Matt Parker’s blend of comedy and maths adds up to a good night at Artsdepot writes David Floyd

Promotional image for Matt Parker's Getting Triggy With It

The title of Matt Parker’s show is slightly misleading. Not much of it is about trigonometry. But there is a lot about maths.

Getting Triggy With It, which came to Artsdepot in North Finchley earlier this month, serves up an intriguing mix of stand up comedy and maths.

That mixing results in a show about maths that’s funny rather than a comedy show featuring maths-related jokes, with Parker taking the audience through a series of unusual maths challenges that he’s previously explored in his bestselling books and via his popular Youtube channel.

In the first half, a QR code-based pre-show survey enables Parker to calculate the average name of the audience, which is AAELE.

Then, an extended exercise, complete with engaging visual explanation, looks at the maths behind the popular children’s (mono)matching game Dobble.

It turns out that the game is derived from a grid-based formula used to ensure each pair of cards has one (but only one) match with every other card.

Intriguingly (for some) it turns out that this grid system would be expected to result in the game containing 57 cards but it only has 55. Parker wonders what has happened to the other two.

Half time music is provided by Robo-DJ: an algorithm based digital jukebox that calculates which song to play next based on the overlap between the end section of one song and the start of another. Parker explains that this was developed when he was invited to do a DJ set at an event put on by Blur bassist Alex James, who also loves maths.

The second half begins with an audience Q&A and the show culminates in the takeover of the stage by Parker’s AI alter-ego, Matt GPT, an AI version of the comedian developed by a friend based on his existing output.

The show includes frequent references to Parker’s engagement with other mathematicians, particularly via Youtube and self-deprecating descriptions of crowdsourced improvement to his code.

The biggest challenge he faces as a live performer, which he acknowledges during the show, is balancing the needs of different sections of the audience. In particular those with a massive interest in and knowledge of maths and those without.

In the pre-scripted parts of the show, he does this extremely well with a strong mix of nerdy detail alongside funny, accessible explanations that ensure the non-expert gets what’s going on at least to the extent that they’re able to enjoy it.

This approach breaks down slightly in the more improvised sections based on audience questions – as when Matt GPT is asked to calculate Pi using random numbers, an activity that is hilarious for the mathematicians but baffling for others.

Overall, while the direct comedy sometimes descends into classic dad jokes – “Calling people average is mean” – it’s a fast moving and enjoyable spectacle that makes effective use of technology and visual gags, reminiscent of shows by Dave Gorman.

Definitely go for the maths if you like maths but, if you’re open to maths and just want a decent evening’s entertainment, you could do a lot worse.

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