Comedy-science trio Festival of the Spoken Nerd are heading to The Old Market as part of their UK tour: You Can’t Polish A Nerd. Merging science experiments and gawky comedy, the team have an ever-growing YouTube presence, two DVD and download releases, and have hosted their own BBC Radio 4 show, Domestic Science, due to return next year.
Festival of the Spoken Nerd consists of a close-nit team of suitably geeky scientists-come-comedians. Musician and comedian Helen Arney rose to popularity after touring with Brian Cox and Robin Ince. Holding a Physics degree from Imperial College, Helen conducts a range of exciting experiments and demonstrations injected with her unique musical comedy style. She plays the ukulele and has written songs about being cryogenically-frozen and the radioactivity quality of bananas.
Presenter and Oxford Physics graduate, Steve Mould has taken sketch shows to the Edinburgh Fringe and co-hosted ITV’s I Never Knew That About Britain. He was also once the Science Presenter on Blue Peter and allegedly “hasn’t stopped going on about it since”. Steve gives his name to the colloquial term – the Mould Effect – for a physical phenomenon known as the chain fountain, which he brought to the attention of Cambridge University academics with his YouTube demonstration video.
Completing the trio, is Australian mathematician and comedian Matt Parker. With stacks of television, radio and YouTube appearances at his back, Matt is also the author of Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension. He made headlines last month when he started an online petition demanding that UK traffic signs be updated to show geometrically correct footballs.
Exploring everything from zoology to the Periodic Table, You Can’t Polish A Nerd is set to be a whirlwind journey of laugh-out-loud, scientific geekery.
You Can’t Polish A Nerd shows Sunday 5 November at 4:30pm at The Old Market.
Tickets: £17.50 standard/£14 concessions (including full-time students)
Featured Image: Idil Sukan and Draw HQ
