been encouraged to look at Charles Darwin as his next source of material by Professor Mark Pallen of the University of Birmingham, a leading thinker on the world of evolution.

As well as the critical acclaim, Brinkman was approached by teachers who were keen to use the material in their classrooms. The seed was sown and Brinkman managed to secure £30,000 of funding from The Wellcome Trust - the UK's largest independent fund for biomedical research - as well as a further £12,000 through Crowdfunder, putting together a crack team to make music videos from The Rap Guide to Evolution show.

The Canadian-born performer also worked with experts to produce supporting resources to offer hints and tips for teachers, as well as a website for the project. Importantly, all of the materials are available for free on rapguidetoevolution.co.uk, and there is a premiere at the Prince Charles Cinema this Wednesday where Brinkman will be introduced by Randal Keynes OBE, great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin and trustee of The Charles Darwin Trust.

In such a complex subject as evolution, Brinkman is hopeful of making teachers' jobs and pupils' understanding that bit easier.

"I don't really know what 'conventional teaching' is to be honest," Brinkman told British Comedy Guide. "Are you just referring to boring teachers, or is there some protocol that says 'avoid all useful teaching aids based on pop culture?' I had teachers who were fantastically inventive and imaginative in terms of finding every angle that could help me learn, and I had others who just droned on like the teacher in Ferris Bueller. This project just gives teachers a creative inroad into the material, but it certainly isn't guaranteed to make them (or me) any cooler."

The move will surely be welcome by the more open-minded teachers, using an art form synonymous with the age bracket that Brinkman hopes to target.

"The challenge teachers face with evolution, unlike other subjects in science, is that they have to overcome the religious hostility as well as communicating the conceptual side of how it works," Brinkman continued.

"The videos are designed to help with both at the same time, because they explain evolutionary science through familiar rap themes but there's also a strong comedy component, and it's hard to hate something if you've had a laugh at it."

Having shared a stage with the likes of Robin Ince, Richard Dawkins and Brian Cox, Brinkman's work has already captured an audience. Now, though, he hopes he can capture the imagination in a subject that statistics, as well as anecdotal accounts, suggest is becoming increasingly unpopular in schools. Can Brinkman lead the way using the unlikely medium of rap?

"Go on, try it," Brinkman urged teachers. "A real skeptic would only judge something based on evidence."