The Thinking Drinker’s Guide to Alcohol

• Jaclyn Arndt
• 5 August 2013

This article is from 2013.

Learn about booze, laugh and drink!

Opening your set by handing out full bottles of beer seems a sure fire way to end up with an audience chockablock with Polo-shirted bros. It also seems a good way to grow audience favour – and it is. But Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham manage to keep their heads above the novelty (and potential lad-fest) of their “six free shots” tagline. A dash of absurdity mixed with a splash of groan-worthy puns and a handful of cracking ones buoy up the multitude of alcohol factoids the pair spool off in some sort of QI-inspired drinking game. Indeed, McFarland and Sandham have created their show not for cider-toting teenagers but rather fedora-sporting nerds with a penchant for sipping on premium spirits. At times the duo verge on being those annoying know-it-alls at the bar who pedantically overexplain the origins of barrel hooping, but self-awareness and a mixed bag of tricks (plus, er, six free drinks) keep Thinking Drinker’s well on the right side of the “infotainment” line, whilst providing nostalgic nosefuls of the best part of uni – drunken lectures.

Assembly Rooms, 0844 693 3008, until 25 Aug (not 12), 6.30pm, £10 (£9).