Simon Pampena in The Maths Olympics
Note: This review is from 2008
Review by Steve Bennett
This children’s show is one of those attempts to make maths fun – but Simon Pampena lets his breathlessly excitable performance get the better of him, resulting in a muddled show that falls between the two stools of entertainment and education.His idea is that whereas Australia punches above its weight in most sporting events, at the annual maths Olympics it scores very badly, ranking 42nd, just below Kazakhstan and way below Liechtenstein.
So, to the Rocky soundtrack and in training vest, he gives an energising pep talk, mocking his own geeky, unfashionable, past but also trying to install a competitive mathematical spirit in all the potential young Olympians in the audience.
There’s no denying Pampena’s passion, or willingness to make a fool of himself in the name of number-based showbusiness, happily singing silly songs or dashing around the stage live a dervish to inject life into proceedings.
But his examples aimed at showing maths can be fun tend to go awry, although it’s not always his fault, such as the young volunteer too paralysed by nerves in the spotlight to co-operate. Elsewhere a ‘think of a number’ trick, for example, goes wrong because he didn’t explain a crucial step clearly enough, saying vaguely ‘add the numbers’ without specifying it was the digits that made up the number that needed to be added. Similarly, a demonstration of sudoku (which has little to do with maths anyaway) misfires when the adult volunteer tried to solve a square that Pampena hadn’t prepared on PowerPoint.
That’s a problem with shows relying on such technology; they have to strictly adhere to the linear path the pre-programmed presentation demands. Earlier, when looking at the Australia’s place in the Olympics medal tables, someone shouts out: ‘what about per head of population?’ (not, admittedly, your typical comedy club heckle), which leaves Pampena stumped because it pre-empts the next few minutes of slides, which we have to plough through anyway.
He is an upbeat, animated guide – but he struggles to communicate why he’s so enthused by the maths, which tends to get garbled in his determination to keep things lively. And his choice of examples isn’t always great. The formula defining the relationship between natural logarithms, the square root of minus one and pi might be wonderfully elegant for mathematicians, but probably over the head for most eight-year-olds.
His intentions are good, and his energy undeniable. But somehow, things just don’t add up right for him.
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Review date: 1 Jan 2008
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
