If you are a fan of TED talks, the Discovery Channel, Wikipedia binges, and drinking, Nerd Nite is the show for you!

Thursday, November 19, Nerd Nite Denver goes back in time to talk polaroids and vampires and then wraps up the night with some epic rock from renowned nerd band The Stubby Shillelaghs!

Join us in November as über geek Brian Stevenson shows us how the Polaroid camera changed the world; author duo Harris Gray talk about the value of in-person vampire research in the internet age; and The Stubby Shillelaghs debut their new nerd-themed album Critical Fail. Plus, we’re excited to bust out some new Nerd Nite swag!

Grab your tickets!

• When: Thursday, November 19 – doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• Tickets: $5 online, $8 at the door – 18+

FULL LINEUP

Reminiscing Immediately: Polaroid And Instant Photography 

by Brian Stevenson 

We can take a picture any time and share it with the world at a moment’s notice. Less than 75 years ago photography was reserved for the wealthy and only on rare occasions like Births, Weddings and even deaths. Artists such as Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol and William Wegman shaped their art and careers because of Polaroid. Inventions like 3-D Movies, Sunglasses and Tinted Windows in cars came about because of the many discoveries of Edwin Land. Let’s take a look at the cameras, the company and the inventor that changed the way we see the world. 

Speaker Creds

Brian Stevenson has absolutely no official title that would qualify him to speak on any topic whatsoever. He is however, a geek in every sense of the word. He loved being in band so much that now he owns Rocky Mountain Music Repair, a band instrument repair shop. He is an avid Magic: The Gathering player, and has a collection of hundreds of board games. He once hosted an online video series about board gaming, and rides a scooter as his main mode of transportation. He has been a collector of Polaroid cameras for over a decade and has an extensive collection of cameras, accessories, and advertising examples from throughout the company’s history. 

Vampire Research in Romania…Isn’t That What the Internet is For?

by Harris Gray

In the Internet age, do authors actually need to visit a place in order to set their story there? Like a brother-from-another-mother identical twin study, our writing duo provides rare perspective. Half of Harris Gray traveled to Romania for on-the-ground research for their vampire trilogy; the other half stayed home, pouting, and surfing. Money, peril, imagination, authenticity, eye fatigue, customs issues — all the key variables have been explored to settle the age-old debate: “Can’t I just make that sh*t up?” 

Speaker Creds

Harris Gray combines the writing talents of duo Allan Harris and Jason Gray. Together, they have written three novels, two screenplays, a Christmas play and a collection of stories from Jason’s younger days. Book 1 in their Vampire Vic trilogy was named a Top 10 Pick by IndieReader. Allan is a former guest columnist for The Denver Post and Jason owns Crowfoot Valley Coffee and Crowbar, land of rumor and embellishment. Their collaboration began in Jason’s coffee shop. Allan wrote and eavesdropped as Jason entertained his customers. One day, Allan found a little yellow notepad waiting for him, crammed to the margins with Jason’s exploits. Allan typed them, touched them up, and called it good; but Jason had other ideas. As their tales converged and became inseparable, Harris Gray emerged. While the two couldn’t be more different in how they think and write, Harris says, “T here is something wonderful and incredibly cohesive when we create a story together. ” In Gray’s words, “We’re something less than Sybil and more than Siamese twins.”

Musical Performance by The Stubby Shillelaghs

Album Release for Critical Fail

This crowdfunded effort by The Stubby Shillelaghs was recorded at Denver’s Decibel Garden and features 17 tracks all paying homage to various pop culture fandoms, including the roleplaying/ game derived title track Critical Fail and the band’s Simpsons inspired reggae track Everything’s Coming up Milhouse. Listeners will also recognize tribute paid to the short lived television series Firefly, James Bond (Henchman’s Lament) and S tar Wars (I .R.A. Interstellar Rebel Army ), satisfying those looking forward to The Force Awakens movie release this December. 

As always, a huge thanks to our primary sponsor Sexpot Comedy and to our photographer partners in crime From the Hip Photo!

Take a moment to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and fun facts, and be the first to know event details by signing up for our email list (in the bar to the right).

Want to be a Nerd Nite speaker? Do you know someone who should be? Let us know!

If you are a fan of TED talks, the Discovery Channel, Wikipedia binges, and drinking, Nerd Nite is the show for you!

Thursday, October 22, Nerd Nite Denver tackles scientific topics great and small: from human exploration of Mars, to human surrogacy, all the way down to the sex lives of bugs.

