Mitch Benn has been part of the Edinburgh Fringe since the 90s, and in recent years, his shows have focused on little snippets of his life, focusing on how he became the UK nerd culture’s number one silly song merchant.  His latest show is about the musical genius of Tom Lehrer. Of course, in a stroke of cosmic comic timing, Lehrer passed away three days before Mitch’s show launched, but then Lehrer was 97 years old when he died.

For the uninitiated, Tom Lehrer was an American Mathematics and Musical Theatre teacher who also happened to have had a brief stint as a composer and performer of iconic funny songs, all of which were played on the piano. His influence has been incredible, even though he essentially stopped producing albums in the 1960s.

Mitch’s show talks about exactly how Lehrer influenced his career, and is peppered with songs by Lehrer, or inspired by Lehrer. They are also remixes of said songs, partially because Mitch is mostly a guitar-based artist rather than a piano player (though he does play with the keyboard for a brief while). And of course, we get the Elements song.

This is a lovely homage to Lehrer’s legacy. In addition to a potted history of Lehrer, we learn quite a bit about what it takes to continually produce satirical skits in musical form, and how these things tend to be cyclical. Both Benn and Lehrer’s older songs are still relevant today, despite being topical at the time.

If you’ve not caught up with Benn’s work recently, you really should. He simply keeps getting better and has become a master of satire.

Mitch’s vast back catalogue of work is now available on Bandcamp, so if you’re looking for funny songs, well worth checking out.

You can book tickets for the Edinburgh Fringe show here and learn more about Mitch Benn here.