Alex Horne: Birdwatching

“Birdwatching is like hide and seek, only you do the hiding and the seeking and the birds don’t know you’re playing.” This is typical of Alex Horne’s humour: self-deprecating and a bit quirky. Why self-deprecating? Well, because after years of laughing at his Dad's twitching enthusiasms, the comedian decided to join him for a ‘big year’ of birdwatching (a big year is an attempt to see as many separate species in a year as possible – international travel is a distinct advantage).

Only a bit quirky? Well, there is an increasing trend, which Birdwatching fits into, for comedians to base an hour’s show around their decision to do something unusual for a bit. This seems to have started with Dave Gorman’s rather inspired Are You Dave Gorman?, in which he travelled around the UK looking for people who shared his name, but now extends to attempts at cake-baking, measuring coffee shops and all kinds of formulaic ‘whimsy’. Equally, Horne’s use of powerpoint presentation, and carefully planned audience interaction is enjoyable, but in no way surprising.

What rescues the show, then, and in fact makes an interesting comedy outing, is Horne himself: quick, intelligent, and capable of generating wholesome laughs without falter. A new routine, and this (usually) expert joke-writer will be right back on form.