Life's not easy when you're a pedant; not that you see yourself as being pedantic, according to Jim Higo, a self-described 'punk poet, social commentator and general irritant'. Pedantic is how other people describe you (though hopefully not in a list handed over to you by a girlfriend who's just about to dump you). You're just a perfectionist, claims Higo, slowly being ground down in the hell of other people getting the little things – especially grammatical things – wrong.
It's fair to say that 'language criminals' feature heavily in this entertaining show, which could be described as a solo, Grumpy Old Men-style rage through the irritations of the modern world. Of course, Higo is enough of a writer to be aware that any 'living' language is a constantly evolving thing - especially when you're dealing with as omnivorous a tongue as English, which has consumed words, phrases and concepts from around the planet. That doesn't mean he has to like it, though; as he points out, the misunderstandings arising from getting the grammar and spelling wrong when it comes to 'helping your Uncle Jack off a horse' are best not discussed in public.
Higo's a wiry soul, bursting with energy and fully committed to his cause, though there's definitely a twinkle in his eyes; no more so than when he's offering up possible examples for a manifesto which, regretfully, will demand the return of capital punishment (albeit only for people doing really annoying things, such as: waiting at the bus-stop for 10 minutes but only looking for change after the bus has arrived; putting time-limits on the availability of 'all-day' breakfasts; or crashing two perfectly good words together in order to 'chillax').
Interestingly, it was clear on this occasion that Higo wasn't entirely preaching to the unconverted; his 'A to Z of irritations' (no surprise that 'A' was for misplaced apostrophes) and 'Top 10 Facebook Frustrations' were warmly received by the audience, and not just the older members sitting at the back. Lol, as Higo almost certainly wouldn't say.