Join us in October as senior research scientist Bill Farrand takes us to Mars with NASA’s rovers; Ellen Trachman shows us the new-fashioned way to make babies; and David MacNeal explains all the ways bugs are having better sex than the rest of us. 

Grab your tickets!

• When: Thursday, October 22 – doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• Tickets: $5 online, $8 at the door – 18+

FULL LINEUP

These Wheels are Made for Roving: Exploring the Surface of Mars with Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity 

by Bill Farrand 

When the Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed in 2004 they didn’t find any Tharks or H.G. Wellsian tentacled creatures with leathery skin, but they did find evidence of an early Mars that was more Earth-like than previously recognized. Both rovers vastly exceeded their nominal missions with Spirit exploring until 2010 and Opportunity still in operation and now exploring the rim of the ancient Endeavour crater. Spirit and Opportunity were joined on Mars by the larger Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity in 2012. All three rovers have helped to transform our view of the surface of Mars from a barren, dead volcanic planet to one that was once much like the Earth with flowing ground and surface waters and stunning scenic vistas. 

Speaker Creds

Bill Farrand is a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He has a B.A. in Geology from Franklin & Marshall College and a M.S. and Ph.D. in the Geosciences from the University of Arizona. He has worked extensively in terrestrial remote sensing as well as in the remote sensing of Mars and of the Moon. In the terrestrial remote sensing field, Bill has worked extensively with data from airborne hyperspectral remote sensing systems for both commercial and government programs. Bill has been a Participating Scientist on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission since 2002. Bill has worked extensively with multispectral Pancam data from both the Spirit and Opportunity rovers looking at the multispectral reflectance of rocks viewed by the rovers at the Columbia Hills of Gusev crater and on the plains and craters of Meridiani Planum. He is also involved in several other projects examining terrestrial analogues of Martian surface materials, working with orbital remote sensing data of Mars, and examining the hyperspectral reflectance of dry and ephemeral lakes. In his free time, Bill is an avid rock climber and also enjoys skiing, hiking, taking his dogs on walks, and pursuing useless TV and movie trivia. 

Test Tubes & Turkey Basters: Law and Ethics in Creating Families the New-Fashioned Way

by Ellen E. Trachman

The advent and advancement of assisted reproductive technology has changed the way families can and are being formed. Now grandmothers can give birth to their own grandchildren and courts are awarding embryos to their infant genetic siblings to determine their future use. As gamete donors and gestational surrogates become common place, sci-fi fantasies have become a reality, and family dreams fulfilled. Paired with parallel advancement in LGBTQ rights, the law struggles with applying old concepts of personhood, parental rights, inheritance, and citizenship to new forms of families and the inevitable conflicts that arise. 

Speaker Creds

Ellen E. Trachman founded Trachman Law Center, LLC in order to bring dedicated and compassionate legal representation to those wishing to build a family through adoption or assisted reproductive technology. Originally from Los Alamos, New Mexico, Ellen completed undergrad at the University of California, Berkeley and law school at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Ellen practiced law in the investment management group of Sidley Austin LLP, a large international law firm, in San Francisco and corporate law for a well-respected Colorado practice before founding Trachman Law Center, LLC. Ellen is a member of the American Bar Association Assisted Reproductive Technology Committee and Adoption Committee, the Colorado Bar Association Family Law Section, the Colorado Women’s Bar Association, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and Resolve (a national infertility association). 

Even Educated Fleas Do It

by David MacNeal

Bugs make the Marquis de Sade look like an amateur. They have the most metal sex, putting the Kama Sutra to shame. In order to keep our planet’s biomass humming along, with an annual, global pollination contribution of $216 billion, insects reproduce in high volumes. But how have their absurd acts evolved over the past 400 million years? And with global warming leading to numerous, unseen insect extinctions, how will they fare over the next 400? Luckily the insect Dr. Ruths of the world (i.e. conservationists) are trying to figure that out, and sometimes that means coercing bugs to have sex–by hand. 

Speaker Creds

David MacNeal is a Denver-based journalist whose work has appeared in Wired, Medium, Outside, etc. He’s also writing a non-fiction book about our (love-hate) relationship with insects due out summer 2017. Examining the inner workings of insect sex is just one of the perks of the job.

Take a moment to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and fun facts, and be the first to know event details by signing up for our email list (in the bar to the right).

Want to be a Nerd Nite speaker? Do you know someone who should be? Let us know!

Thursday, September 24, Nerd Nite Denver is back from vacation and gearing up for autumn with talks about archeology, beer, and Christmas lights.

