Laughs and Maths
Getting Triggy with It: Matt Parker Does the Maths, Warwick Arts Centre on 14 October 2026.
Review by Alison Manning
You may not think humour and maths necessarily go together, but they do so seamlessly in this entertaining show, Getting Triggy with It: Matt Parker Does the Maths which came to Warwick Arts Centre on 14 October. My maths-obsessed teenager is already guffawing uncontrollably before the end of the opening sequence.
As Matt Parker, an Australian-born mathematician, author, comedian, YouTube personality, makes clear he is dealing with two categories of people, category zero, the mathematicians, coders and Matt/Maths fans and category one, the dedicated friends and family members who have come along with the category zeroes.
Matt knows he has to cater for both types and so this show has something for everyone, whatever your level of mathematical ability or obsession. Speaking as a category one myself. Matt knows how to convey the complexities of maths as demonstrated by the fact that two of his books have topped the Sunday Times Bestseller list and even broken into the unchartered realms of the New York Times Bestseller list (though no one knows quite how the latter is calculated).
Although it is very much a show about mathematics, it is far from dry and grey, involving lasers, haze, a big screen with numbers and code, and a set featuring a lot of triangular (or should that be square-based pyramid shaped) pencil- resembling tents. Oh, and a Christmas Tree, carefully set up before each show to demonstrate its complex individually-coded light arrangement. And that’s without even mentioning the robo DJ…. Any effects are simple but effective, such as the comedy switch and the reverb sound effect humorously applied every time Matt says the words: “Space diagonal”.
Matt incorporates maths related to a wide range of cultural references, from the mono-matching card game Dobble, through song lyric probability flow charts to working out Wordle, shape nets, Christmas tree lights, and, ultimately, AI. Matt meets the challenges of AI head on with humour and foresight, with the creation of his alter ego Matt GPT. There is also time for a brief Q and A in the middle, as well as a bit of audience interaction.
This show is a humorous celebration of maths, in all its logic and irrationality, admitting that not everything is straightforward or easy to get right with maths. Matt goes as far as confessing that he is, infamously, a terrible python coder and took a month to calculate something that others replicated in 15 minutes, or even in less than a millisecond, with code more clever and more complex. Despite, or perhaps because of, its poke at AI, whilst simultaneously acknowledging its progressive abilities, this is a show with a very human element and Matt is very personable, charismatic and entertaining, bringing maths to life as never before.
It is funny, intelligent and only very occasionally beyond my not-done-maths-since-GCSE capabilities. When I asked my teenage, category zero, son what he liked best he found it hard to narrow down, commenting that he liked everything, the jokes and the maths, though he found it hard to remember the specifics as he was too busy laughing, it being a show full of laughs and maths.
Matt is near the end of his UK tour, but you can find other chances to catch Matt Parker at standupmaths.com/shows/ or watch him on his YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/standupmaths
Discover more from Warwick Arts Centre: https://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/
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