Comedian and Scientist, Alex Berr, is delighted to announce that she will be bringing her debut comedy show to this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Alex is a scientist trying to reconcile her personal life with her professional one. She spent her adolescence studying a rare form of brain cancer; years later her mom was diagnosed with the same form of rare cancer. Reflecting on a life dedicated to science, Alex uses humour to process her mom’s death, whilst hoping for moral absolution for all the mouse casualties along the way. We sat down with Alex to discuss her upcoming show.
What was it like turning such a personal story into a comedy show—and how did humour help you process it?
I think the most interesting comedy is personal, and I feel funniest when I’m sharing my deepest darkest secrets with strangers.
It’s kind of a hack trope that “performing comedy IS my therapy,” but there is something to be said about having to put a traumatic event into context to try to make strangers understand your story. I still go to therapy (of course) but writing this certainly wasn’t unhelpful. Performing it has been very validating; I love the camaraderie that comes from laughing with other people who have lost someone close to them.
As both a scientist and comedian, how do you balance the absurdity of life with the precision of your research?
I started doing comedy when my mom got sick because I needed a fresh way to connect to the absurdity of life. I needed some immediate validation– experiments can take weeks or months, whereas when you tell a joke, you get feedback right away on stage. Absurd things are happening all the time as a scientist, and comedy gave me an channel for that absurdity.
How did your background in cancer research shape the way you understand—and talk about—grief on stage?
There’s a detachment that happens in the science world– you’re always throwing around stats, trying to make a disease sound as bad as possible so you can convince a funding body that you are addressing a problem that needs solving. You get used to thinking in numbers and not in terms of people. My mom’s diagnosis changed that for me, and brought me back to the humanity of cancer.
Training as a scientist taught me how to be analytical– how to pick apart a gargantuan problem and chip away at it little by little. Writing the show felt very similar. I started with this thesis and had to bring in all my examples and also make them funny. Trying out jokes is similar to experiments– each time you make a tweak to a joke you gather new data (audience response) until it’s as tight as possible.
There’s a tension in the title alone—How to Kill a Mouse—what does it mean to you now, looking back?
I named the show before I really decided what the mouse was, and I’m still not completely sure. I think it represents the promise of scientific advancement, and more generally, the value we assign to our jobs. People always ask me how I killed the mice and I’m always like….do you really want to know…? Because I’ll tell you at my show if you buy a ticket. It’s a bit inflammatory on purpose to (hopefully) get people in the door, but I do worry about a PETA picket situation. Hopefully any animal rights activists will hear me out on the nuances of animal research before throwing red paint at me.
What do you hope audiences take away about the human side of science, beyond the laughs?
I’d like them to recognize that scientists are real people– we have dead parents, date disappointing men, feel weird about killing animals. The way scientists are portrayed is either godlike (Oppenheimer) or virginal (Big Bang Theory) and I want to show that scientists are just mere mortals that (often) have sex.
I think this is important as trust in scientists is seemingly declining worldwide. I don’t think a lot of antivaxxers will be coming to my show, but if they do, I hope to prove to them that scientists don’t have the capacity to intercept the vaccine supply with microchips. Sometimes we’re just doing our best, trying to cure cancer and being sad about our dead mom.
This is your Edinburgh Fringe debut—what are you most nervous, excited, or curious about as you hit the stage?
I’m excited to tell my story and connect with people from all over the world! I love meeting scientists and hearing about their motivations and remembering what it was like to feel hope.
I’m nervous about getting attacked by an animal rights activist (skinny man in Birkenstocks) and falling in love with him.
Venue: Just the Tonic, The Snifter Room @ The Mash House (Venue 20)
Dates: 31st July to 24th August (not 12th)
Time: 12.35pm (1.35pm)