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Adam Spencer

He's no stranger to being asked the big questions. As a presenter of the ABC's Quantum and host of Triple J's national breakfast show, Adams brain is always in top gear. Now, as a host of the ABC's FAQ (which stands for frequently asked questions), he joins a panel of science enthusiasts to discover what's behind all that happens in the world.

TV Week finds out what makes Adam tick...

TV WEEK: What question do people most frequently ask of you?

ADAM: It would have to be, "Excuse me sir, but do you have a license for that?"

TVW: What do viewers learn from watching FAQ?

ADAM: They'll discover the answers to all of the big questions. Is genetically modified food safe? Can we live to be 150 years of age? Why can't Brad Pitt keep his shirt on?

TVW: Where did the idea come from?

ADAM: I kept asking people the Brad Pitt question and noone had an answer. I thought, "Damn it, this needs a weekly show!"

TVW: You have gathered quite a reputation as a science boffin. What are your thoughts on this?

ADAM: I am certainly not a "science boffin"- I hold that phrase in the same contempt to "romantic comedy". I want to know more [about things], and I think a lot of people do. That's the job of FAQ.

TVW: How did you get the science bug?

ADAM: Most people have the science bug and love to explain how and why things happen.

TVW: Who is your ideal pin-up in a lab jacket?

ADAM: Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, Nicole Kidman in Days of Thunder, Val Kilmer in Real Genius...its too close to call.

TVW: What is the worst thing you've bought?

ADAM: I found Michael Bolton's Timeless album to be profoundly disappointing.

TVW: And your take on the millennium bug issue?

ADAM: I loved the fact that while telecommunication systems could crash, the one piece of technology that was fully Y2K compliant was the Beta VCR. Great work people.

Adam Spencer - Professor Evil Genius

Adam Spencer's Breakfast Show lures Triple J listeners into wickedly danger ous waters. Such was the case with his infamous April fool's joke that had half the country believing Sydney had been stripped of the right to host the 2000 Olympic Games. When he is not corrupting the minds of the youth of Australia, Spencer hosts the ABC's Quantam science show.

How did you get into comedy,?

I was entered into Triple J's Raw Comedy Competition, which I won the NSW round of. Through that I met a few of the people from Triple J and when they came to Sydney Uni to do The Breakfast Show I got up as a student to do the weather. As they were doing the weather Heien said, "OK, rnaths boy, if you're so funny and smart, say some thing sexy about the weather." There were all these places that were 22, so it was "Adelaide, fine & 22, that's 2 lots of 11. Canberra fine and 22 that's the square root of 484... " I hadn't slept and had gone out the night before and got very pissed, so I had this very sexy, croaky voice. One of the guys from Triple J came up and said, "That's one of the best radio voices I've ever heard." I can remember saying, "I can give you this for about a fortnight and then we'll start run ning pretty thin."

Describe your comic style.

Very funny. Thought provoking. Visual. And aimed at correcting inequalities and imbalances in society. Throw in a couple of dick jokes, then you get out of there. It is different from what I am doing, which is mainly radio at the moment, in that I'm not sitting down writing all that much stuff that is funny. I am just doing a show that hopefully people are entertained by. I make up 99% of it as we go along. Doing a solo radio show you can't do much scripted stuff. It sounds hopelessly scripted and people see through it instantly. When you're there by yourself you need to be Captain Fantastic spinning black plastic.

Are comedians the rock stars of the '90s?

Get fucked. Don't ask me that fucking shit. You just fuck off!

Can comedians he funny and attractive?

A lot of people are attracted by the thought of laughing and people do like those who can make them laugh. But comedy can make some people remarkably vulnerable, not at all in a sexy and attractive way. Comedy can make others look really smart or warm. It's a very broad church but certainly standing in a room making people laugh does project an image.

If you were Kerry Packer how would you change comedy on television?

I'd use Kerry's divine right to ring up when a show is half way through and say, "Get that shit off air." I can't believe he pulled that on Doug Muiray's Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos and yet he hasn't done it several times on other shows on his network. I thought Naughtiest Home Videos was very funny. There were a couple of different species there that I didn't know even could cross-mate.

Can anyone do the job of a comedian?

No, the average person jumping up on stage and trying to be a comedian would have as much success as me opening the doors under a sink and saying, "Don't worry, I'll sort this out."

Is there a difference between comedy and lite entertainment?

Just watch Hey Hey It's Saturday.

