Vets at Cross Purposes. What Would Jesus Eat? Robin Ince has been raiding charity shops for bad books to ridicule in the name of comedy. It's an incongruous pursuit for this boffin comic, best known as ringleader of the pro-science, anti-religious branch of the standup world. Perhaps because of Ince's unashamed (and refreshing) erudition, these extracts sometimes read more like a sneer than a celebration. But just as often, he stumbles upon wonderfully bathetic passages.
In most cases, these tatty paperbacks present the standup with the easiest of prey. A Mills & Boon novel called Diamond Stud, in which Nick Diamond runs a stud farm? Some jokes tell themselves and Ince has to be careful how much added derision (funny voices, melodramatic music) he lards on top. The best-judged excerpts are from crustacean horror Night of the Crabs by Guy N Smith, and there are choice quotes from the invaluable Secrets of Picking Up Sexy Girls. Less successful is the sequence when Ince barks out endless categories of dream from a dream interpretation book, and his interminable reading of Leonard Nimoy's verse.
Even Ince admits the Nimoy reading is a misstep. Self-discipline is not his strong suit: there's less book-reading than unfocused, hyperactive ranting against no target in particular. His political material is spot on; the stuff about being 41 and having a son is less potent. Earlier, Ince asked the audience to identify extraneous verbiage in another Mills & Boon excerpt. Aptly enough for a show about bad books, Ince needs a good editor.
At Norwich Arts centre (01603 660 352), tonight and touring.
