The Odditorium

Seen at this year’s Port Eliot Festival, the Odditorium is a collaboration with a handful of other salon speakers who share an interest in the arcane.

The Odditorium is curated by David Bramwell, host of Brighton’s long-running Catalyst Club. David and I have performed together at The Last Tuesday Society, The Horse Hospital and TEDx – here’s how David describes our latest venture:

“The Odditorium is a portal to the fringes of culture, its mavericks, pranksters, adventurers and occultists.

Our team comprise Sony Award-winning broadcasters, musicians, best-selling authors, roboticists and comic-book heroes, here to share their passions through slide show lectures, musical performance, live experiments, audience participation and mischief.”

At Port Eliot, I spoke about ventriloquism, early sound recording and the Victorian obsession with rehearing the voices of the dead, as I recorded a voice from the audience on wax using an original Edison phonograph. I also spoke about the bunker arrangements of self-styled 1980s nuclear survivalists and reprised my talk on musical and talking birds.

Also on the bill were Sue Bradley, David Bramwell, Matthew Clayton, Tim Pilcher, Ross Gurney Randall and Colin Uttley. They spoke about postal art and pranks, the history of the ghost train, utopian communities, Britain’s last hangman, Tijuana bibles and more.

Thanks to Ian Hodgson for the Odditorium logo.