Science Showoff – Weds 5 July – Star of Kings

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Joining your host Steve Cross in the Star of Kings basement for the last London Science Showoff before we head off to Jodrell Bank (lol) for Blue Dot, are:

Violet Kovacheva – talking about the challenges of being a mathematician (and not sure if she can still call herself that) in the world of cancer research

Emma Osborne – Prepare to have your mind warped by astrophysicist Emma Osborne’s light speed facts that unveil the power of the universe

Sadie Jones – she of the Astrobiological Sword: The story of Sadie’s PhD research into a single messed-up supermassive black hole and how her efforts to understand it morphed her into the fully fledged astro warrior she is today

Matt Bancroft – Matt is a PhD student at UCL, trying to figure out how and why people fall over. He’ll be talking about graphs and hoping that his jokes don’t fall flat.

Kieran Brophy – Kieran is a climate physics PhD student looking for the sort of love and affirmation from strangers that his supervisor will never give. His research is backed by an unlikely troika of the Chinese, mainstream media, and the frantic Morse blinks of Melania Trump

Renae Crossing – Renae has wanted every kind of job at one stage (ballerina, artist, graphic designer, architect…) and here she is as a science teacher! A lover of all things creative and of presenting science research as such, she’ll be sharing stories about physics, females and flesh-eating bacteria

Bahijja Raimi-Abraham – Get ready to learn all about the fascinating art of making medicines by pharmacist and lecturer Bahijja, who will be talking about how she plans to use her experience as a pharmacist to develop suitable medicines for all.

Plus more from and Yolanda Ohene.

Tickets – £6.60 in advance or £8 cash on the night

The Star of Kings, York Way, London. Doors 7pm for a 7.30 start.

Materials Showoff – Tuesday 20th June – Star of Kings

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We gave the engineers their chance to show off. The lawyers, historians, authors, and zoo-keepers. Now taking to the stage at the Star of Kings, arguably the researchers with the most double-entendres in their Wikipedia entry – materials scientists!

Curated by FameLab 2017 finalist, materials expert, and fire-trumpeter, Anna Ploszajski, our line-up includes:

Emma Ryan on space wire and why not to Google smut on work computers

Corrosion scientist Carol Glover with ‘A crisis in Flint. How corrosion caused devastation in the Vehicle City’

Richard Ouma tells us his experiences as an immigrant materials science student in London

What even is a material? Cerys Bradley doesn’t know, so why on earth are they even doing this gig?

Plus more from Oliver Broadbent, Natasha Simons and Hannah Cameron.

Tickets – £6.60 in advance or £8 cash on the night

The Star of Kings, York Way, London. Doors 7pm for a 7.30 start.

Books Showoff – Waterstones Tottenham Court Road – Tuesday 27 June

Would you like an evening’s chill in London’s coolest bookshop? With its amazing cocktail bar? And cake? And loads of books you can buy, high on booze and sugar and life?

We’re putting nine hilarious, lovely, speakers in aforementioned bookshop too, to make it EVEN BETTER.

Here, get one of these tickets: just seven quid from the Waterstones website

Joining your host Steve Cross are:

Mark Dilworth spent 20 years in investment banking then discovered the horrors of the London open mic circuit – which is still an improvement. He’ll be dissing his least favourite book, Silas Marner

Kate Devlin, a computing lecturer and internationally renowned sex robot boffin, explains why Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books are simultaneously compelling and really really annoying

Scientist Oz Ismail on why the Little Mermaid and Pinocchio are definitely not stories for kids

Zoe Cunningham shares secrets from her new book ‘An Actor’s Life For Me?’ Are you an actor, only in disguise? What is an actor anyway?

Geeky stand-up Haran X has performed on BBC Radio 4 Extra. He also co-produces the Faking Lit podcast, where comedians review books they’ve pretended to have read

Comedian Lucy Roper is the daughter of a librarian and an English Literature graduate, and would qualify to speak at Books Showoff on that alone. But she’s also hilarious, performing recently at Edinburgh Fringe and the Leicester Comedy festival among other shows.

Julie Albrecht is a journalist and a bookhoarder with two literature degrees to prove it. She’ll be talking about what books to read if you want more room on public transport.

Plus more from Ali Mozaffari and Lydia Nicholas.

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Science Showoff – Weds 7 June – Star of Kings

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We’ve got loads of new and exciting science faces on our Wednesday 7 June line-up, exploring all the biggest and most controversial issues in the history of science: pandemics, autoimmunity, men…

Joining Steve Cross in the Star of Kings basement:

Natt Day – Everyone loves watching pandemic disaster films. But are they at all realistic?

Alex Parsons explores the history and science of people complaining about dog poo in the street

Cam Watson talks us through the evolutionary origins of maleness. Ever looked at some men and just wondered… why?

