We laughed, we cried, we almost Ctrl+V’d our pants.

A packed house at the Box Office SpeakEasy Theatre were treated to a sold-out preview of long-term Phnom Penh resident David Benaim’s hour-long comedy show, as he prepares to take it to the world’s largest performance arts festival, the Edinburgh Fringe.

With a Microsoft Excel theme, the audience was unsure how he was going to hold their attention for a full hour, but rest assured, “Excel Comedy and Mathem-antics” ticks every box, err .. fills every column and row.

As it turns out, you don’t need to be a maestro of =SUM calculations to find yourself drawn in by the charismatic comedian – he has found a winning formula.

What started out as a dad-joke peppered keynote conference address by a spreadsheet enthusiast (yes, they exist, and yes, I find that terrifying), was suddenly something more. David balanced a steady stream of appalling puns – which had everyone groaning in just the right way – with a deeply personal exploration of his own life and that of fabled mathematician Alan Turing, as well as some football trivia that is sure to go over well in Edinburgh.

Moving deftly between double entendres and invaluable history lessons, he took us on a rollercoaster ride of information technology and a treatise on the nature of how we see ourselves… and what we wish we’d known when we were younger.

Nerdy, vulnerable, hilarious, strong, thoroughly likeable, and with a couple of important things to say about can-cell culture, the spreadsheet ninja taught us some tips, and the unlikely format left us remembering why you should never judge a book by its cover, or a cell by its formula.

David will perform this must-see show again on Thursday, July 10, via Britcham, a few weeks before what is sure to be an Edinburgh triumph.