Fraser Geesin: Jack of All Polymaths

• Brian Donaldson
• 24 August 2016

This article is from 2016

A pointless endeavour which aims to unravel the mechanics of comedy

You have to wonder why some people put themselves through the ordeal of performing for a month before strangers in a pub basement where their act barely exists. Fraser Geesin commits to his cause, you can say that for him, but whoever convinced him that a ramshackle attempt at deconstructing the mechanics of stand-up without including any jokes himself would make for a fruitful endeavour needs a good talking to.

During Jack of All Polymaths, Geesin has an air of John Lloyd or Adam Buxton about him, but he has neither the nailed-on wit of the former or the tech-savvy daftness of the latter; instead, he spends his time getting his tummy out to shake at the person in his tiny crowd he can most easily get to, and reading from a lengthy and boring made-up novel which is an attempt at satirising fantasy literature in general and George RR Martin in particular.

One moment shines a light on this whole ill-advised project, when Geesin remarks on Joy Division and Russ Abbot both having a song entitled 'Atmosphere'. He doesn't have a joke about it, but merely hopes that it's enough to simply point out the coincidence.

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