A month or two back, looking to publiscise the work I do, I got talking to the university PR people. It was suggested I email Steve Cross at Science Showoff and do a 9 minute stand-up science/comedy set for them.
I was skeptical to say the least; but noting ventured, nothing gained.
I prepared a bunch of slides and videos and didn’t rehearse them. I was still woring out what to say in my head as I was introduced. Oh, by the way, this is in front of a crowd of around 100 strangers, who had all paid for the privilege of seeing 10 of us try to be funny ( and scientific).
It went worryingly well. People laughed when they were supposed to. Everything worked.
I even got a nice bunch of tweets and new followers afterwards.
Now if I can just figure out how to make snails poo different colours I might have another bash at this.