What is the funniest joke you've ever beard?

A guy walks into his house and says to his wife, "I can't believe it, I've won the lottery! This is amazing, I've won the lottery. Pack your bags, I've won the lottery!" And she says, "Great, do you want me to pack them for the mountains or the beach?" He says, "I don't care, just get out of my house." Published in Juice Magazine June 1999

Age: A prime number

Position: Triple J breakfast radio announcer. And science communicator.

Qualifications: Four years of PhD-level mathematics and many friends who can dance.

What did you want to be when you grew up?: Where's the proof that I have?

First full-time job: Will happen someday I guess.

First pay packet: $8.70 for a Sunday morningpaper run. I earned every cent.

Current job description: Pressthe play button and read the weather.

Your strengths? I can talk, don't get freaked out by circumstances and am not as bitter as some about getting up at 4:45 in the morning.

Your weaknesses? Easily bored, inability to plan personal or work life, tendency to lie when put on the spot, shocking memory especially for names, a bitter cynical steak, a world class ability to hold a grudge, untidiest bedroom in the Western world, poor diet, inability to hold down meaningful relationships, indifferent to things I know should be important and I don't call my parents as often as I should.

Best part of the job: Playing fantastic music and exercising my mind for the entertainment of others.

Worst part of the job? It would be hard to stomach someone complaining about a job like this.

Stangest thing you had to do? Crowd-surf at a live radio show in Wollongong Uni a few years ago.

Mentor or greatest inspiration? Graham Kennedy's live to air TV in the 60's was amazing.

Career ethic: No- but thanks for offering.

Where will you be in 10 to 15 years time? I don't have a five minute plan let alone a 15 year one.

Job you most covet? Lotto supervisor on one of those nights when all hell breaks loose.

And you're looking for?" asks an executive at the ABC building in Ultimo. His question is directed at a stocky 28-year-old in sandals, skater shorts and a purple streetwear top. "Ah, I'm Adam Spencer ... from Quantum and Triple J," says the peroxide platinum-haired comic.
Unrecognised. Such is the lot of a "minor media celebrity". People, Spencer says, know they know him from somewhere - they're just not sure where. Had the ABC exec been a more faithful viewer of Good News Week, a more avid listener of Triple J's Departure lounge, a regular at the University of Sydney's Theatresports or trivia nights, a maths student at the same university, or, a voter in Blaxland, where Spencer ran on the "Australians Against Further Super League" ticket at the last election, he wouldn't have had to ask. Spencer is set to become even more familiar in his new role as frontman for Quantum, the ABC science series which makes its return tonight.
Spencer's rise has been somewhat meteoric. Just two years ago, he was your average run of the mill student doing a pure mathematics PhD on the sufficiency of jets of polynomial functions, who also enjoyed mouthing off at various comedy debating functions around the campus. A friend secretly entered Spencer in the Triple J's first Raw Comedy Competition and he made it through to the national finals after taking out the NSW category. His on-air-skills were cemented when he was asked to read the weather during a Triple J broadcast from the University of Sydney, which he did with a maths-as-humour flair: "Melbourne, sunny and 22, which of course is the cube root of 10,648".
At Quantum, Spencer represents the new funkier face of science at the ABC. They're trying to freshen it up," he explains. "There's a feeling at the moment that if you do science properly, you can get people into it. The whole information technology age makes it a potentially sexy thing to know about."
In addition to scripting and presenting "intros and outros", Spencer will contribute some smaller pieces to a revamped magazine style format. One such spot will unveil the mathematics behind Monopoly. "Through a very complicated probability analysis, Trafalgar Square's the one to go for," a grinning Spencer explains.
With all the ABC commitments, Spencer says there's less time for other pursuits. The PhD has been on hold since his supervisor accepted a job in France and Spencer will only be tutoring maths around exam times. While he has had to forego hosting weekly trivia nights, Spencer will continue to host Theatresports, "an absolute hoot", once a week at Sydney Uni's Manning Bar.
Spencer says he's enjoying, and hopes to cash in on, his newfound fame. Last week, he - along with the rest of Sydney's A to E lists - was a guest at the opening of the musical, The Boy From Oz. "At the moment, I'd go to the opening of a gaping head wound," he laughs. "I've got to release a home fitness video some time soon. If I can get people to buy that, it'll be a triumph of marketing."

From City Weekly, a free magazine, March 19, 1998.

