The Over-Analysers’ Book Club Presents: The Great Gatsby at Waterstones TCR

“It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard drinking people.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

BOOK TICKETS NOW via Eventbrite

On Monday 25 June we’re hosting our last ever Over-Analysers’ Book Club at Waterstones Tottenham Court Road and turning our attention to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s swinging classic.

Expect a Mint Julep-infused part-tribute, part-roast, from a line-up of comedians, academics, a zoologist and a mind-reader…

Joining compere Steve Cross are:

Lettie McKey revisits Gatsby in her 30s to compare and contrast with teenage Lettie’s reading. What unrealistic expectations did it give her or did she project onto it about how her life would be? With the benefit of life experience, how does the book hold up? Does the reality of adult life measure up in any way to this sun-kissed fantasy? Does it fuck.

Joanna Bagniewska from the Universities of Oxford and Reading: The Great Gatsby is widely considered to be a novel focused on depicting the Roaring Twenties and the American Dream. But it takes a zoologist to tell you what the book is REALLY about.

Sean Smith – “I hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” The Fool is the first card of the major arcana of the Tarot — and mindreader Sean Smith will do a live Tarot reading for a Gatsby character of your choice!

Sadaf Betts from the Institute of English at the School of Advanced Study is doing a PhD on Fitzgerald. She’ll be giving us a whirlwind guide to common and uncommon questions about The Great Gatsby, and a few of the more interesting answers.

Charlotte Mykura – Gatsby revolts Charlotte in many ways. She’ll argue that the book’s only redeeming character is that ill guy who’s girlfriend got run over. He’s got spirit.

 

 

Plus more from Zena Marks

Doors are 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Ages 18+ only please.

Get your tickets now (£7 plus booking fee)

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Wednesday 6 June – Science Showoff – Star of Kings, London

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Join us on the 6th June for our LAST ‘open sign-up’ night. We’ll be shaking things up a bit later in the year – more to be revealed in the Autumn.

Our amazing line-up, compered by Steve Cross at the Star of Kings:

Rohin Francis on real-life X-Men

Louise Arnal from the University of Reading and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts explains the science and art of predicting floods

Journalist, filmmaker, and co-presenter of the Why Aren’t You A Doctor Yet? podcast, Suhail Patel, explores relationships and “dating science”… namely, why he’s shit at them, and how science can help him understand why

Cam Watson, who’s determined to figure out why exactly he decided to do a PhD, and he’s willing to go back a long way to do it

Charvy Narain with the perils and pitfalls of experimenting on babies

Ellie Welch from the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Manchester talking about science activists in the 1970s, and wondering why we’re having the same conversations about women in science nearly 40 years on

Parasite lover and glitter aficionado Paolo Arru is a microbiologist turned science communicator who will probably use his nine minutes to make jokes unsuitable for (any) adults

Plus more from Ali Mozaffari and Adriana Lowe

All proceeds go to charity. Book now!

June 6th – Last open signup Science Showoff ever?

Science Showoff, your favourite science comedy cabaret show if you are a sexy nerd, started as a show that anyone could sign up to perform at. From this Autumn it’s going to transform slightly, and we won’t be creating opportunities for complete strangers to try out performing science in the same way.

But before we close the door, one more chance for you to rush in and be part of the gig that has helped kick-start the careers of so many performers and science TV presenters since 2011.

Grab a 9-minute slot here: https://doodle.com/poll/zsaerh5mdvqutvq6

This show is open to anyone who isn’t a member of the Science Showoff Talent Factory. They get enough chances. Old faces, fresh meat, new friends and strategic partners! Come and be entertaining about science for 9 minutes with us.

Perform with this idiot.

The show is at the Star of Kings, York Way from 1930-200 on June 6th. We’ll need you from 1830. You get 9 minutes on stage to do anything in any style about any kind of science.

 

Tuesday 22 May – Science Showoff – Star of Kings, London

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This month we’re at the Star of Kings with an awesome line-up of sci-comm students. Joining your host Steve Cross are:

UCL Cognitive Neuroscience research student Jak Maloret on why we get Goosebumps, and why he’s not going to say what you expect

Joy Aston from Imperial College on how chemistry really doesn’t seem to run in the family

Izzy Sturt and Shivani Dave – both studying at Imperial College – take a look at new medical and ‘wellness’ discoveries

Oxford PhD candidate Kevin Baker asks: what’s the point of doing History of Science? Science is all about keeping the ideas that work and throwing out the ones that don’t, so why would we bother studying the old, wrong, theories? Kevin will explain what Historians of Science do, and try convince you – and himself – that his PhD isn’t a complete waste of time

Imperial’s Patrick Walsh presents his problems with science communication: a particularly uninspiring critique of science communication from a person whose opinion doesn’t matter.

