The problem with pub quizzes is that they just don’t have enough things exploding.
Obviously, there are tempers exploding when the landlord’s answer to “Who played the character Benson in the TV series Soap and Benson?” doesn’t match reality. This happened to me in a pub in Plymouth, where it turned out the answer was Bill Cosby, as opposed to the real one that I put down, which was Robert Guillame. It was made even more infuriating as I was the only person in the pub to get the question wrong by dint of actually being right.
I want actual explosions. Controlled explosions of course. I have to write that in case the venue that’s holding our event decide we are a little too gung-ho with our chemistry. This quiz of explosions, experiments and occasional songs about quantum entanglement is the offspring of the The Incomplete Map of the Cosmic Genome archive, that I began with Trent Burton a couple of summers ago. It was a natural extension of my other projects like The Infinite Monkey Cage, which I co-host with Professor Brian Cox (“the sexy face of particle physics™”), my live solo shows where I struggle to understand neuroscience or genetics or astrophysics in front of the prying eyes of an audience, as well as variety shows that mix up comedy, music and science and which reach their conclusion every year at the Hammersmith Apollo.
Cosmic Genome started as a documentary idea, an opportunity to interview the increasing number of scientists I had access to, in order to find out where their passion from science stemmed from and where it has led. Even now, there are people who think you have to be some odd eccentric, with a mind more capable of speaking in equations but not of love or life, to be a scientist. By interviewing scientists and enthusiasts we aimed to refute this, and create a vast bank of interrogations that displayed the passion, excitement, egos and foibles that are shared by artists and scientists alike. The website design used the periodic table as its starting point, but within a year, all 118 squares were occupied - so our growing list of contributors and interviewees now find themselves floating through an infinite ooze.
The mass media is still sluggish with science coverage - I believe they have misjudged the public’s interest in research and ideas. I’m an idiot, but it doesn’t deter me from trying to understand more about why our universe is as it is. I like to promote events that have people leaving with their picture of the world slightly different to the way it was when they walked to their seat. Some people are put off science because they read a book on quantum mechanics and think, “Oh, I’m an idiot, I’ve read all 340 pages and I still don’t understand everything”, as if there is someone out there who does (even Brian Cox doesn’t). The hope is that these endeavors help people realise the adventure may not lead to a conclusion, but it is still an adventure.
Eavesdropping on drunken discussions about quarks, dark energy and Golden Dart frogs after the first year of the Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People shows at the Bloomsbury theatre was enthralling. Nine Lessons has been a regular Christmas event, though sadly this year, due to our theatre having to unexpectedly close, it is not going ahead. And so, The Cosmic Genome Quizzicals has taken its place. It is what Nine Lessons would be if it also involved a pub quiz or a panel show with 200 people. The experiments, stand up, songs and weird footage of robots is all in place, but now they are gateways to questions. Whether you win or you lose (and there are some excellent prizes for those that do), you will still find victory in discovering new ideas that have revolutionised our understanding of what it is to be here and to be human, and hopefully everyone will leave with as many eyebrows as they had when they walked in.
The Cosmic Genome Quizzicals will be at Conway Hall on 30 September with myself assuming hosting duties, as well as being your shambling quizmaster, and we’ll be joined by the likes of Helen Czerski, Andrea Sella, Kevin Fong and many more.
Meanwhile, with the Cosmic Genome team, we continue to expand the archive as it’s grown to include over 45 hours of original content to date. We’re always looking for new and interesting science and curiosity to discuss and our next issue covers everything from writing plays about Rosalind Franklin to how Chinese cave paintings may have predicted climate change. We’re nothing if not diverse.
Info and Tickets for Cosmic Genome Quizzicals is available from cosmicgenome.com/quiz and you can subscribe to Cosmic Genome now, for all devices, from cosmicgenome.com
