Adelaide Fringe 2020 review: Dr Matt Agnew’s Guide to Life Beyond Earth
Life, the universe, selfies and hugs – The Bachelor’s astrophysicist star covers all the bases for TV reality show fans and science nerds alike.
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Dr Matt Agnew’s Guide to Life Beyond Earth
Spoken Word
Rating: ***
The Parlour, Gluttony
Until February 23
Making the most of his celebrity status, Dr Matt Agnew (aka The Bachelor) presents a lecture on his pet topic, the search for Earth 2.0.
It’s Astrophysics 101 using PowerPoint slides, with all the technical glitches that entails. Before launching into his 40-minute “TED Talk”, the surprisingly single bachelor-once-more promises to answer questions at the end and stick around for “selfies and hugs”.
That keeps the fans happy. The starstruck reality TV viewing members of the audience patiently gaze at his heavenly face, rather than his slides, looking forward to their own close encounter.
Hopefully they also soak up some science, which is clearly conveyed, interesting and easy to follow, but frequently delivered with excuses, like “I think that’s really cool, I hope you think it’s a bit cool” and requests to let him “nerd out” for a bit.
An enjoyable lesson in the methods used to detect habitable planets beyond our solar system, but don’t expect Brian Cox or Carl Sagan.
