How did this science and stage duo come about?
We followed each other on Twitter, back when they weren't just Nazis. Eric made posts to make science accessible to everyone by explaining an image with simple words and concepts. We met once when I was in Nice on tour. The show was a proposal I received from a festival in Strasbourg that combines science and humor. I spoke to Eric about it, and we thought of a phrase attributed to Einstein, which is that there are two infinities: the universe and human stupidity. I'm not entirely sure about the universe. And we thought it would be fun for Eric to play the expert on the universe, which he is, and for me to play the expert on stupidity. Eric already often uses humor in his lectures, and I, for one, really like science. We immediately connected. And since it worked, we staged it with Alain Degois, aka Papy, and we're touring with the show.
Is putting science at the heart of the show just basic anti-Trumpism?
No, we created the show first. Putting science at the heart of the show is just being curious and wanting to understand the world we live in. It's anti-Trumpism without meaning to be. But since Trump uses staged performances to make the world look worse, we're trying to use the show to make us collectively a little less stupid and have a good time. But hey, it's true that Trump speaks, so we do 10 minutes longer. We hadn't planned for him to be, in a way, a co-author of the show.
Do you need a scientific background to follow you?
No, the show is accessible to everyone, including children. Science is part of everyday life. Even though we have a complicated relationship with it in France. Because it's taught a bit brutally, perhaps also because of scientists who have used science as a tool of domination. But now we're facing the challenge of climate change with many people who don't understand anything. Our leaders first and foremost. We need science education to ensure that as many people as possible are interested, and the humor in this show is a way to convey it with emotion. We tried to horizontalize the relationship with science. We present it as a collective experience of participatory science. We ask people questions and are sometimes surprised by the answers. There are responses from people in the audience that we've kept in the show, the audience, themselves a bit of a co-author of the show.
Are the stars less controversial than the foreskins that got Guillaume fired from France Inter?
I don't think so, because science is full of controversy! Especially the case of Pluto, which is discussed quite a bit in the show. But I don't know if there are people who have ever been kicked out of Inter because of a planet. In any case, in science there are fewer controversies stirred up by the far right, that's for sure.
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