Helen Arney - Voice of an Angle

100487 original

Musical physicist Helen Arney has brought her degrees and her ukulele to Edinburgh. Now she’s looking to wax lyrical about her favourite variety of triangle.

Unlike other academic comedians, who can seem vaguely embarrassed by their subject, Arney revels in her intelligence. Refreshingly, this is not an attempt to make science accessible. Arney panders to the sort of crowd that woop at mentions of Richard Feynman and many of the jokes rest on the relative obscurity of the punch line, almost presenting a puzzle for the audience to solve. There is even an exam at the end, of sorts. Thus it is to Arney’s credit that her sparky delivery and love of daft puns has everyone laughing, even if you’re denser than a black hole.

The weak points are the songs. Although fun, they suffer from Fringe ukulele fatigue; the tiny instrument seems to feature in every second show. Arney’s more ambitious numbers are also more memorable, making inventive use of that other Edinburgh mainstay: the projected slideshow. Nevertheless, with a mind as keen as Arney’s, the temptation to go off on tangents proves inescapable. While these can result in an original gag or angle, they often end up merely obtuse.

A professorial subset of her audience will adore Helen Arney, recognising a kindred spirit. If the show was peer-reviewed, it would get full marks. For everyone else, this is an enjoyable and informative hour, with Arney proving it’s hip to be the square of the hypotenuse.