Last year I got in trouble for describing a comedian as ‘geeky’, so I feel apprehension about applying that particular label.  However, somehow I sense that Jerome Chandrahasen won’t take offence, as he uses his slightly goofy demeanour to its full advantage onstage. 

His lack of machismo and aggression gives him an easy affinity with the crowd – he’s a nice guy!  Weird, but nice.  Witness the way he greets his audience, eyes twinkling, cardigan flapping, like an excited political clerk (which he used to be).  There’s no crass material in the show at all – it’s a self acknowledged "descent into whimsy" which means instead that there are jokes about animals, about high school pranks, about Jane Austen and Ernest Hemingway.

In other words, the kind of show that you could happily bring your mum to – indeed Chandrahasen’s mum was in the crowd the night I was there.  This led to some cute moments, especially when the punchline of one of his jokes seemed to implicate mothers as responsible for the world’s greatest human rights atrocities.  His eyes suddenly twinkled even brighter with realization, and he did a superb double take, muttering "didn’t think that one through…" 

It is indeed whimsical fare, and imaginative.  Almost bookish, even.  Although elements of the show have been comprehensively done before (the ‘flow-chart’ motif was used in Taika’s Incredible Show, and before that in Cracks in the Garden), Chandrahasen brings a measured and precise delivery to the form that really supports his comic persona and sense of humour. 

Although the programme blurb promises a glockenspiel, and an explanation of why he hates librarians (which as a former librarian I was looking forward to), neither of which materialised the night I was there, there is plenty of surprise and … well, whimsy to keep us satisfied. 

Included this night was a guest spot from a singer/songwriter whose earnest lyrics and incendiary guitar playing were somewhat compromised by his appalling vocal delivery, but whose humour was a good match for Chandrahasen’s – I certainly didn’t begrudge his presence (although I missed his name).

I don’t know if Chandrahasen exactly gave us freedom as promised, but he certainly offered an infectious enthusiasm and a delightfully lateral view of the world around us.

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