Review by Steve Bennett

What with Toby Hadoke's Moths Ate My Dr Who Scarf, Paul Kerensa's Back To The Futon and Jarred Christmas' The Geek Show, this surely is the year of the anorak at the Fringe. But all this talk of geeks and their gadgetry is far from boring and Christmas' show is no exception.

There's not been much in the way of an indication as to Christmas' geekiness before. On the stand up circuit he's often an angry presence and a larger-than-life performer. Perhaps the only previous hint of geekiness had been in the thick rimmed spectacles but hey since Morrissey and Jack Duckworth championed them everyone knows that they're cool.

But he's always been good at hiding it particularly at school, as he explains in the second section of the show. He declares how he even indulged in football chat to disguise his 'knowing too much about The Never Ending Story.'

He introduces the geek to us in the opening section, not to be confused with the 'nerd' the difference being that the 'nerd' is socially inadequate (the persistence in this review of the word 'geek' rather than choosing another, similar word to avoid repetition is so as not to cause any confusion or inaccuracies). He outs the BNP as geeks suggesting all they need to calm their racist minds would be a quick blast of You Give A Little Love from Bugsy Malone.

The show continues in confessional vein unburdening himself ­ quite literally - about an incident experienced at 14 whilst receiving a massage from his mum's glam friend Sharon, his proficiency at cross stitch and, most shocking of all, how he was in the Scouts.

Two particular highlights of the show are the more physical ones. To demonstrate a punishment dished out by fellow pupils at school for farting in class Christmas gets the front row to pelt his belly with foam bullets whilst he recites the names of ten breeds of dog. But the vision that will remain in the memory is the finale where Christmas performs a dance off, firstly night club dancing to the Pussycat Dolls and secondly an interpretive dance sporting tight black spandex. Don't say you weren't warned.

Marissa Burgess

Review date: 1 Jan 2006
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett