No Such Thing As A Fish, review: Trivia buffs find the funny side of facts

This intelligent quartet serve as a welcome reminder that comedy does not have to be dumb
Extremely funny: "There is no formal script"
Steve Ullathorne
Bruce Dessau28 June 2016

According to legend, James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray, Anna Ptaszynski and Dan Schreiber started in showbiz under Stephen Fry’s QI desk, passing him notes. The trivia buffs, dubbed the QI Elves, then had a hit podcast spin-off, No Such Thing As A Fish, and recently their own topical BBC2 series, No Such Thing As The News.

Last night’s show, in which they had their own desks, sidestepped the complexities of current affairs in favour of arcane nuggets of knowledge. Laid back master of ceremonies Schreiber opened by offering a typical example: “In 1895 the only two cars in Ohio crashed into each other.”

During the next hour the team fired off fusillades of facts. Modest Ptaszynski revealed that there are secret flats all over the UK furnished just to catch burglars.

Genial James Harkin told how at a 1998 Singapore beauty contest finalists had to build websites. The most naturally comical anecdote came from boyish boffin Andrew Hunter Murray. He offered a brief history of skywriting, explaining how a comedian with a playful streak once hired a pilot to write “How do I land?”

Things to do in London this weekend (July 1-3)

1/10

There is no formal script. The quartet simply discover the subject in advance and get researching. Yet the jokes flow fast as the brained-up banter pinballs around. No Such Thing… is a welcome reminder that comedy does not have to be dumb.

Call these people dorks, nerds, geeks by all means. But also call them extremely funny.

Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT