Review by Steve Bennett

In keeping with the title of their show, Steve Mould and Gemma Arrowsmith are, indeed, inventive in their third Edinburgh show. With PowerPoint presentations aplenty, an intricate structure they’re eager to boast about, and smartarse gags about temporal paradoxes, they are keen to impress that this is one clever show.

It’s impressive indeed, though not always funny. You admire their craft, for sure, but it’s perhaps too impersonally slick to engage your emotions, too.

Away from the self-consciously intellectual stuff are some more traditional sketches: a gag about Superman being able to disguise himself simply with glasses is probably as old as Action Comics itself, but nicely done; while a Deal Or No Deal spoof rightly exposes all the superstitious clap-trap that surrounds the opening of a cardboard box, before plunging down that clever route again with a PowerPoint demonstration of the probability theory behind the game.

The best are probably the Mastermind sketch – acknowledging the debt it owes to the Two Ronnies – and a nicely naïve scene in which Mould thinks the ‘girls in his area’ who advertise on late-night TV genuinely do just want a chat with him.

These are all built around the central conceit, that Mould and Arrowsmith are competing to create the best invention. Steve, who is Blue Peter’s science guy as he never tires of reminding us, surely has the advantage with his time machine – cue all those postmodern, self-referential sketches – while Gemma’s offering is a more modest affair, made of wood and pipe-cleaners.

The duo are likeable, natural performers, Arrowsmith wide-eyed and eager to please, Mould more assertive and show-offy. The hour they have created will nourish the intellect, but probably not the soul.

Review date: 22 Aug 2009
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett