Set in Edinburgh's Globe Bar, Mark Cooper-Jones embarks on an hour long reminder to all of us that Geography is much more than just colouring in. This is a great show for people who, like myself, are fans of Cooper-Jones' other festival appearance, WitTank, and demonstrates that he is just as credible as a solo stand up as he is in his sketch group.
He has built engaging and comical material out of his observations and experiences
Cooper-Jones looks to his experiences both as a student and teacher of Geography, aided by an old school projector and a very dated primary school textbook. He has built engaging and comical material out of his observations and experiences and leaves the audience in no doubt about his enthusiasm for the subject. He fields unexpected geography related questions that we all ought to know the answers to but often embarrassingly do not and vents his comical frustration at the subject being so under-appreciated. He demonstrates that taking the register can be far from mundane in a particularly amusing run off of some peculiarly pronounced names and pokes fun at the American reputation for poor geographical knowledge.
The show is strongest at the start and dips briefly in the middle, mainly due to a audience participation based section. Whilst this is weaker than his other material, the energetic and charming Cooper-Jones recaptures his audience at the end with an exploration of his own invented world. I would never have thought that there was as much comedic material within Geography but Cooper-Jones demonstrated that there most certainly is.
