Science engagement through comedy

sofa17_wMasksCurrent work

Last spring (2022) I debuted a program at NY Tech for undergraduates to develop science-themed stand-up comedy routines.  They performed at the annual Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE); here’s a review.  Last summer, I brought the project to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) summer physical sciences REU program; here’s a tweet of the performance.  Since then I’ve been running it regularly at both AMNH and NY Tech, bringing in professional comedians/storytellers as guest coaches.  The project is funded by National Science Foundation grant 2139004.  Long term, I’d like to broaden this work for the general public.

fig_BIcombinedScience comedy performance at AMNH, 2022 August 3.

Previous work: Reality Aside Theatre

I co-founded Reality Aside Theatre, a 501(c)3 non-profit, with my husband Wayne Yeager.  From 2007 to 2010 we produced comedic plays in Manhattan for general audiences, and a touring educational science-themed sketch comedy show Spin One-half.  We went on hiatus so that I could finish my PhD, and now we look forward to bringing it back, via the comedy project with students.

Here’s one clip of Spin One-Half from the “Rocky Relations” sketch.  Here, a young man’s marriage proposal – which involves a hunk of graphite rather than a diamond – teaches us some basic chemistry: