Vince Ebert: Sexy Science. Made in Germany

• Brian Donaldson
• 26 August 2018

This article is from 2018.

Avuncular and nerdy set about science makes some decent waves

Germans and science. If the stereotypical past has taught us anything, we shouldn't expect too much humour to come out of either, but merge the two and it's a comedy wasteland, right? Against the odds, physicist Vince Ebert disproves those longstanding theories in a pleasing show. And all this despite a rough start when he pokes some ire at The Big Bang Theory for trading on unfair clichés just after Ebert has opened with a groaning number of them himself and later delivers a joke about astrology that probably pre-dates Einstein.

Still, this avuncular nerd redeems himself throughout the hour with amusing moments about Brexit ('the ultimate heckle') and a routine around the toilet habits of the Germans, French and British which threatens to topple under the weight of its elaborate conceit before he delivers a nice pay-off. There's also some intriguing banter about his compatriots' obsession with travel insurance and the German words that have made their way into the English language.

You might have thought that a set about science would have utilised acres of multimedia and graphs, but Vince Ebert shows that you can keep an audience engrossed with the power of words alone; an especially impressive feat here given that he's performing in a second language.

Underbelly Bristo Square, until 27 Aug, 1.30pm, £9–£10 (£8–£9).