Unusually for a stand up, Demitri Martin makes no effort to acknowledge the audience as he steps on stage. Instead he launches straight into a very scripted speech about how he was a bit of a freak in school.
At first, he seems very ‘American’ and full of the blandness that you associate with clean cut college kids, but after ten minutes or so he will have convinced you otherwise. As the show goes on, his accounts of his obsessive behaviour becomes more and more hilarious, and although we all agree that he is indeed “a bit of a nerd”, he is fantastically funny with it.
The main thrust of the show is Martin’s accounts of his childhood; the way that he enthused so much about the problems and quizzes he was set at school that he started to set puzzles that covered areas of his life. He talks about his love of language and points out that the 150 word poem printed on the programme is palindromic, and that the one opposite was created from taking all the words from the label of a Rolling Rock bottle and rearranging the letters.
Although obsessive, there is something about Martin’s behaviour that is quite inspiring. He notices things about everyday life that nobody else would, but having had them pointed out makes them wish they had.
4/5
Becky Stone