You may remember a few months back we asked you to help fund Mary Shirley’s archeological expedition in South Africa. Well Mary is back and can’t wait to tell you how it went. Then Nerd Nite alumnus Chris Crocco talks about our favorite snack and yours: beer! And finally, it may be September but Davin Young insists it’s never too early to prep your Christmas lights.

And an exciting update on last month’s partnership with Collectors Care, a non-profit that brings toys to children in need. Thanks to you generous nerds, we were able to donate $500 to their local programs! Thank you so much!

Grab your tickets ASAP!

• When: Thursday, Sept 24 – doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• Tickets: $5 online, $8 at the door – 18+

Old Dead Shit: A South African Adventure

by Mary Shirley

Have you ever thought to yourself, “Wow, I’d really love to spend some time on an archeological dig somewhere in the world. But who am I kidding? I don’t know anything about that stuff.” Well, Mary had the same thought, but she didn’t let it stop her. This summer she volunteered two months in South Africa at Pinnacle Point, one of the longest running, most well known, and best funded archeological sites in the world. When she left, she didn’t know anything. Now that she’s back, she wants to share what she learned with you.

Those two months were partially funded through a GoFundMe campaign promoted by Nerd Nite Denver. Thanks for the adventure!

Speaker creds:  Mary graduated from the University of Hawaii with her BA in Theatre in 2007. One day in 2014 she appeared in the office of Dr. Jamie Hodgkins, zooarchaeologist at Colorado University Denver where she somehow convinced the kind professor that she was worth mentoring. Dr. Hodgkins allowed her to sit in on her graduate classes for a year, and then recommended her to participate on this dig. Mary continues to sit in on these classes while applying for Graduate school starting in the fall of 2016. She works as a bartender around Denver, and is lucky enough to have both a hot boyfriend and adorable cat, alongside amazing friends and family. She turns 30 on October 2nd and is happier in her life now than she has ever been.

Beer 101

by Chris Crocco

In recent years craft beer and brewing have seen an explosion in popularity. As we all know from living in Colorado, we make the best beer money can buy. But what is it that makes beer so awesome? In this talk, we will explore this question and find out everything from just what yeast is doing in our brew to why hops are so…hoppy. So grab a pint and get ready to learn about the science behind our favorite beverage.

Speaker creds:  When he’s not nerding out making the interwebs, Chris Crocco writes the local beer blog liquid-bread.com. He has been a member of the American Homebrewers Association for the past six years and is enrolled in the Cicerone Beer Certification program.

The Underworld of Holiday Lights

by Davin Young
The trend is growing, every year more and more people are using computers to run their Christmas light show. Even synchronizing them with songs and automation as seen on ABC The Great Light Fight. When starting out this process can be very confusing but Davin is here to make the whole thing much simpler. Most off-the-shelf systems cost hundreds of dollars and require 40 or more hours of programming to synchronize one song. That’s nuts. Davin will show you the easiest, cheapest, and quickest way to get one of these systems up and running with minimal headaches — because who needs more of those during the holiday season?!

Speaker creds: Davin Young is a Security Specialist for the Department of Homeland Security who moved to Colorado in 1991. He’s both an avid lacrosse player and high school Lacrosse coach. Any hobby he’s ever had (such as programming Christmas lights) quickly becomes an addiction. Other current addictions include Arcade Cabinet restoration and Saltwater Coral Propagation.

Take a moment to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and fun facts, and be the first to know event details by signing up for our email list (in the bar to the right).

Want to be a Nerd Nite speaker? Do you know someone who should be? Let us know!

Thursday, July 30, Nerd Nite Denver wraps up its Summer season by celebrating some of the best parts of being human: science, toys, and boobs.

This month, Amanda explains how your life is actually one big chemical explosion;  David talks toys; and Martha explains our relationship to mammalian fun bags — we assume that’s their scientific name.

Plus! A percentage of every ticket purchase this month goes to Collectors Care, a non-profit that brings toys to children in need.

Grab your tickets ASAP!

• When: Thursday, July 30 – doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• Tickets: $5 online, $8 at the door – 18+

Blow Up Your Life! (Figuratively Speaking) 

by Amanda Yuill

Have you ever wondered how your life journey is like a chemical reaction? Specifically, a detonation? Amanda Yuill is here to solve the mystery at last. By comparing what we experience during our major life transitions to the chemical and physical processes that take place during explosions, we can better prepare ourselves to minimize the potential for collateral damage.

Speaker creds:  Amanda Yuill is an Australian explosives chemist turned career & lifestyle coach. She founded Light Yourself Up after realizing that working in corporate America was not her dream job. Learning that there was a scientific basis to happiness allowed her to geek out while helping people find purpose and passion in their working lives – the stuff that lights them up! Amanda serves on the board of the Colorado chapter of the International Coach Federation. Other things that light her up include playing the trombone, travelling, skiing, scuba diving and taking photos of race cars.

Toy Story: Our connection with toys and other representations of legends, learning, and history

by David Bledsoe

Worldwide toy sales top $84 billion annually, but most people don’t associate the playthings of their youth and the collectibles of their adulthood as purely consumer-driven purchases. These simple pieces of plastic and metal help us connect with meaningful stories and lessons in our life – developing our intellect and moral foundations, and providing greater life fulfillment.

Speaker creds:  David Bledsoe is the Founder and Executive Director of Collectors Care, a children’s charity providing toys year-round for sick & needy kids. As a long-time fan of comics, movies and television, David intimately understands how the imaginative stories of his youth can shape the morals and character of any child, and help them overcome some of life’s worst circumstances. Collectors Care has allowed David to combined his personal passion with his professional expertise in the nonprofit and public relations sectors. David is a certified nonprofit manager through Indiana University’s top-ranked School of Public and Environmental Affairs, with over 15 years of nonprofit management and communications experience.

Boobs!

by Martha Illige

“I know what’s flashing through your mind when you hear that word. Culture, nature, and nurture play roles in our beliefs about and responses to boobs. Let’s get in a Darwinian mindset and examine their function in Class Mammalia Genus Homo Species Sapiens.”

Speaker creds: Martha Illige came to Denver early in her career as a family doctor and teacher, and has not left except to travel the world. She found Nerd Nite late and loves the fun. And drinks. Intellectual curiosity is a Prime Mover so let’s celebrate it!

Take a moment to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and fun facts, and be the first to know event details by signing up for our email list (in the bar to the right).

Want to be a Nerd Nite speaker? Do you know someone who should be? Let us know!

Miss the show? Check out a recap of the night from the Girls of Geek!

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT:

This show is now a DOUBLE FEATURE with local comedy game show Uncalled Four. Get a discount on BOTH shows when you buy your tickets online ahead of time! 

Friday, June 26, Nerd Nite Denver celebrates our first birthday! We’ve put it on a Friday so you can get wastey-faced on a socially acceptable weekday. Isn’t that thoughtful?!

June’s show will take a crack at truly understanding Schrödinger, horned dinosaurs reveal their secrets, and financial concepts shed light on the economics of exercise. Plus, a special treat! Renowned nerd rock band H2Awesome will show up to ROCK. YOUR. FACE. OFF.

Grab your tickets ASAP!

• When: Friday, June 26 – doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• Tickets: $5 online, $8 at the door – 18+

Full Lineup: 

The Life [or not] and Times of Schrödinger’s Cat

by Andrew Novick

A little physics discussion for people wondering about Erwin Schrödinger and why he didn’t know if his cat was alive or not – or did he? We’ll also take a look at an art installation featuring Schrödinger’s feisty feline. For a creature with a questionable existence, that damn cat is everywhere!

Speaker creds: Andrew Novick, Nerd Nite alumnus, is a Denver native and a prolific provocateur of wackiness in town. Whether as a performer of music and/or PowerPoint presentations or running themed events (PeepsBQ, Andrew Novick’s X-Treme Pancake Breakfast, Japanese Medical Punk Dance Party and Surgery Dinner), he tries to keep himself (and others!) busy. He is also an electrical engineer (measuring atomic clocks!) and an avid collector. Andrew has been called the “world’s most recreational photographer” – snapping photos to fit into the countless themes of his visual vernacular. Past art shows include (but are not limited to): Candy, Cuts and Bruises (~2000) and Super-Relative (with Samuel Schimek, 2010) and his recent shows include Japan Popsplosion! (2104) and Unstill Life (2014), both of which showed digital prints on canvas of quickly curated shots of brightly-colored subjects. Andrew’s latest collection is FOOD FACE. Above all else, Andrew strives to feature things all around us that are fun and interesting and usually provoke conversation and new ideas. Oh! And he is also co-teaching a college class about FUN!
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What big horns you have: A discussion of horny…er…horned dinosaurs

by Cyrus Green

Ceratopsians are a group of dinosaurs defined by their large cranial horns and decorated frills. Most people know of triceratops (some of us even have one as a tattoo!), but there are so many more! To date there are over 25 species of ceratopsians. Though these magnificent animals lived for only 20 million years (a short time geologically), and lived in a very small area (known only from North America), they were able to diversify extensively. We will discuss the many different species, how they are related, what we know about them, and the many questions still surrounding their evolution, biology and ecology. Who doesn’t love dinosaurs?!

Speaker creds: Cyrus Green was an English major in a former life until a class on dinosaurs his senior year of undergrad changed everything. After graduation he went right back to school and received his second Bachelors in Earth Science. He has been volunteering with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science since 2006 and has logged countless hours in the field and lab working with dinosaurs. He has also worked with the State of Colorado and the National Park Service preparing paleontological surveys. In August he will begin a new adventure as a graduate student at Ft. Hays University in Kansas.

Running the numbers: The economics of exercise

by Aaron Roppolo

With the plethora of fitness books, blogs, and podcasts available today, one would assume that attaining your fitness goals is a highly complicated endeavor. Nonsense. By utilizing simple personal finance concepts – credit cards, reward points, piggy banks – this presentation will lead the audience through thought exercises aimed at making complicated exercise science concepts (eg: oxygen debt, neuromuscular adaptations, periodization) easily relatable.

Speaker creds: Aaron is passionate about progress – personal, professional, physical – but above all societal. He feels that being healthy is a revolutionary act that, beyond expanding enjoyment of your life, has economic and environmental impacts.

He earned a master’s degree in Exercise Science from UCF, but for him fitness is a passion not a way of life. He is also engaged in investing, craft cocktails, emerging and disruptive technologies, local food, and science fiction literature. Aaron is currently working on in a social entrepreneurship project – keep an eye out for a movement aimed at raising awareness of and conversation around sexual violence.

Take a moment to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and fun facts, and be the first to know event details by signing up for our email list (in the bar to the right).

Want to be a Nerd Nite speaker? Do you know someone who should be? Let us know!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the show! Check out photos from the event on Facebook.

April 23, improv comes with life lessons; ancient cities spill their environmental secrets; and we find out if you could survive the apocalypse.

• When: Thursday, April 23 – doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• Tickets: $5 online, $8 at the door – 18+

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Full Lineup: 

Please F*$k Up! How Improv Turns Mistakes Into Gifts

by Claire Slattery

Most of us feel that mistakes are failures to be avoided at all costs. But what if mistakes were actually powerful tools for accessing a deeper level of creativity and connection? What if our fear of being ‘wrong’, of seeming unprepared, was the barrier to our own creative potential? In her talk, Claire discusses how improv creates a uniquely supportive environment which allows mistakes to be spontaneous moments of vulnerability, connection, surprise, and discovery. Part scientific exploration, part humorous romp, Claire hopes you leave making more mistakes, feeling less afraid, and with one foot in the door of an improv class.

Speaker creds: Claire is passionate about sharing the joys and benefits of improvisation as an actor on stage and screen, and with companies, as a corporate improv consultant. Claire first discovered improv as a freshperson at Stanford University, where she received her B.A. in Drama and Communication. Since graduation, Claire has acted, improvised, and taught with San Francisco’s top theatre companies and improv troupes. She has also consulted with some of the country’s most innovative companies. Find her on Twitter at SlatteryClaire or online at claireslattery.com.

Hug a Tree So Civilization Doesn’t Collapse: An investigation of environmental abuse in the ancient world and how Mother Nature fought back

by Dylan Green

• “Climate change is our most urgent, number one priority right now.” -Bill Nye
• “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” -Robert Swan
• “I’m going to kill you, your family, herds of livestock and maybe stab myself for good measure so that our crops don’t fail and the gods don’t murder us.” -Any number of Greeks, Mayans, or other people with hazardous environmental beliefs (probably)

As the Spanish were carving up the New World to serve their economic needs, the conquistadors heard a legend of a lost city in the jungles of the Yucatan. While it wasn’t a famed city of gold, it stood out as a myth until its discovery in 1848. People marveled at this one city–Tikal–that was abandoned long before Europeans devastated the American continents. Across the globe on the western coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) there lay another city, a victim of a similar ruinous end. Ephesus was a cultural epicenter of classical Greece and Rome for centuries, but after hundreds of years of comfortable habitation, the city was abandoned and left to turn into a tourist attraction. In his presentation, Dylan Green will attempt to explain how the people of both Tikal and Ephesus orchestrated their demise through environmental degradation, abuse, and offsetting the careful homeostasis of the natural world. Perhaps most importantly, Green will show how such actions can still be devastating to modern populations around the world.

