David Heffron is a Nerd – you have been warned. He is however an unusually charming and erudite nerd, able to tell a great story, elicit laughs and not drive you to boredom about his obsessions.
Nerd Alert is the story of David’s gradual step by well worn step on the ascent to Nerd Heaven. He begins where all good nerds begin, being humiliated in PE at school. His childhood was in Glasgow, a city of football fanatics where football is not merely a sport, but with its religious attachments, a badge of devout allegiance. In a city like Melbourne with its media saturated Aussie Rules mania, its easy to relate to his growing hatred for football and sport in general. But why, I couldn’t help wonder to myself, does an abhorrence for sport (as it did with me and a lot of my friends) so often lead to an affection for Star Trek, Red Dwarf and Terry Pratchett?
Hefron ticks all the nerd boxes along the way, including computer games, role playing and a career in IT. His first memories of Science Fiction are going to see ET and Ghostbusters as a child and they scared the willies out of him, but luckily did not turn him off Sci/Fi for life. He describes his joy that shows like the Xfiles and Buffy went mainstream so that he was able to talk about them with school mates and not feel so weird and how young people have it so much easier today, being able to contact fellow fans through the internet.
Apart from his nerdy pursuits David also has some lovely tales to tell about growing up in Glasgow and his feisty Granny. David wonders if it was Comedy Science Fiction writers such as Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Grant / Naylor who led him to become a comedian.
They are great masters to learn from and I’m glad they inspired him because this is a very entertaining show especially for nerds like me, so be a lert and go and see David Heffron’s show, but note that the venue information and map in the fringe guide are wrong. The venue is actually Jawa Bar (NOT Java Cafe) at 297 Victoria St in West Melbourne quite near Errol St.