Sarah Leach (also Imperial College) on the things she’s learned from answering strange visitor questions while working at a natural history museum

Henry Bennie from the National Physical Laboratory and Imperial College London: From May 20th 2019 every quantifiable measurement will change forever and almost no one will notice. Prepare yourselves for uncertainty

Plus more from Sarah Jones

GET TICKETS NOW – £6.60 – all proceeds to charity

The Over-Analysers’ Book Club presents: DRACULA – Thursday 10 May – Waterstones TCR

“We learn from failure, not from success!”

Book tickets now!

The Over-Analysers’ Book Club treats Dracula by Bram Stoker to an hour and a half of our attention in the lovely basement bar of Waterstones Tottenham Court Road on 10 May.

Six acts from the worlds of academia and comedy have nine minutes each to sink their teeth into this gothic classic and suck out its strangest, silliest, most interesting, or downright filthy angles for your entertainment.

The line up, compered by Steve Cross, includes

Amanda DiGioia, PhD Student at SSEES, UCL, looking at the Daddies in Dracula: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Recovering soil scientist Sarah Jones on what Dracula should’ve known about soil science. What exactly is in his boxes?

Layla McCay, MC of the world-famous story sleuthing show Perfect Liars Club, looks beyond blood with an epicurean analysis of appetites in Dracula

Imperial College London PhD student in immunology and Genuine Romanian Alina Paduraru, complaining about Daddy Dracula’s immigration status and questionable table manners

Jess Hindes has a PhD in Victorian literature – she’ll be talking about Mina Barker’s secretarial skills and the idea of an administrator-heroine

Becky Littlechilds on the role of sacralisation and ecclesiastical law in Dracula specifically and vampiric law more generally

Doors are 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Please note this is earlier than Books Showoff 2016-17.

Ages 18+ only please! (Blame Amanda ;))

GET TICKETS FROM THE WATERSTONES WEBSITE

Science Showoff – Wednesday 9 May – Star of Kings, London

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Should you lick a rock?

Ukuleles: why?

What ARE engineers?!

Joining your compere Steve Cross on the Star of Kings (King’s Cross, London) stage to answer all your burning science questions are:

Social scientist Taha Khan, who is perpetually hoping that general geekiness is an acceptable substitute for having absent teachers throughout GCSE science

Cambridge’s Kate Feller on how mantis shrimp made her learn to play the ukulele

Holly Hall from UCL explaining the neuroscience of everyday altruism and how we can use it to combat global issues such as discrimination and environmental pollution

Hana Ayoob talking about how going on safari revealed she might have a heart of stone, and why her zoology degree is partly to blame

In the wilderness between degree and PhD, Matthew Kemp from Cambridge will take you on a geological journey from licking rocks to coding and back again

What is the hidden truth about engineers? Hayley Loren reveals all

Belle Taylor asks what makes a Slytherin, and why has science turned her into one?

Jonathan Cairns trying to persuade you that using data science in medicine to save lives is cool, even though he isn’t

Doors are 7pm for a 7.30 start

All proceeds from ticket sales go to charity. Book HERE. (£6.60)

Never Explain (the worst-behaved science comedy panel show) – Thursday 12th April

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Never Explain is a new science comedy panel show podcast from Steve Cross. It’s science made hilarious, awkward and weird, where the right answer gets you no friends and making jokes at each other’s expense is the key to being a winner.

Join us at The Harrison Gastro Pub & Hotel in London on Thursday 12th April for two shows as the cream of the Science Showoff Talent Factory take on the rest of the world to find out who can say the funniest things, and stir the most sh*t, while never really getting to the real science.

In game one Aimee Eckert (glamorous star of Dr Jiggs Bowson’s Charming Science Friends) and Matt Hutchinson (curator and compere of Mixtape At The Albany) take on Fran Day (physics comedian) and Faz Alam (the world’s funniest detective of medical fraud).

In game two Mike Conterio (host of The Variables Presents in Cambridge) and Hannah Thompson (winner of numerous science communication competitions) go head to head with an all-Nottingham team made up of Shalaka Kurup and Kath Thomas (both veterans of Bright Club and Science Showoff).

Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30 start