First to take the stage after Prof. Wiseman’s introduction was George Hrab. I knew absolutely nothing about this guy other than he existed and that he had a podcast called The Geologic Podcast which I had naïvely assumed to be about geology. Duh. I used to study geology among may other things and so this was interesting, not so interesting that it made me check out his podcast but interesting nonetheless. So, George takes the stage and proceeds into a set of fantastic music, jokes and observations which had many of us on our feet laughing and applauding. And all this at 09:30 on a Sunday I’ll remind you.
- George Hrab
I subscribed to George’s Geologic Podcast and I have to say that it’s fantastic ! A brilliant podcast, can’t recommend it highly enough. Really, just go and listen to it.
Richard Wiseman, George Hrab and Phil Plait. Final proof that they're not the same person. Allegedly.
After the guys had larked about for a bit we had Glenn Hill, the son of Elsie Wright who was one of the two girls, the other being Frances Griffiths, who faked photographs of fairies subsequently delared as genuine by such luminaries as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fairies were called The Cottingley Faries.
Glenn gave a fascinating insight into how the photographs were made and what his mother and her friend were thinking at the time. He also moved on to how critical thinking needs to be a driving force in a person’s life to equip them with the tools that enable a person to discern fact from fiction.
Glenn Hill
After Glenn’s talk Prof. Wiseman again took the stage for some more gags and a bit of magic. He did a great sword swallowing joke with a fake sword and also managed to push a ling needle all the way through a balloon.
Richard Wiseman
Next up was the awesome Adam Savage from the Mythbusters TV show. He took a lot of questions from the audience about things that had been shown on Mythbusters and about things he’d like to investigate in the future. The ’swimming through syrup’ episode came in for particular scrutiny.
Adam Savage
Adam also went on to show us a hilarious shot of “one of the homoerotic incidents” where Adam and his fellow Mythbuster Jamie Hyneman were relaxing in a hot tub. And of course being the shutter bug I am I have a shot of that also.
The Gay IconsThe hat and the ‘tash. Hmmmm, very dodgy 
Tim Minchin
Tim Minchin
Then of course it was time to hear from Phil Plait the president of the JREF. He gave a talk about his new book Death From The Skies (which I’ve had since pre-order) and took questions from the audience. Phil also thanked all those who organised the event and assisted in its creation.
Phil Plait
And that was it.
The first TAM London was a roaring success from start to finish. The tickets sold out within and hour of going on sale, everyone who took part was awesome and the delegates were fantastic.
I have only one thing left to say : WHEN CAN I GET MY TICKET FOR NEXT YEAR ?
