Robin Ince Is (In And) Out Of His Mind

City Varieties, Leeds

3/5

BEST known for his stream of consciousness comic lectures, it’s revealing that Robin Ince feels the need to apologise for his erratic show at City Varieties.

Advertised as being an exploration of “the last 100 years of psychiatry, psychology and skew-whiff brain dabblings” it takes the pro-science, anti-religious boffin approximately five seconds before he gets side tracked by an insomniac, misbehaving mind. For the next two hours, The Infinite Monkey Cage host struggles to establish a focus on the intended topic.

This may breach the advertising standards guidelines but such is his erudition that he manages to be wonderfully entertaining as he bounces effortlessly from Nietzsche to pop-up MC Escher books and amusement parks designed by Samuel Beckett, with their twin themes of waiting and disappointment. 

Fast-forwarding through redundant PowerPoint slides of brains and stills from Eraserhead, his rapid-fire, hyperactive rants are variously illustrated with impressions of capuchin monkeys and Brian Blessed — vividly described as being “made of sinew and beard.” 

While some of this material is unnecessarily derisive, his everyday political and character observations almost always hit their target. 

His description of Ukip as an art movement is an ingenious way to counter the party’s perceived political threat while his psychological analysis of women mooning at him from a taxi is refreshingly non-judgemental. 

It’s a shame Ince can’t consistently apply such original insight to the rest of his material but, as he exasperatedly concludes the set, “It’s really annoying to do a show about the mind and find yours isn’t working properly.”

Susan Darlington