Dan Schreiber is a fact-obsessed Aussie who has spent parts of his life in Hong Kong and London and most of it in denial of being a complete and utter geek. His show’s title is pretty misleading: he actually spends the majority of the time exploring his geekhood and professing his desire of preserving esoteric information, but this is a nice surprise, really.
This hour is a great opportunity to learn some weird and wonderful facts
Unmentioned in the show itself is Schreiber’s involvement in the creation of QI, but this information should come as no surprise. This hour is a great opportunity to learn some weird and wonderful facts from a likeable, enthusiastic and often very funny comedian. The more obscure the information, the more likely Schreiber has some interest in it.
In perhaps the most successful section, he imagines time-travelling to various scenes from history. He recounts the serendipitous tale of Geoffrey Tandy, the only expert in cryptogams (seaweed) at Bletchley Park. He imagines what it was like when Bowie and Mercury recorded Under Pressure. He reels off a list of hilarious conspiracy theories including one adorable one about the sinking of the Titanic.
The other theme of the show, Schreiber’s love life, is less engaging. His comments on a series of bad dates, in which we hear about the titular cockblocking, are very funny, but his lengthy discussion of being unable to “think with [his] dick” and his exploration of what this entails fail to raise many laughs. Similarly, in a noble attempt to expose the plight of the hirsute man, he succeeds mainly in making most members of the audience squirm uncomfortably.
