Video: Meet the man who has mastered the Rubik's Cube

Tom is one member of the Spanish national PokÃ©mon team, and chose to sit out an international tournament to entertain at the Fringe in Edinburgh this month.

It would take most human-beings several hours, days, weeks, or even months to solve one.

But one self-professed ‘performing nerd’ and his lightening-quick fingers takes solving the puzzle, which has entranced adults and children alike for more than 40 years, to a new level.

Tom Crosbie, who hails from York, can disentangle the multicoloured cube in a matter of seconds.

Tom’s talents don’t begin and end with the Rubik’s cube - other skills include casually memorising an entire deck of cards, and playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game at a global competitive level.

Tom is one member of the Spanish national Pokémon team, and chose to sit out an international tournament to entertain at the Fringe in Edinburgh this month.

The 25-year-old’s 16-year obsession with the Rubik’s Cube started in the early 2000s, borne from determination to rival his school friends and impress the ladies. Unfortunately, he soon discovered it didn’t make him as “cool” in the eyes of the fairer sex as he’d hoped.

In the years since, Tom has taken his skills to the next level and can be seen solving a Rubik’s Cube one-handed in the video above, before completing eight more turns in one swift movement of his hand.

Visitors to this year’s Fringe can watch Tom’s mind at work at his show in The Voodoo Rooms until the end of August.

In ‘You Can’t Polish a Nerd,’ Tom takes to the stage and displays his seamless Rubik’s Cube strategy for all to see.

His big finale uses 100 Rubik’s Cubes to “paint” a different portrait of a well-known figure chosen by his audience each day, with his pixilated masterpieces depicting the likes of Albert Einstein, Donald Trump and Pikachu from his beloved Pokémon.

Sixteen years into his Rubik’s revolution, Tom insists that he isn’t “cool” enough to be a magician.

He underlines that breaking the Cube’s code is down to a string of nifty moves, and is not an illusion.

“There are hundreds of magicians at the Fringe, but there’s only one performing nerd,” he jokes.

“The one thing that no one takes into account is that I’m finishing the show by mixing up 100 Rubik’s Cubes, which then means I have to go away and solve them all after the show’s over,” he adds.

If you’re wondering how long it takes him to solve 100 Rubik’s Cubes after a show, it’s “about half an hour.”

‘You Can’t Polish a Nerd’ (18+) is on every day at 12.10 until Sunday, 27 August at The Voodoo Rooms.