Speaker creds: Dylan Green is a graduate student at the University of Colorado and a recent graduate from Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri. Yes, it exists. Look it up. While currently studying anthropology, Green is a self-proclaimed student of history for life, constantly reimagining the lives of people long passed and thinking about the golden (pre-Pawn Stars) age of the History Channel. For some perspective, this is a guy who gets genuinely upset when you mention the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. In his spare time, Green enjoys reading, hiking, discussing/admiring all things Tolkien related, frequenting the Colorado bar scene with his graduate cohort, and attempting to exchange resumes for scraps of food on the 16th Street Mall. (Resumes available upon request. Will write papers for food/beer.)

Could You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?

by Matthew Barrieau

We as a people must know how to defend ourselves in case of a zombie apocalypse! Zombies have become a major part of pop culture in the last few decades. From the beginning with George Romero’s and Lucio Fulci’s genre-setting zombies to Zack Snyder’s fast zombies, there are so many different kinds of undead that you need to know how to defend yourself against. Using information from several well-known guides and tips, we will discuss the various ways to ensure our survival from the undead.

Speaker creds: “My name is Matthew Barrieau and I am a Remote Programmer on contract for the Department of Homeland Security. I was born and raised in Greenville, SC and moved to Denver in September 2005. Shortly thereafter I joined the US Army as an Intelligence Analyst and have served at the US Army Space and Missile Defense in Colorado Springs, CO and the MNF-Iraq Joint Personnel Recovery Center in Baghdad. During my time with the military, I was a land navigation trainer and instructed service members on proper survival and evasion techniques in case of capture.”

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Take a moment to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and fun facts, and be the first to know event details by signing up for our email list (in the bar to the right).

Want to be a Nerd Nite speaker? Or know someone who should be? Let us know!

This month we learn about the weird history of teeth, the science of joke telling, the challenges of urban chicken farming, and how YOU would do on the Nerd Nite stage! That’s right, in addition to two expert presentations, a lucky audience member will have the chance to deliver a short presentation using humor, gumption, and surprise power point slides!

• When: Thursday, March 26 – doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• Tickets: $5 online, $8 at the door – 18+

ONLINE TICKET SALES ARE CLOSED BUT PLENTY OF ADDITIONAL TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR!

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The Science of Joke Telling

by Brent Gill

How much planning goes in to a comic’s set? Through a series of jokes, Brent walks us through the science behind telling jokes. Yes! There is a science!

Speaker creds: Brent Gill knew he would be a performer the first time he felt the heat of a roomful of eyes on his bare genitalia onstage. (It’s a long story and a sealed court document). While merely a teenager, Brent was a steel worker by day and exotic dancer by night. His goal: Immortality. However, a lingering knee injury suffered during a particularly erotic shimmy to Ginuwine’s “Pony,” as well as an expanding waistline made it clear that Brent Gill’s dancing days neared an end. Initially his attempts at nude, comedic, interpretive dance failed, but he quickly found confidence behind the mic as a more traditional standup comedian. Though slightly less erotic than his previous endeavors, Brent’s onstage charisma and energy will leave audiences aroused and entranced. “Brent is a MUST SEE live act” says Urban Life magazine and the Boulder Weekly describes him as “the love child of Chris Farley and Winnie the Pooh.” He is a house comic at the Comedy Works and was a featured performer at the High Plains Comedy Festival, Laughing Devil Festival, Def Comedy Jam and Comcast. Find Brent at www.brenthillcomedy.com.

Why Your PCP Should Have a DMD

by Alexandra Basset

Perfect teeth have been a sign of wealth and poverty and a cherished aspect of attractiveness for thousands of years. However, few understand oral health disease and its effects, quickly regarding the dental visit as a chore instead of an educational adventure! There is an inherent mystery behind that strange orifice of your mouth, a expressive vessel – literally and figuratively – of your eating habits, stress level, genetic origins, and even your identity itself. Alexandra Bassett, DMD will discuss several common dental questions – ones, judging by the fact that she gets them at almost every cocktail party, you are all dying to know.

Speaker creds: Dr. Alexandra Bassett is a newly relocated dentist in the Denver area and a graduate of Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in Boston. While in dental school, Dr. Bassett spent much of her time developing stronger community service initiatives in her school’s curriculum. She is a member of the American Dental Association, Colorado Dental Association, Metro Denver Dental Society, and the Colorado Prosthodontics Society. When she is not working as a professional smile enhancement and retention specialist, she is hitting the slopes, bagging peaks, sending routes, and trying to make people smile via less stressful methods, such as jokes.

Chicken Keeping for City Slickers

by Leah Charney
Chicken keeping: is it a passing fad or lasting lifestyle? Leah Charney, fake urban farmer, discusses the good, the bad, and the ugly of keeping chickens in the Mile High City. Can chicken poop change your life? Should my chickens wear saddles?

