The science of comedy

Mixing science and comedy sounds like mixing oil and water: almost impossible. As it turns out, science — in the right element — can be pretty funny.

“I used to be an astronomer, but I got stuck on the day shift,” quips fast-talking science comedian Brian Malow during a recent stand-up performance at the Marian Koshland Science Museum in Northwest.

The full-house audience of 70-plus mostly scientist types erupts in laughter.

“This is a pretty nerdy crowd,” says John Gudas, an audience member who does materials science research for the defense industry. (At a question-and-answer session after the performance, a majority identify themselves as physicists.) “They look like scientists.”

It’s also a graying crowd. Most, with a few exceptions, are baby boomers. Some sport pocket protectors, and many arrive alone, armed with reading materials. Several are museum members who say they found out about the performance through the museum mailing list. Perhaps surprisingly, men and women attend in fairly equal numbers. Glasses and beards also are part of the mix, but mostly these people are just frighteningly smart.

It doesn’t take being a scientist, though, to understand most of Mr. Malow’s jokes.

“I do this for a general audience, so there’s something for everyone,” Mr. Malow says before the performance, which focuses on the final frontier — meaning areas of science we still don’t know much about, including the oceans, time travel, microbes, viruses and space.

However, he turns it up a notch and really “geeks out” if he knows he’s guaranteed a 100 percent scientist crowd, says the science enthusiast and 15-year stand-up-comedy veteran (www.sciencecomedian.com).

Speaking of space, Mr. Malow, standing in the main museum hall surrounded by displays and monitors, says his world, er, universe view has been turned on its head since Pluto was disqualified as a real planet.

“They want to call Pluto a dwarf planet,” he says. “That’s not even politically correct…. They prefer to be called ‘little planets.’ ”

Chuckles and nodding heads abound.

He then says he would love to do stand-up in zero gravity and use the line: “It’s not the heat, it’s the humanity.”

Catheryne Chen, a molecular biologist who does cancer research, smiles.

Before the show, Ms. Chen studies a globe-shaped tank containing a sealed living system that involves algae and water and mimics the Earth’s carbon cycle.

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