For a long time, David Benaim has been known as ‘the Excel guy’. He’s been training people on Excel for the past 12 years, he creates data systems for organisations and has made YouTube tutorials on Excel for the past six years for his 20k subscribers (mostly US based). He owns more than one t-shirt with ‘I Love Excel’ written on it. It is perhaps inevitable, then, that his comedy would feature a healthy dose of Excel. 

“I took a stand-up comedy course in 2022. My first ‘course graduation' set was fairly generic, but my second ever show was actually about spreadsheets,” he says. From then on, Benaim built up more and more comedy material on Excel. He went to see Edinburgh Fringe shows that year and saw an opening: “There were shows about the most random things that you could imagine, but there was nothing about spreadsheets.”

He started to build a concept that brought together spreadsheet- and maths-based jokes as well as genuine tips and tricks for using Excel, and applied to some Edinburgh Fringe organisations the following year, but got rejected. “That was a good thing, because I wasn’t ready.”

So he spent another year working on his comedy and encouraging others in Cambodia, where he lives, to get involved in the scene there. Then a fellow comedian, Scott Redmond, saw potential in Benaim’s spreadsheet material and suggested he put on his show at a small fringe festival in Dundee. “So last summer, I built the show. I basically put together a lot of the material that I built around Excel, mixed that with tutorials, and added a bit of a story towards the end. I tested it out a couple of times in Cambodia and then I did it at the Dundee Fringe and it went pretty well.”

Having had a good response and a positive review at the Dundee Fringe, Beniam decided it was time for another crack at Edinburgh. “I refined the show, extended it from 45 minutes to an hour, adding some jokes about maths and naming the show Excel Comedy and Mathem-antics, and applied to a few places. An organisation called Just The Tonic accepted me within 12 hours of receiving my application, so I decided to go with them.”

Benaim had fairly low expectations for the Festival – after hearing that the average Edinburgh show gets about six audience members per performance – but he ended up selling out his entire run. “It’s pretty rare, especially for a first-timer.”

You might think the draw of a show about Excel was too much for Fringe audiences – especially as, according to Benaim, “At the beginning of my show, I ask the audience: ‘Are you here for maths? Are you here for Excel? Are you here because someone else dragged you against your will?’ The last one always gets the biggest cheer, sadly.”

Despite the self-deprecation (or cell-deprecation), Benaim believes the Excel factor is the reason why his show was so successful. “I'm new to Edinburgh Fringe. I don't live in the UK. No one knows who I am apart from the couple of dozen friends that came to see my show, some ICAEW accountants who read my blog posts and a small proportion who have seen my YouTube channel. I was filling a 60-seater every day, so while a few were into maths, people were mostly into Excel or they dragged their friends and partners with them.”

Alongside the stand-up, audiences were also learning something. Benaim included several Excel features that “only 1% of users know about” which he reveals comedically throughout the show with crowd work segments. These aren’t complex formulas, but simple tools that anyone can understand. 

Clear all

“Whether you’re an Excel pro or someone who has only used it a handful of times, you’ll have come across a situation where you need to erase cells,” says Benaim. “The thing is, under 1% actually know how to properly do this. Pressing ‘delete' will remove the data, not the colours, borders and more, it may take a further five clicks to actually achieve your goal, and several common workarounds also don’t solve the problem.” 

As part of the show, David asks audiences how to solve a problem like this, with punchlines built in for likely wrong answers. The right way to do it? On the Home tab, there is a drop down for ‘clear’ that almost no one ever clicks. This reveals ‘clear all’ which can remove everything from a cell.

=TRANSLATE

It’s never been possible to convert numbers to words in Excel, without some additional Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code. It is one of the most-used VBA codes in the world for business across the entire history of Excel, because cheques used to require this. 

Except, it’s not entirely true that Excel cannot convert numbers to words. It can, but only in one specific language: =BAHTTEXT converts numbers into words in the Thai language and has been a function within Excel for decades. “In 2024, the ‘=TRANSLATE’ function was launched. We can use it with =BAHTTEXT and convert those numbers into English language words.”

Excel at 40

Benaim will be conducting a session at ICAEW’s Excel at 40 event on 9 September. “I’m doing an extract of my show, including some stand-up comedy and visual slide jokes. Then I’ll be demonstrating some of the quirky and fun things that a lot of people don’t know about spreadsheets.”

As for the Excel Comedy and Mathem-antics show, Benaim is taking it back to the Dundee Fringe this month. “That’s on Sunday 14 September. Then I hope to go to the Adelaide Fringe. After that, I’ll be reflecting on the future.” Follow The Excel Comedian on Instagram for updates.