C

W: Well, is it harder to be a comedian or a scientist?
    M: I think you could make an argument in both ways. I think you could say that it’s harder to make a living as a comedian. 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 graduate 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 by which I could fully support myself. 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. The column is called Experimental Error. It’s a humor column in Science Careers. It still blows my mind that Science Careers would have a humor column, and that I would be privileged enough to be able to write it. In fact, I think this is 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 Careers, 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 Careers and finding a humor column written by someone else. It’s a humor column I’ve been writing for almost two years now. And every month I have a new topic 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 stand-up on campus, I was an undergraduate. 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 scope of the text.
    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.
    6. What does Adam think of being a scientist?
    7. How does Adam feel about being a comedian?
    8. What is Adam’s dream?
    9. What did Adam think was the best thing he could do on stage when he first started doing stand-up?
    10. How does the woman feel about Adam’s parting joke?