| Chris Addison | - 1997 Northwest Comedian of the Year Award
- 2005 Edinburgh show Atomicity Perrier nominated
- TV: stars in Armando Iannucci's BBC Four Whitehall comedy 'The Thick Of It'
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Addison’s one-man show – which earned him a Perrier award nomination at the Edinburgh Fringe festival – focuses on how 92 chemical elements in the periodic table rule our lives. Taking in flights of fancy about the sense of loss children feel when they lose grip of their helium-filled balloons to thoughtful analysis of the London terror attacks and the British reaction to them, self-confessed middle-class Addison is never less than hilarious. The periodic table is the peg on which his myriad observations are loosely hung but clever use of context always sees us returning to the original metals and gases (“but none of the ones over number 92, because they’re rubbish”). | "His material is pure Au, (atomic number 79) in the periodic table. That's gold, to you and me" | | James Bentley, reviewer |
Addison doesn’t feel the need to patronise his audience and for that we should be grateful. Working in reference to cryogenics might be risky at a back street comedy club but to an audience familiar to him in the brilliant ‘The Thick of It’ on BBC4, a certain tone – higher brow but with a knowing wink - is picked up and constantly maintained. Despite starting with a tale from a previous visit to the Bury Met that culminated in the townsfolk being branded with a label of perhaps the most shocking example of Anglo Saxon, Addison never lost the undeservedly sparse audience. It is a shame that Addison didn’t play to a larger crowd because there is no doubt that his material is pure Au, atomic number 79 in the periodic table. (That’s gold, to you and me) Rating – 9/10 | 
