Who sent the first tortoise into space? What percentage of Americans believe they can beat a bear in unarmed combat? Which 80s power ballad did Andrew Lloyd Webber call the greatest love song ever written? What’s the easiest way to make a tapir fall over?

These important questions will be answered at The Slide Show Must Go On, a whimsical tour around the esoteric fringes of politics and popular culture that promises to “bring PowerPoint to the people”. Your hosts, Ben Bailey and Chris Parkinson, present a series of illustrated talks covering topics as diverse as the Tory MPs who married their dogs, the secret Cold War project to nuke the Moon and pop music’s most expensive necrophiliac orgy. Sounds intriguing.

Apparently, Ben and Chris deliver talks on these kinds of themes at literary events and music festivals – and anywhere else that can be persuaded to accommodate overenthusiastic slideshow presentations. This month they return to Brighton Fringe for three nights with new and expanded talks that are sure to turn up a wealth of intriguing and hilarious minutiae. Each talk concludes with a Q&A and the opportunity to put your hosts on the spot.

“Ben and Chris make a perfect double act,” says David Bramwell whose Catalyst Club nights inspired the format. “They combine the best elements of stand-up with weird, funny and fascinating PowerPoint lectures. Who wouldn’t want to know more about tapirs and board games called Baconopoly?”

The Rose Hill, May 23rd-25th 2023
Tickets available here