Nearly 500 people crowd The Fashion Institute of Technology’s Haft Auditorium when George Hrab takes the stage for his hybrid musical act/quiz show, A Skeptical Extravaganza of Special Significance. The bald, bespectacled performer is joined by the self-described Rogues of the immensely popular Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast and children’s show host turned science advocate Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”).
Hrab leads the group as they tackle such hard-hitting topics as the Millennium Falcon vs. the starship Enterprise, but really turns up the heat when he forces Skeptics’ Guide point man Steven Novella to defend the American system of units against Nye and the metric system. Nye, perhaps emboldened by his audience-decided victory, later interrupts Hrab as he plays an acoustic version of Thomas Dolby’s 1980s synth-pop song “She Blinded Me with Science.” Hrab responds by offering his guitar to Nye, who politely declines.
The Extravaganza is one of the festivities associated with the 2015 Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS), jointly presented by the New York City Skeptics and the New England Skeptical Society. On this day, Hrab’s show of songs, mock debates, and rounds of Pictionary about Area 51 and water fluoridation actually outdraws the earlier seminar talks on science-based medicine. Hrab’s name carries cachet in the skeptical community because he has emceed the last three of the James Randi Educational Foundation’s The Amaz!ng Meetings (TAM) as well as the Australian Skeptics National Convention in Sydney last November, but being in this position was never really a goal for him.