Matt Parker finds comedy in numbers

Maths as entertainment – how exactly does that work? This is the first question that I put to Matt Parker, a man who has no problem finding the humour in binary numbers.

Matt, a teacher turned stand-up comedian, says that increasing numbers of people are interested in the more nerdy side of comedy.

“All maths has the potential to be funny,” says Matt, who is a maths fellow at Queen Mary University of London. “The golden rule with stand-up comedy is that comedians should tell jokes about something they are passionate about.”

His book, Things To Make And Do In The Fourth Dimension, published towards the end of last year, is an extension of the maths stand-up, and it is this which brings him to the Ropetackle Arts Centre in Shoreham as part of Brighton Science Festival.

“For a lot of people, maths was a necessary evil, and I think that’s a shame. The other side of maths is using it to solve puzzles and be creative, which you never really get to see at school.”

The evidence is in the success of Japanese number puzzle sudoku, he says.

In fact, recreational maths is a known area, and even more so thanks to Matt, who established MathsJam in 2008 as an informal gathering of London maths teachers, university students, academics and others who enjoyed talking about maths in the pub. MathsJams now occur on the second-last Tuesday of the month in over 30 cities.

Australian-born Matt did not start out as a comedian.

“I used to work as a maths teacher, and part of the job is to convince the students that they want to learn it,” he says. “Maths can be very boring, very easily – you can just teach it as a rote subject. What’s interesting is the main preconception students have is that maths is quite a dry subject, whereas a lot of mathematicians think it’s great fun, and they like playing around with it.

“I was looking at getting better at public speaking, and I found a course you could do in stand-up, an evening course in London.

“I started doing open mic nights on the side, and loved it.”

Matt said that the worlds of teaching and stand-up actually fitted quite well together with teaching finishing for the day by 4pm, while he wouldn’t need to be at venues before around 5pm for the stand-up gigs.

Since his first gig in 2009 things have really taken off for Matt, and he has become a regular at Edinburgh Fringe, and along with fellow comedians Helen Arney and Steve Mould is one third of Festival of the Spoken Nerd.

“We were being asked more and more to do nerdy stand-up comedy, but there was nowhere to practice the really nerdy stuff,” says Matt.

“It started selling out straight away, and we worked our way up into bigger and better venues. There’s a rise in interest in science as comedy.

“I don’t want to look at it too closely in case it goes away!

“Each year at Edinburgh Fringe there are always more nerd-focused shows going on; it’s seriously close to becoming a sub-genre.”

All is not lost for those who struggled with maths as children, as Matt is confident that without the pressure of lessons or exams, adults can find enjoyment in maths.

“I went through a stage of being very obsessed with spreadsheets, and also binary numbers,” says Matt, describing his own particular interests, which feed into his comedy. “I’m now moving into the maths we use to look at how images are produced.”

At the Shoreham event he will talk about the book, and participate in a question and answer session.

“With live performances, things have to be visual and engaging, and you can’t spend a long time on anything.

“With the book I have the chance to go into more depth and get the readers to try some things for themselves.”

Readers can learn how to cut pizzas in fairer ways, tie their shoes faster, and even make a working computer out of dominoes.

One of the many puzzles and challenges that the book sets readers is to construct a four-dimensional shape, and Matt recounts receiving an email from a reader who had done so using jelly babies and skewers.

“That’s the essence of what I’m trying to do – if I can make someone stop what they are doing and go and hunt in the kitchen for some skewers.

“It’s quite a scary image really.”

It was a balancing act, to make the book simple to read but of interest to those who are more comfortable with maths, says Matt.

“I wanted to make sure that anyone with any mathematical ability would enjoy the book.

“I have long lists of things I’d love to write about, and things I want to talk about.

“Despite the fact I have been doing maths for many years, still about once a week I’ll come across something new.

“I’m guaranteed to never run out of material, which is great for a comedian.”

As well as comedy, Matt still visits schools to give talks and run workshops, as well as compiling free resources.

He is a regular on BBC Radio 4’s Infinite Monkey Cage with Robin Ince and Brian Cox, and presents Discovery’s You Have Been Warned and QuestTV’s World’s Top Five, among other television appearances, and one of his You Tube videos, The Problems With Zero, has almost 1.5 million views.

•  Matt Parker is at the Ropetackle Arts Centre, Little High Street, Shoreham, on Wednesday, February 11. Tickets are £8 – visit www.ropetacklecentre.co.uk or call 01273 464440.
•  Things To Make And Do In The Fourth Dimension (Particular Books) by Matt Parker is out now.