Edinburgh Fringe Chats (#97): David Lampard, THE ALPHABET OF AWESOME SCIENCE
As anticipation builds for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025, we’re catching up with a range of exciting creatives preparing to bring their work to the world’s largest arts festival this August. In this series, we delve into the stories behind the shows, the inspiration driving the artists, and what audiences can expect. Today, we’re joined by David Lampard to chat about their show The Alphabet of Awesome Science.
1. Can you begin by telling us about your show and what inspired it?
The Alphabet of Awesome Science is a scientific race through the alphabet — where rare and obscure words (like erumpent, ideopraxist and jocoserious) inspire mind-blowing science (like fireballs, liquid nitrogen clouds and smoke doughnuts). Performed by Professors Lexi Con and Noel Edge (the Word Nerd and the Science Freak) the show is a joyful adventure that celebrates being truly passionate about the things that fascinate you — that is, it’s all about being a geek! The creation of the show was inspired by two things — that kids love big words (so do I!) and the fact that that I am a great big geek! Writing the show was an absolute blast — performing it is even more fun…
2. What made you want to bring this work to the Fringe this year?
There’s a couple of reasons, but chief amongst them is that Edinburgh audiences are so incredibly fun! This will be our third fringe season at this remarkable fringe. The first year was absolutely terrifying (for many, many reasons!). But last year was a little less terrifying — and our team felt very much at home in Edinburgh. We’re hoping to keep coming back every year, for as long as we can (with this show, plus a few others in the not too distant future…).
3. How would you describe your show in three words?
Energetic. Explosive. Enlightening.
4. What do you hope audiences take away from watching your performance?
Professors Lexi and Noel are unapologetically geeky about the things they love. We hope that their infectious positivity inspires our audiences to be unapologetically geeky about the things that they love — whatever that may be! On top of that, we hope our audiences walk away from our show with a big grin on their face — having gasped in awe at some awesome science, learnt a few new (old!) words, and maybe even discovered a few useful life hacks…
5. What’s your top tip for surviving the Fringe?
Pace yourself! As we’ve been told by many fringe stalwarts, Edinburgh Fringe is a marathon, not a sprint. Self-care is important — don’t neglect your brain or your body. Everyone is dealing with a million stressors during the festival (“Will I sell enough tickets”, “Will I get good reviews”, “Why did I think traveling half way around the world to perform a show in a festival with 3700+ other shows on offer was such a good idea?”) so it’s important to make time for yourself — to slow down a little from time to time and think about non-fringe relayed things! For me that’s making time to cook, to explore the city, to go for a run, or by finding some awesome café where I can sit and start writing the next show…
6. Where and when can people see your show?
We are performing at Udderbelly — that’s the great big upside-down cow in George Square (Underbelly). You can catch one of our 24 performances between July 30 and August 24 — with all shows starting at 12noon. Tickets can be found here: https://underbellyedinburgh.co.uk
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