Speaker creds: Leah Charney is a food writer, story teller, chicken wrangler, and all around entertainer. For recipes, musings, and chicken videos, check out Leah’s blog Bacon and Other Bad Habits or follow her on Twitter at @TheLeahKitten.

Improvised Genius

by YOU!

Think you have what it takes to be a Nerd Nite speaker but just don’t know what to talk about? Well then we’ll make a presentation for you! Come test your nerd merits and give a totally improvised 5-minute presentation. We’ll bring the powerpoint, you bring the brain.

CANCELLED:

Cellular Automata: All the World’s a Grid

by Brian Hanson

“What if I told you that simple, repetitive, mindless graph-paper doodles can change the way you see the world? If you were my wife you’d say ‘put down the graph-paper and take out the trash.’ Bear with me, though! Cellular Automata are the simplest of computational programs: take a grid, use a fixed rule to color each box black or white, then rinse and repeat ad nauseam. Sounds simple, right? Not always… Using this seemingly simple system, I will reveal surprising insights into the mysteries of physics, biology, society, philosophy, and the very nature of our universe.”

Speaker creds: Brian Hanson is a resident physician at Rose Family Medicine. His qualifications include college multivariable calculus & computer science courses (within the past 12 years!), frequent conversations **with** intelligent siblings, an innate curiosity for the underlying patterns of nature, and his quest for the meaning of life.

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As always, a huge thanks to our primary sponsor Sexpot Comedy and to our photographer partners in crime From the Hip Photo!

Take a moment to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and fun facts, and be the first to know event details by signing up for our email list (in the bar to the right).

Want to be a Nerd Nite speaker? Or know someone who should be? Let us know!

The holidays are over and the breaking of resolutions is well underway. So what better time to talk about the science of responsibility, marijuana, and dead bodies. Wait…what? Join us January 22 for a new year with new speakers and the same ol’ rowdy nerdery!

Plus we’re thrilled to announce a new partnership with Sexpot Comedy! These hilarious, Denver-based wunderkinds are the masters of all things entertaining in the Mile High City and look forward to bringing you the science of comedy throughout Nerd Nite in 2015. Keep an eye on our Nerd About Town calendar for other exciting Sexpot shows around town.

• When: Thursday, January 22 – doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• Tickets: $5 online, $8 at the door – 18+

Embrace that inner early-bird and grab your tickets now!

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What Makes a Responsible Person?

by Rachel Weston Rowell

The Responsibility Process is a model that explains how your brain responds to a problem. In an effort to allow you to cope with problems and move on quickly, your brain does a lot of work to give you someone or something else to pin your problem on. The process includes steps such as Blame (someone did this to me), Justify (the world/environment/situation did this to me), Shame (blame myself), and Obligation (the world/environment/situation I created is doing this to me). In our lives we spend a lot of time in Shame and Obligation. The issue with all of these responses is that they are coping, not growing and learning spaces. Only when we move to responsibility can we move beyond the problem. Rachel teaches us how to get there.

Speaker creds: Rachel did her undergrad and graduate work at UC Berkeley and CU Boulder respectively in communication and linguistics and now works for Rally Software in Boulder investigating what’s next for the ever-challenging work of building Lean and Agile teams. When she isn’t transforming engineering and business practices, Rachel does improv at the Bovine Metropolis Theater in Denver and volunteers for Code for America through the Code for Denver Brigade. That is, when she isn’t enjoying her very own at home hilarity: her husband and 3 year old daughter.

A Complete Guide to Marijuana

by Jake Browne

We all have an endocannabinoid system, but what is it and how did it get there? Why do some marijuana smell like a dead skunk and why do some people actually like that? Jake Browne, marijuana critic for the Denver Post, breaks down everything you never knew about marijuana, from the gene level to Cheech and Chong sized joints.

Speaker creds: Jake Browne is a Denver-based comedian, writer, and co-host of the Whiskey and Cigarettes podcast. He founded the HempBox, a subscription box focused on hemp consumer goods, in 2014; is co-host of Comics Against Civility, a Cards Against Humanity themed game show that runs monthly in Denver; and is a writer for CULTURE Magazine. He also happens to be a pot critic for The Denver Post. Check him out on Facebook and Twitter!

Inside the Mind of a Coroner

by Lora Thomas

We’ve all seen intense, case-solving, music montage scenes with coroners on CSI or The X-Files but what does a coroner actually do? Do you even want to know? We do! Lora explains the real world of dead bodies and how a hyper-sucessful cop becomes a coroner.

