Comedy of the absurd

A stand-up who wins the Perrier Award at his first attempt shouldn't need any introduction. So why does Demetri Martin always prompt one?

The "who the hell is he?" factor meant his 2003 Perrier win ruffled feathers. Before he arrived in Edinburgh with his palindrome-obsessed show If I... he'd never performed in Britain before. Few had heard of him while he, in turn, had never heard of Perrier. But if the company's marketing bods wanted Martin to be their international poster boy, all it threatened to do was make him the butt of the joke.

"When you're giving prizes for comedy, you're already in a grey area," Martin muses. "For me, I wonder whether a guy winning an award at a festival he's never been to before makes things more interesting. You wonder whether the judges are picking someone who will conveniently cause a reaction."

The Perrier prefix could have been his poisoned chalice but the law school drop-out from New York is a cerebral talent more than capable of consistently raking in punters and plaudits, as his 'addendum' to If I..., Spiral Bound proved last year. These Are Jokes, his 2005 Edinburgh effort, is less comedy as therapy, more observations and jokes.

This is the first London run for These Are Jokes (scripts for Dreamworks and Miramax, plus writing for Conan O'Brien's TV show keep him busy across the pond) and, aside from breaking in some new material, he intends to relax the show's structure. "I like messing around a bit more. In New York you can do a show, test stuff out and not worry about whether people get it. You don't want to be that guy who goes: 'Have you guys heard of... car doors?'"

Rest assured, though, that he still takes his inspiration from exploring things, like palindromes, that are ostensibly useless. "When I do things, I sometimes think: there's no application for this. That's when you know you're on the right track. The more absurd it seems, the more you've got to put into it."

Tonight until Nov 19, Soho Theatre And Writers Centre, 21 Dean Street W1, Mon to Sat 9.30pm, £15 adv, £12.50 concs, £17.50 door, £15 concs. Tel: 0870 429 6883. www.sohotheatre.com

Tube: Tottenham Court Road/Piccadilly Circus

Demetri Martin: These Are Jokes