Tom Towelling Teaches You to Knit review – quirky yarns and a pop quiz in maths

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
Hopping from a PowerPoint on hairlines to songs about favourite motorways, Towelling’s set is fun but drops a stitch or two

The route from the classroom to the comedy stage is well travelled, and ex-maths teacher Tom Towelling makes it the thread of his show here, conducting his audience like so many recalcitrant pupils under his charge. In case that sounds triggering, never fear: this debut show is unlike any other schoolroom you’ve been in. Towelling is one of several oddball comics elevated to the best newcomer shortlist for this year’s Edinburgh comedy awards, and his show is a noodly, mellow collage of sketch, song and educational back-and-forth with the crowd.

Let’s get the title – Tom Towelling Teaches You to Knit – out of the way early. When audience members play ball with this or that bit of interaction, the Birmingham man rewards them by binding them together loosely with wool. As the show progresses, a cat’s cradle unspools, towards – well, nothing in particular. The idea goes undeveloped. That’s not the only instance here when you feel you’re on the receiving end of quirkiness for quirkiness’s sake – see his song about favourite motorways, or a fairly cheap closing routine revealing his supposed life ambition.