Review: Robin Ince, Happiness Through Science, The Basement, City Screen, York, last Sunday (From York Press)

Review: Robin Ince, Happiness Through Science, The Basement, City Screen, York, last Sunday

9:17am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Comedy By Jonathan Wilkes

ROBIN Ince is tirelessly – he is an insomniac, after all – working. From his radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage, and podcast Utter Shambles, to his Book Club and tour, Happiness Through Science.

The perspicacious comic describes himself as ‘niche’. That is accurate, if niche means erudite, engaging, charming, passionate and uproarious. Happiness Through Science indulges in Ince’s infectious appetite for science and asks the audience to share in the beauty of scientific discovery and conundrums.

Best of all, he reels off scientific theories, names and sharp observations while never patronising his audience. His welcomed respect and friendly style keeps entertaining – whether you know who Bertrand Russell is or not. It is comedy without condescension, humour without hubris, laughs without lecturing.

With intelligent wit and a peripatetic mind, Ince’s quick-fire two-hour set is an experiment in comedic alchemy: taking scientific elements and turning them into gold.

He rhapsodises on the awesomeness of space and the benefits of a ‘multiverse’, takes hope from our bodies’ atoms having been recycled throughout history and compares the recession to Schrodinger’s Cat. He also impersonates his friend Professor Brian Cox wonderfully.

After every show Ince claims he needs to “do more reading” – he is not the only one. He celebrates ideas without forcing them on people; even his “militant atheism” amounts to “let’s have a drink and a chat”. Hilarious, informative and always passionate, Happiness Through Science has all its atoms in the right place.

Now, Schrodinger’s Cat is the one with the bells, right?