The Stage

Chris Addison - Atomicity

Published Monday 22 August 2005 at 12:20 by Chris Bartlett

The Periodic Table is not an obvious starting point for comedy. But then last year’s Perrier Award nominee Chris Addison is not your usual, run of the mill comedian. For a start, Addison is unashamedly middle class and, in a comedy world where a chummy regional accent can get you halfway towards winning over your audience, makes a merit of his cut-glass accent and sharp intellect. And over the last few years Addison has carved a niche for himself by treating highfalutin subjects in an unswervingly funny and accessible way.

This year’s show is no exception. Broadly speaking, it is about how we relate to the universe, using the 92 elements as a basis, but finds time to take in cloning, stage hypnotism, the British navy, creationists and the childishness of the Coca-Cola company along the way, not to mention a brilliantly judged section on the London bombings.

Each set piece is shot through with an unfailing intellectual curiosity and a barely concealed zeal at sharing knowledge. To call this show a physics lessons with jokes would do it a considerable disservice. If all science teachers were as entertaining, amusing and thought provoking as Addison, we would be a nation of rocket scientists and physicists by now. By rights, that coveted fizzy water prize should already be his.