Shlomo: Human Geekbox, Corn Exchange, Brighton

At the end of his hour and 20 minute long performance Shlomo gives us an encore, a percussive tune wherein his amazing noise-making abilities are piled on top of each other with a piece of sampling kit called a Loop Station. This multi-layered nugget is propulsive but the seated audience is unsure, as it has been throughout, whether the evening's ambience should be rowdily interactive or quietly appreciative, as if watching a play.

Alongside Beardyman, Shlomo is at the vanguard of British beatboxing and his art has lately been pushing multimedia shows into uncharted territory. Where Beardyman – with his extraordinary Beardytron 5000 gizmo - has been gradually moving sideways from the cabaret/comedy aspect into an unprecedented futurist rave extravaganza, Shlomo embraces more nuanced, theatrical avenues.

He tells the story of a drum 'n' bass rave where he first met Foreign Beggars frontman Orifice Vulgatron

This should come as no surprise. While Simon "Shlomo" Khan cut his teeth with hip hop act Foreign Beggars - an experience which forms a key moment in Human Geekbox - and got his big break when Bjork utilised him on her 2004 song “Oceania”, in recent years he’s been involved with more broadly arts-based projects such as Scottish composer Anne Meredith’s Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra and his own biographical Mouthtronica show. In fact, the Human Geekbox tour, of which tonight is the first date, is a continuation of Shlomo's life-assessment ruminations. The crowd tentativeness, alongside a few first night technical mishaps, mean there are occasional bumps in the road but it makes for likeable, goofy and thoughtful entertainment.

The show starts in Shlomo's childhood, in 1987, and he first appears via a beatboxed 2001: A Space Odyssey/"Also Sprach Zarathrustra" intro, clad in silver dressing-up-box astronaut gear - including a pair of oven gloves. He tells us how his grandfather was an astro-physicist who had a planet (Khania) named after him, a planet that's embossed on the track suit top and tee-shirt that cover his lanky frame. From there, he leads us through a tale of innocence lost, of pursuing dreams, of the power of parenthood and the cyclical nature of human existence. It's gently philosophical, amusing rather than hilarious and touched with occasional brilliance, such as a sequence where he tells the story of a drum & bass rave where he first met Foreign Beggars frontman Orifice Vulgatron.

Naturally, he intersperses everything with outbreaks of Loop Station-assisted beatboxing, from a mash-up of Michael Jackson and The Police to a catchy self-composed number, "Roundabout", dedicated to his son. During the tour he will be composing a new song with musicians from each town he visits, recorded live onstage, with the whole collection eventually to be released as an album for the War Child charity. In Brighton he brings Afro-haired female guitar-slinger Zee Gachette - AKA Z-Star - onstage for a rocking number called (I think) "The Space Around My Head" which features a driving chorus about "riding on a river of change." Shortly afterwards, he's out in the foyer as a queue forms for CD signing, his guilleless persona, happy grin and gawky glasses perhaps as important to his fans as the show they've just seen.

Watch a trailer for Human Geekbox