We are about to see a new magazine style Quantum. What's behind the decision?

Will the new format make science more fun?

What are you enjoying most about the host role you took on in February?

You encountered public criticism over your irreverent interview with Dr James "Dolly" Watson. How did you weather that?

Reports followed that morale was low at Quantum. Did you see any hints of discontent?

You're also a stalwart regular on Good News Week. Just between us, are some of those gags rehearsed?

You are finishing a PhD in pure mathematics. What appeals to you about maths?

What do you do when you are feeling grumpy and miserable?

Jane Freeman - The Guide SMH, August 17

How do you deal with redundancy?

What was your nickname as a child?

Ever been arrested?

What would you like written on your tombstone?

Is porn good or evil?

How would you deal with the Spice Girls?

What's your favourite pizza?

How do you like your coffee?

What's the best thing about being gay (Adam is not gay - these are set questions asked each time)

What's your idea of heaven on earth?

What's your favourite murder weapon?

List all the drugs you've taken - in order of preference.

What do you want played at your funeral?

Who or what is the most evil thing in society?

What do you wish your mother had said to you as an eight year old?

What's the purpose of life?

What's the worst film music of all time?

If you were forced at gun point to have sex with an animal what would it be?

What makes you uncontrollable angry?

What's your favourite movie scene?

What will Michael Jackson eventual look like?

Ever read philosophy? Did it help?

A tortoise (it's like a turtle) lies in the desert on its back. It's struggling to get up. You're not helping. How does this make you feel?

How can stand-up comedy make the world a better place?

Three hours and fourteen minutes to live. What do you do?

If the whole world was completely cynical, would hope still exist?

Death is the final journey. What's the mode of transport?

Who are you really? Come on, really?

Without the use of a calculator, logarithm tables, your fingers or a slide rule, determine the square root of 116964

Job Description: Triple J disc jockey, host of Quantum, guest on Good News Week and he still tutors maths.

Education: Arts/Law and part of a PhD in pure mathematics at the University of Sydney.

Best thing about job: "Bumping into people and getting feedback: especially for the science. It's great to think you've made someone aware of something, or made them have a chuckle."

Pet hates: People who accept things without questioning them - in religion, politics, and especially in entertainment. He illustrates this by saying it's depressing how many albums the Spice Girls sell. And he hates people who sit in the wrong seat in an aeroplane. "I can't understand how you can get it wrong."

Career Highlight: A talk he gave on The Sexiest Number Ever at the Australian Science Festival this year made him realise that he could have an impact on people's understanding of science. Another highlight was supporting Steven Wright, the American comedian, a couple of years ago.

Family: Mum and Dad, brother and sister (none are involved in science or media) and no pets.

Hobbies: Cryptic crosswords, playing and coaching soccer.

Favourite books: Fermat's last theorem by Singh, Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, Spike Milligan's The return of William McGonnegal.

Favourite films: Wild at Heart, Dr Strangelove, Naked Gun, The Sting, Great Escape, Magnificent Seven, Pale Rider, Tetsuo - Iron Man. Nothing with Wynona Ryder in it.

Favourite music: "There aren't many forms of music I'm opposed to, although I don't understand hip hop. If I find a CD I love, I put it on repeat 17 or 18 times at home - although I'd get in a bit of trouble if I did that at work."

Favourite food: Fried chicken, Japanese, Vegetarian, African, and he cooks a mean fried ice-cream.

Goal in life: "I have to let go of my desire to score a winning goal for Manchester United in the FA Cup! Since I've been at Quantum, we've doubled the share of 16 to 24 year-olds watching. I'd be very, very happy to see that trend continue; I'd feel I'd done pretty well if I was associated with lots of people knowing more about science."

Advice: "Every year or so it's good to do one thing that scares the tripe out of you. You've got to re-define your parameters because the worst that can happen is that you fail and realise that you can deal with it and it's not as bad as you thought, or sometimes you get through it."

From The Helix, the CSIRO magazine for their Double Helix club.

Adam Spencer is so busy with his media career that the Triple J deejay and new presenter of ABC television's Quantum may never find time to complete a PhD in pure mathematics. He talks to the unrelated Matthew Spencer.

Standing on Sydney's George Street, outside the cinema complexes, Adam Spencer is sucking takeaway broiled chicken from nearby Chinatown off the bone ( he's on a diet - no junk food),
and wiping the juice in his hair. Between mouthfuls, he's enthusing about his latest project,
which has him coupled with Helen Razer in the Departure Lounge, Triple J radio's drivetime
slot.

