Cardiff goes cabaret for engineering

The Pythagorean Cabaret evening was the brainchild of IET member Rhys Phillips of the South Wales Local Networks (LN). Held in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, the evening saw eight acts perform, and consisted of everything from stand-up comedy and science raps to a science junkie looking at the forces in play in bikes, diablos and gyroscopes and even a live straightjacket escape.

Although clearly a social event, the aim of the evening was to promote science to the more general public in a fun and entertaining way, as well as showcasing the different kinds of science communication outreach work that is going on across the UK.

Science communication tools

“It’s the same ethos as behind my radio show Pythagoras’ Trousers I guess,” says Phillips. “What was important was showing that science doesn’t have to be done in a lecture theatre by an old guy in a white coat. All of the acts were fairly young and entertaining and it was done in this theatre cabaret style. No matter how uninteresting the science first appears, if you present it in the right way it becomes interesting and humour is a good way of getting people to connect and respond,” he explains.

Phillips, already a successful STEM ambassador, is well known for his show, which is broadcast on Radio Cardiff twice a week. An avid promoter of science and engineering, he thought it would be great to bring together the people he had met in the last 18 months through his schools outreach and radio work. Many of the final line-up had originally appeared on his show as guests.

“Around six months ago I realised that I had met all these different people who were all doing different kinds of science communication work,” he says. “I thought it would be really nice to get all of these people in one room and do a reduced version of what we go out and do.

“I was partly inspired by the Uncaged Monkeys tour, a mix of comedians and scientists, where Robin Ince and Brian Cox toured with Simon Singh, Ben Goldacre, and Dara O Briain amongst others.”

So Phillips approached the people he’d met, each experienced STEM communicators in their own right, and they agreed to take to the stage for free.

Finding a venue

Smooth sailing so far, things got a little more stressful when it came to booking the venue. There were actually only two dates when all the acts were available to perform. Wanting to hold the event in a theatre, Phillips began to ring around, only to discover none were free on those days.

Beginning to panic, Phillips remembered that the Museum of Wales had a lecture theatre and thought he’d try calling there. Luckily they had one of the evenings free, although there was an event on during the day, which meant the team had only a little time to set up and rehearse. It may not have been ideal, however, they worked around this and the event was a resounding success.

Sell, sell, sell!

But the stresses didn’t end there. Ten days before the event only four tickets had been sold, even though Phillips and the LN team had done a lot of work on promotion. They had used the usual channels, Institution mailing lists, spreading the message at work and giving out flyers at the local Science Café event.

However, during that final week they ramped up promotion, with Phillips using his contacts to get on BBC Radio Wales on the Friday before the event and the compère of the event Dean Burnett using his to get a whole page spread in the local paper on the Saturday.

In the end their fears were unfounded, as approximately 200 people showed up on the night.

“I think we didn't need to worry about ticket sales so much, as this kind of thing happens at these events. I’ve found in the past that people register in advance for free events then don’t turn up. So we purposely put a small £5 charge on each ticket because we figured that if someone had paid for a ticket then they’re more likely to make the effort to turn up,” says Rhys.

“Also the comedians themselves advised me that if people pay they’re less likely to heckle and make a fuss because they want to enjoy the night since they’ve paid to be there. Putting a small charge changes the way the audience reacts to the comedy generally.”

A standing ovation

And enjoy it they did. The audience reaction from the night was very positive. Word is already spreading of the show and Phillips has even been asked if he’ll take it on the road!

“We’ve already had a request from people in Manchester asking if we can take it to them on tour,” he says. “I’ve also had a bunch of scientists get in touch asking if they can take part if we do it again.”

Although nothing’s set in stone, Phillips and the LN would like for the cabaret to live on in some form or other.

“It would be great to do this on an annual basis,” says Phillips. The idea is there now, we know it works and we can pull in an audience.”

And there’s already talk of the cabaret evening returning in less than a year. Phillips is on the organising committee for the Cardiff Science Festival, which is taking place in the summer of 2012, and the team are already considering a cabaret night as part of the event.