Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

You are almost certain to learn something in Alex Farrow’s well-researched show – and not necessarily about philosophy since his curious mind takes all manner of cerebral diversions.

The various threads might get a little tangled, and don’t tie up to make an overarching point, but there’s plenty to pique the interest on the way. And as both a teacher and regular host of Oxford’s Jericho Comedy Club, Farrow has the charm and the communication skills to keep us interested.

The springboard of the hour is the 1974 research paper from the Philosophical Review entitled What Is It Like To Be A Bat? Yes, that old hack topic. In it, the American thinker Thomas Nagel argues that the animal’s perception is so alien to ours we cannot begin to conceive its consciousness.

But before he gets too bogged down in that, Farrow cites the other great philosopher, Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, who in her seminal 2020 work argued: ‘Bring a bucket and a mop for this wet-ass pussy.’ 

We got to Cardi B – for it is her, obviously - via stories from his classroom, prompting Farrow to mounts a historical defence of explicit songs. Then he whips through the concept of the animal self, back to the glory of bats – who’ve had something of a bad rap over the whole Covid kerfuffle – amusing mispronunciations, what horseshoe crabs have ever done for us and Craig David. Wide-ranging indeed. 

Niche subjects get niche jokes, and the witty, pun-flecked romp throws up plenty of wry commentary.

Occasionally there’s a duff topic – Google’s former ‘don’t be evil’ motto has been mocked plenty and shoehorning a Schrodinger’s cat reference into any vaguely smart stand-up set is getting tired, there’s no quantum uncertainty about it.

But the meander through Farrow’s subject list is like getting lost in Wikipedia, never quite clear where we’re going, even when we get there. And the final game, guessing whether a passage is from the Bible or not, does not make for a strong climax – and goes on way too long.

Farrow delivers in a slightly stagey way - he punctuates sentences and asks rhetorical questions like Joel Dommett – while exhibiting the Seinfeld squeal when he gets worked up or irate, which never quite rings true.

But as Farrow's first show since quitting his teaching job to make a go of being a stand-up full-time, Philosophy Pig is a robust introduction to that cohort of comics who love their facts.

• Alex Farrow: Philosophy Pig is on at the Laughing Horse @ 32 Below at 12.45pm until August 29, with additional shows every night from Monday at 9.45pm 

Review date: 19 Aug 2021
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Laughing Horse @ 32 Below