Mirri Hengeveld – Justice Through Science: Magnus Hirschfeld and the beginnings of modern sexology

Sarah Binney talks 19th century clockmaking. Horrible Horology, or, why the time in London is the same as in Cork but not in Calais

Anna Cupani studied for her PhD at Imperial, and ended up in the middle of the Belgian countryside. She’ll be talking about her experience being a woman (and a foreigner) in the science and engineering world and the crazy, painful, and hilarious things that come with it

Alina Paduraru explains autoimmune disorders and how T cells are involved

Steve Lee – A ramble in Academia, Alchemy and America…

GET TICKETS (£6.60 in advance or £8 on the door)

 

 

Engineering Showoff all-star gig – Bloomsbury Theatre – 23rd May

From civil engineers to mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, software engineers, structural engineers, chemical engineers, industrial engineers, geotechnical engineers and all the other types of engineer we’d never even heard of – turns out they’re all HILARIOUS.

After a year of packed-out and brilliant Engineering Showoff gigs, we’re bringing an all-star line-up to the swanky Bloomsbury Theatre studio on May 23rd, raising funds for Engineers Without Borders.

Joining your compere Steve Cross from the private, commercial and unemployed sectors, are:

2017 FameLab finalist Anna Ploszajski, Katie Hassell, Oli Broadbent, Katie Cresswell-Maynard, Elena Rastorgueva, Phill Brown, and Philippa Jefferis.

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Books Showoff – Waterstones TCR – 24th May

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Books Showoff is the first and best London comedy cabaret by and for lovers of literature, be they librarian, collector, academic, reader, writer, binder, sniffer, comedian, futuristic drag poet, guitar-strumming maths teacher, over-enthusiastic fan of terrible ‘80s erotic fiction, or blue-haired scientist in a badger mask.

Yeah, the last few shows have got pretty weird…

Joining compere Steve Cross in the Waterstones Tottenham Court Road basement cocktail bar on Wednesday 24 May are:

Shiraz Engineer – the English Speaking Union’s Shiraz Engineer used to work at the Book Trust literacy charity, re-reading kids’ books over and over for a living. She’ll be introducing us to Robert Swindalls, the author who first sparked her reading obsession.

Beverley Glick – As a writer and editor Beverley has had a long career in journalism. Unfortunately she realised – too late – that this was not an adequate qualification for a task she was set in 2008: to write a chick-lit porno called Confessions of a Lap Dancer…

Rosie Clarke from Culture 24 will introduce us to the unbelievably determined writer and architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, who came to the UK as a refugee and committed himself to an extraordinary lifelong labour researching and publishing the Buildings of England series. But how does this tie in with Rosie’s dad’s choice of anorak?

Rachel Wheeley – Rachel will be celebrating ‘towel day’ a day early. On May 25th, fans of the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy carry a towel as a tribute to the late, great Douglas Adams. Find out why H2G2 should be your sacred text.

Helen Lippell and Simon Koppel – 15 years of combined book buying has resulted in a valiant storage battle to ensure Helen and Simon’s collection is shelved, instead of balanced precariously in teetering piles around the house…

Rev. Kate Harford – Kate is the Ecumenical Chaplain at Oxford Brookes University. She’ll be  sharing some thoughts on How to Win Friends and Execute People (or, Things You Never Knew the Bible Could Teach You).

Claire Cheong – In ‘Look Who’s Back’, Timur Vermes wrote about a hypothetical scenario with the infamous Führer being back in town in today’s world. No need to look into the hypothetical world. Just look around. He already is.

Lyra Francis – Lyrá Francis (party girl, bar wench, possibly allergic to crab) hasn’t written a book – but she has ripped off several bestsellers online. Yes, it’s fanfiction and yes, it’s just as embarrassing as it sounds.

Get tickets (£7) from the Waterstones website

Science Showoff curated by FameLab winner Alex Lathbridge – May 3rd and 16th – Star of Kings

Enjoy laughing and learning and drinking in basements? Want to see biochemistry PhD, rapper, FameLab 2017 winner, and Science Showoff Talent Factory hero, Alex Lathbridge deflect heckles with more grace than any political candidate pre-June 8th?

He’s curated a line-up of top hilarious and genius talent for two Showoffs this May in the Star of Kings basement, York Way, Kings Cross.

Here’s who to expect on Wednesday 3rd May (GET TICKETS):

Tiv Balendra, Will Other, Oz Ismail, Charvy Narain, Subhadra Das, Matthew Hutchinson, and Faz Alam.

And on Tuesday 16th May (GET TICKETS):

Maneesh Kuruvilla, Haran X, Sarah Cosgriff, Fatumina S. Abukar, Dan Hdidouan, Jamal Kinsella, Mike Sulu, and more.