"Today's show went well," he slurps. "Somehow Kenny Rogers came up early and every time Helen threw to me I was singing Coward of the Country. I got to do my whole repertoire."

With his hair dyed blond ( there's a stubborn hint of blueberry ), Spencer is vaguely reminiscent of Sick Boy from the film 'Trainspotting' but, as fellow Triple J DJ Mikey Robbins observes, it's Sick boy on a pie diet.

On top of his national radio commitments, Spencer is a regular guest on ABC television's Good News Week and this week was named as the new presenter of ABC TV's science program, Quantum.

The program's executive producer, Joanne Finlay, says Spencer is a change of gear for Quantum, which returns to air on March 19. He was chosen because his fascination with science is apparent in his bright and amusing approach. "He can explain really difficult subjects in a very accessible way," Finlay says.

Spencer laid the groundwork for all this during almost a decade at the University of Sydney when, among other things, he took a tilt at federal politics and almost completed a PhD in pure mathematics. ( His thesis has been interrupted by his supervisor's departure for Paris. ) Spencer, 28, started at the university in 1987, studying arts-law. After three years he dumped the law, focusing on an honours year in maths. Four years into a PhD - on the sufficiency of jets of polynomial functions - the subject still gives him the holy shivers. "Humanity's highest achievement is pure mathematics," he says. "I've seen eight-word statements in mathematics that are so phenomenally deep and complicated they've taken thousands of years to arrive at. "Having done a bit of law and the humanities, it's something nice just to see beautiful, crystallized truth." With the media commitments, Spencer says this is the first year he wont be able to tutor maths, at high school or university level, but maintains that at some stage he will return to the classroom.

Meanwhile, in the Departure Lounge, Razer is clamouring that she also spent many useless years at university. "That's one great point of similarity between the two of us,: she says. "We've worked out that at the time of writing were two of the most overly educated radio team on the Australian airwaves."

It begs the question : is it a waste for people potentially so well credentialled to be blowing it in comedy and the media? Sydney stand-up comic and cartoonist Peter Berner, who has worked with Spencer on GNW, and around the stand-up circuit, doesn't think so. Spencer is smart and lucid and works with erudite material, Berner says. "Here's an example of the fact that comics do understand modern culture and society. Ultimately you have to make them laugh, but you can use your opportunity in front of people to plant some seeds or bring up contentious issues." Berner says GNW, a comic look at the week in news, is a show that works in this way, being both socially investigative, or confronting, and extremely funny. Spencer agrees, claiming that
GNW is the most enjoyable work he does. "I think that's a show that deserves real respect for what it's managed to get on to TV," he says. "It really does say things and do things that even a lot of people on the ABC would be afraid to touch. Let alone the commercials."

Spencer was active in student politics at university, an interest that spilled over into the federal arena when he ran as an independent for Paul Keating's seat of Blaxland in the 1996 by-election. "Our main concept involved the abolishment of Super League," he says. "We were going to put it straight in the Constitution at the next referendum - 'Australia united under one god, and the Queen, and playing only one rugby league competition.'" The offshoot policies were set to promote more clubs, doing away with the tendency to merger. "We were going to have like district cubs, local clubs, even families of sufficient size would be forced by law to enter a club in the rugby league competition. "We were aiming for 2000 clubs by 2000. As a result of this policy, by the year 2000 no child need not have played first-grade rugby league." This, he believes, would have unified the country. "In the same way that Japan threw itself forward as a country behind unification and rebuilding post-World war II, we could just throw ourselves behind making rugby league the most invidious national sport of any national sport across the world. "Then you'd see people just walking down the street smiling at each other, 'cause they knew they had a job to do." Spencer says what really disillusioned him about the campaign was the fact that Michael Hatton, who eventually won the seat, refused to accept the challenge of a public pass-the-ball competition and an open debate on the 10-metre rule. "What offended me was that he just continually ran from me throughout the campaign. He had his minders and his apparatchiks covering me. Now I know how Ross Perot feels, as a viable third party just being excluded." Australians Against Further super League blew its deposit on the day, polling just 499 votes.

