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W: Welcome to our program. I’m Donisha Adams. This week, I would like to talk about what science and comedy have in common. Welcome, Adam.
M: Thank you.
W: Imagine that a physicist and a chemist walk into a bar. Or is it a physicist and a biologist? There’s a reason science and comedy don’t usually mingle—but to biologist and comedian Adam Ruben, the two are related in more ways than one.(1)Ruben uses insights from his Ph.D. training and years working in a lab to write Experimental Error, a humor column for Science Careers. He will share interesting things with us. So Adam, what science and comedy have in common?
M: Well,(2)I think something that they have in common that people forget is that they’re both serious pursuits. I think a common misperception of comedy is that it’s not something serious, it’s not a real field. And I really wanted to teach a class on standup comedy- the history of standup comedy and its impact on society. And I pitched this class, and I was eventually told by the committee that they would never accept this class because it just wasn’t about a serious topic. And I think it’s a shame to dismiss comedy. It’s as serious as any other form of self-expression or social commentary. But science sort of already gets that, that little benefit of everyone hears science and they assume it’s serious.
W: We know that you’re a funny guy, but are you funny in the lab or do you keep your scientist side separate from your comedian side?
M: I actually really do kind of keep the two separate, and that’s mainly because I’m paranoid.(3)If you try to be funny in the lab too much, people will use it as the ready excuse for anything that goes wrong in the lab—Oh, well, it’s because he’s focusing too much on trying to be funny. I had an experience in grad school where my advisor found out that I did standup on the side, and all of a sudden it kind of became the reason why my experiments weren’t working. He said, oh, it’s because your mind is not on science, it’s on standup comedy.
W; Well, is it harder to be a comedian or a scientist?
M: I think you could make an argument both ways. I think you could say that it’s harder to make a living as a comedian.(4)I mean, to make a living as a scientist, it takes a long time to get there, but there is a set path that a lot of people follow. You go to school, you study science. You go to grad school, you study science. You come out, you get a job in science. And by the time you get that job, you’ve been doing lab work for years and years, and so whatever you’re doing in the lab is not too foreign. But so few people make actual careers out of comedy. Right now it’s not something I could fully support myself doing. I find science to be harder than comedy. When you have a problem in the lab, it can take you years to think of the correct solution. You may never find the correct solution.
W: You also write a monthly column for Science Careers. Can you tell me a little bit about your current story?
M: Sure. So the column is called Experimental Error. It’s a. humor column in Science, which still blows my mind that Science would have a humor column, and that I would be privileged enough to be able to write it. In fact, I think this is kind of my dream. If I went back in time and told myself a few years ago that I’d someday be writing a humor column in Science, I wouldn’t believe it. In fact, I think the way I know that this is my dream is that I know that my nightmare would be opening up Science and finding a humor column written by someone else.(5)It’s a humor column I’ve been writing for almost two years now. And every month I have a new topic, a new column about something pertaining to science careers.
W: Throughout this interview, we’ve spoken about your comedic talents. So can we get a parting joke for our listeners?
M: When I first started doing standup on campus when I was an undergrad, I thought the best thing in the world that I could possibly do on stage would be to tell math puns. And it went okay, because it was a campus full of other nerds. But then I got in the real world and started telling math puns, you know, on the comedy club at midnight in Baltimore, and people did not like it at all. You know that different types of mouthwash have different amounts of alcohol in them. And I wanted to see how much alcohol was in the mouthwash that I used, so I looked but it didn’t list it on the label. I guess the proof was beyond the text of this scope.
W: Well, it was funny because I laughed.
M: Well, thank you.
W: Thank you so much, Adam.
M: Thank you for having me. It was a lot of fun.