Speaker creds: Lora Thomas was elected Douglas County Coroner in 2010 and served until January 13, 2015. The county coroner is responsible for determining the cause and manner of death. Lora’s term was nothing if not eventful. She cut the budget by 33% while the caseload increased 45% and two former employees are now convicted felons! Wha?

Before being elected coroner, Lora Thomas worked with the Colorado State Patrol for 26 years, becoming the first woman captain and major in the organization.  She has earned an MBA, finance, and criminal justices degrees.

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Take a moment to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates and fun facts, and be the first to know event details by signing up for our email list (in the bar to the right).

See you soon!

p.s. Want to be a Nerd Nite speaker? Or know someone who should be? Let us know!

It’s the final Nerd Nite of 2014! 

• When: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 – doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• Tickets: $5 online, $8 at the door – 18+

How GPS Works: Just Ask Flavor Flav

by Andrew Novick

Many people, know what the Global Positioning System (GPS) does, but many people do not know how it does it. With the help of Flavor Flav and Public Enemy, I’ll venture to explain it. I’ll also explain hacking jamming, GPS toasters and why “GPS on TV” is usually flawed.

“Don’t believe the hype? Then you don’t know what TIME it is.” – Flav

Speaker Bio: Andrew Novick is a Denver native and a prolific provocateur of wackiness in town. Whether as a performer of music and/or PowerPoint presentations (Warlock Pinchers, GetYourGoing, respectively) or running themed events (PeepsBQ, Andrew Novick’s X-Treme Pancake Breakfast, Japanese Medical Punk Dance Party and Surgery Dinner, etc.), he tries to keep himself (and others!) busy. He is also an electrical engineer (measuring atomic clocks!) and an avid collector (www.isaveeverything.com). Andrew has been called the “world’s most recreational photographer” – snapping photos to fit into the countless themes of his visual vernacular.

Past art shows include: Candy, Cuts and Bruises (~2000), The Astounding Problem of Andrew Novick (2009), International Food Phenomena (2010); Objectophelia (group show, 2010), Window Dressing (2010), Super-Relative (with Samuel Schimek, 2010). Pieces in Andrew Novick’s latest collection, FOOD FACE have titles such as: “Meatballs!”, “Pizza Face” and “Eyeballs!”, which sound perhaps more horrifying than delicious. Recent art shows include Japan Popsplosion! (2104) And Unstill Life (2014), both of which showed digital prints on canvas of quickly curated shots of brightly-colored subjects. Andrew strives to show thinks all around us that are fun and interesting and usually provoke conversation and new ideas. He is also co-teaching a College class about FUN!

Speaker Bio: Zane is an assistant professor of anthropology at UC Denver. She is a world expert on human chins (that’s a thing) and studies the effects of stress on health in beautiful Aotearoa/New Zealand. She enjoys all the beer and outdoorsy things that Colorado has to offer.

UPDATE: An enormous thanks to everyone who came out for yet another evening of nerdery. And a special thanks to all you costume-clad wonders. Check out pictures from the night on Facebook!

(Images courtesy of volunteer photographer Jen Small. Want to volunteer for Nerd Nite? Let us know!)

More than just another evening of high-level thinking and lowbrow drinking, this month’s Nerd Nite takes the turpitude to another level with a costume contest, dry t-shirt competition, and probably something to do with your candy-eating abilities.

On October 30th, we’ll find out if octopuses are trying to take over the world (*shivers*); how to make a statement with your coffee consumption; and a madman with degrees will talk about the endless weirdness of quantum physics.

What other pre-Halloween party will be so enlightening?

And for those of you with a competitive spirit, nerds dressed in costumes based on one of these three presentations will win all sorts of prizes, including free tickets to the Colorado Symphony’s Tribute to Comicon v2.0! 

• When: Thursday, October 30, 2014 – doors at 6:30pm, show at 7:00pm
• Where: The Oriental Theater
• Tickets: $5 online, $8 at the door – 18+

Will octopuses take over the world?

Will octopuses take over the world? Yes. But how will they do it? That’s the real question. Will it be through their amazing camouflaging abilities? Their impressive intelligence? Their eight super-flexible—and suckery—regenerating arms? Will it be because they can lay tens of thousands of little baby octopus eggs? Maybe just through seemingly innocuous—but ubiquitous—octopus prints on throw pillows and t-shirts? Or will it be a robot octopus uprising? Come learn how we’re most likely to meet our octopus overlords—and lots of other really cool stuff about octopus biology, behavior and how they’re influencing cutting-edge technology. Cephalopods, unite! (ßThey may or may not have made us write that.)