Over the last decade, the comedian, actor, and writer Robin Ince has put on a series of secular Christmas shows. This year, it is Christmas Science Ghosts at the Bloomsbury Theatre, starting today (15th December), featuring comedy, music, and short lectures. He has also worked with his Radio 4 co-presenter, the physicist Brian Cox, to organise an event called the Christmas Compendium of Reason.
Here, he explains why atheists can still enjoy Christmas, and shares some thoughts on science, politics, and comedy.
What’s the idea behind the shows?
It’s always to try and popularise the excitement about ideas, whether it’s science, history or philosophy. The aim is to have fun and lure people into worlds they might not necessarily think they were equipped to go into. I’ve obviously worked in science for a very long time in different projects – like the Radio 4 show Infinite Monkey Cage –but all of the shows have the message that you can be playful with ideas, don’t be scared of ideas. Hopefully every show, people will come out and think “I need to buy a book on that” or “I need to buy a telescope or a microscope” or whatever it may be.
Can atheists enjoy Christmas?
When I started doing these shows nearly 10 years ago, I’d been on some TV show with Stephen Green from Christian Voice and he kept saying “you want to ban Christmas”. I said, “no I don’t, I don’t know what you’re talking about”. There was this image that atheists and secularists wanted to spoil everyone’s fun. But all the atheists I know, Tim Minchin or Alice Roberts or whoever, are filled with joy and excitement at existence. So part of the thinking behind the shows was to create a celebration for people who are not Christians. Religious people are more than welcome to come along but the idea was to have an evening celebrating ideas. We really like songs, music, and comedy, and being excited by existence, despite the fact that we may not believe that existence is only here because something mystical made us.
What do you think are the best and worst of Christmas traditions?
I’m a bit of a workaholic so I like the fact that I can’t work. For at least two days, there’s no way I can do anything. I mean, I can come up with an idea for a novel that I’m never going to write, but overall, it is a time where you should enjoy being with your family. An enforced time of contemplation, of being with family and friends and appreciating other human beings, is fantastic.
To me one of the worst things is the consumerism – the fact that it runs for three months and people are under tremendous pressure. The point should be spending time together, but people are finishing their shopping on Christmas Eve and running to the shops to tear at cardigans and blouses or whatever on Boxing Day. I think that’s a great pity.
You said an aim of the shows is to get people excited about ideas. What ideas have you been most excited about this year?
Space exploration tremendously excites me – the fact that we are trying not to be merely rooted to our own planet. I am thinking of the mission which has landed on the comet, and the hope of human mission to Mars, as well as the incredible photos of the landscape of Mars that we’ve seen this year. All planets have a life span, but that desire to go beyond is the thing I’m particularly excited about today.
There are other things too –I’m always fascinated by neuroscience. I’ve had conversations with medical people about increasing use of both blood and genes to try and understand less harsh, less brutal ways of tackling things like cancer. I find that remarkable.
What has made you angry this year?
I think it’s a great pity that the media have embraced UKIP so much. For some reason they have been highlighted as the only alternative party. We have a tremendously disenfranchised population. The Liberal Democrats were always the “break glass in case of emergency” – you might not vote for them, but you were glad they were there. Since going into coalition, they are no longer considered to be what they were before.
There are lots of alternatives out there – the Green Party, what Mark Steel and Owen Jones are doing with the People’s Assembly. And yet, unfortunately, because the melodrama of UKIP is more exciting, that’s where the attention is. I believe the media has created this. Five years ago, Farage was a reasonably laughable cartoon character. Now, you see him sitting on Question Time. You can see he has that relaxed image of a man who thinks, “you know what, I might be deputy prime minister in a year’s time”. This year more than any other I’ve noticed the wonkiness and venality in the way the media deals with politics - although I know it’s always been there. I am particularly disappointed to see people who genuinely believe UKIP are a people’s party, not a party of business and greed.
Who are your favourite comedians?
Someone who particularly impressed me this year, who I’ve enjoyed for ages, is Sarah Pascoe. I saw her doing Hugh Grant’s birthday party in the Huntarian Museum. The party was more like a celebration for No More Page 3 and other organisations. The way she absolutely stormed a gig in a museum surrounded by pickle jars and strange Victorian remnants was totally impressive. This year I also thought John Kearns was particularly good. He won the Edinburgh award this year and I think he’s great from what I’ve seen so far. Josie Long is always in my list, I work with her a lot, and Stewart Lee. A lot of people I work with when I do these shows are people who I admire. The problem I have now is that I’m touring around on my own all the time and rarely get to see other comics.
