Matt Parker is a best-selling author and stand-up performer, who has built a reputation for being a wizz at mathes. As part of his mission to bring maths to the masses, he has just been in town. Leftlion crunches the numbers...
I had not heard of Matt Parker, probably because as a 52 year old woman, I still get sweaty palms thinking about maths lessons in high school! Beyond the basics, maths never really clicked for me the way the humanities did. For this reason, I faced my fears and decided to spend an evening with Matt and his maths. It was clear right from the QR code survey at the start that I was not the target audience. Matt called his target audience Category Zero: the maths geeks. Myself, and I think a fair few others were Category One: the rest of us. I did feel a little uncomfortable but stayed.
Matt is well aware of the feelings many have towards maths – terror, confusion, not sure what it’s actually good for and where it’s all heading. He tackles this in his own way walking the audience through questions and conundrums that are perhaps of little consequence in the grand scheme of things (for example, bespoke programming a 500 bulb Christmas light string just because he can) but he shows us how maths can be fun and put to very practical uses and he does it with such enthusiasm and pretty funny maths jokes (though I’m sure I didn’t get them all).
He loves a good spreadsheet
Without taking a breath, Matt wants the audience to feel good about maths, computing and AI. Matt used a massive screen on stage to show his work and despite a few technical glitches, the visual aids certainly helped. He loves a good spreadsheet, Python for his coding, a mathematical DJ robot and most of all a challenge! With a podcast and best-selling books, he encourages his maths geek fans to submit problems that can be solved by maths. He then shares his results only to be regularly bettered by his fans! Matt describes one occasion where netizens build on his work, better it, streamline it and boast about it.
Matt clearly had a large formula and code loving fan base in the audience who understood more than me. At times his stand-up maths routine seemed to ramble but it all came together at the end. I didn’t walk out loving maths but did walk out with a positive vibe from the happy and varied audience who clearly had a wonderful evening.
Mathematician, stand-up comic and author – Matt Parker isn’t your usual entertainer but he will happily autograph your calculator after the show and sit for a cheeky selfie. Though he’d also love you to buy one of his best-selling books!
Matt Parker – Getting Triggy With It appeared at the Nottingham Playhouse on Monday March 2 2026.
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