Spencer's entry to Triple j has involved a mixture of luck, confidence and talent. In 1996, a friend secretly entered him in the station's first Raw Comedy Competition, designed to unearth talent, and he went through to the national finals after winning the NSW rounds. He followed this up with a spontaneous appearance on the station's breakfast show, when he offered himself up from the crowd during a special broadcast from the University of Sydney. On air, Spencer was asked to read the weather, relating it to the subject he studied at university - pure mathematics. "Hobart fine and 22, the square root of 484," he said off the cuff. "Melbourne sunny and 22, which of course, is the cube root of 10,648."
Impressed by the way he'd picked up the ball and bolted, the show's producer offered him further occasional work.
Then the station DJ Michael Tunn fell sick on a Sunday afternoon, just as Spencer finished a heavily supervised shift. "They needed a replacement quickly and the guy in charge of rostering was from down in Canberra and assumed I had hundreds of hours of community radio experience, so he asked me to fill in that night on the request show," Spencer says.
"The next day I thanked the guy for backing me, and told him it was only the third time I'd ever been on radio.
"He just said 'Well, f--- mate, if I'd known that I would have don it myself, I would never have let you near it.' "
He did four more nights for Tunn, then scored the midnight until dawn shift for 1997, as well as doing a small Monday afternoon segment in the Ladies' Lounge with Razer and Judith Lucy, where he'd review the week from a bloke's perspective. When Lucy left, this was expanded into a longer segment, which evolved into a longer segment, which evolved into the Departure Lounge.
"Adam is exceptionally easy to work with because he is devoid of any performance anxiety," Razer says.

Sydney actor and playwright Rob Carlton first ran into Spencer in 1990, at a celebrity debate on the topic of arts vs sport at Sydney University.
"He stood up from the floor and took the room and lifted the roof off it," Carlton recalls. "It was unbelievable, man. He basically for 10 minutes had people just absolutely on the floor." Carlton and Spencer have become friends, often working together at Belvoir St Theatre sports or on Triple J.
"My concern is that we are not seeing the best of the scruffy little freak," Carlton says. "He can take people to places they haven't been before." Carlton believes Spencer keeps a bit of a lid on things at Triple j, limiting himself in the process.
"It's a question of playing the game until he has enough backing there to do what the hell he wants," Carlton says. "But there is obviously a concern that for the amount of time you play the game you wear off your edges. He should back himself more."
Carlton says Spencer's brilliance revolves around his ability to quickly and easily package high-brow concepts in low-brow language.
When he chooses to lift the lid and really go at it, the sheer deluge of language, coupled with an extraordinary vocabulary and eclectic choice of subject matter, may leave some audiences wondering why they're laughing so hard.
Mikey Robbins agrees, saying Spencer has a quick analytical mind and a broad range of knowledge. "I hope he does well and makes some money soon so he can buy a shirt with a collar," says
Robbins.

As well as theatre sports, debating, TV and radio, Spencer has been doing stand-up comedy for a couple of years, which he says is as tough as any forum can be. He supported US comic Steven Wright at Sydney's State Theatre, in what he describes as one of the great artistic bluffs of all time. "It would be like getting a couple of mates who had a garage band to support Pearl jam," he says.
"On the way in there, I was absolutely terrified but I realised in doing it that it's important at leats once a years as a performer to do a gig that really scares you.
"It redefines your parameters of what you can do and reminds you of what it's like to be doing stuff that's worrying you a bit and hopefully stops you from continually getting safe with things."
Spencer doesn't claim any particular role models or inspirations for his work ( he says he's enjoying the SBS animation series South Park - "My Three Sons on really hard drugs" ) but does appreciate the weird, tangential and absurd.
"Like Peter Luck now that he's in charge of Today Tonight."

From the Weekend Australian, 14th February, 1998

FAQ host Adam Spencer took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to chat to TV WEEK.

TVWEEK: What are you reading right now?

ADAM: A collection of Stephen Hawkings's essays on cosmology and the Backyard Blitz Christmas Bonanza

TVW: What's your favourite TV show?

ADAM: FAQ, South Park, FAQ, the UK soccer round-up on SBS, FAQ and anything with the word "Danoz" in it.

TVW: What is your most embarrassing moment in life?

ADAM: I'm confident it's still to come

TVW: How would others have described you in high school?

ADAM: Unwillingly

TVW: What is the best film you've seen recently?

ADAM: God knows, it wasn't Kevin and Perry Go Large. That was unforgivable!

TVW: What frightens you?

ADAM: I'm prone to bouts of ithyphallophobia...look it up!

23-29 December 2000 TV Week.