Stand-Up Mathematics
Year: 2022 Authors: Matt Parker
Core claim
Stand-up comedy can function as an effective format for communicating mathematics to public audiences.
Topics
performance mathematics, public engagement, content development
Domains
π, mathematical demonstration, popular mathematics, stand-up comedy, stage performance, media communication
Methods
live demonstration, comedic presentation, comparative reflection
Media
overhead projector, YouTube videos, books
Paper text
The text below is the locally extracted OCR/Markdown version of the paper. Raw PDF files remain local and are not published here.
Bridges 2022 Conference Proceedings
Stand-Up Mathematics
Matt Parker
Stand-up mathematician, United Kingdom; matt@standupmaths.com
Abstract
It’s maths: live on stage! Matt Parker has a background in both teaching as well as stand-up comedy. Now he tours worldwide doing comedy shows which are actually math lectures in disguise. Which led him to become the first person to use an overhead projector on-stage at the Hammersmith Apollo since Pink Floyd. He has also calculated live in front of over three thousand people at the Royal Albert Hall. You know, normal math stuff. Matt will demonstrate some of his favourite bits of mathematics and talk about how he uses stand-up comedy to engage people in math.
As well as demonstrating performance mathematics to the general public, Matt will include some meta-chat about the methods and techniques he is using to select and develop content for the stage. Plus some discussion about how this differs when making YouTube videos and writing books.
Figure 1: Matt Parker on stage with -endulum