2014 Edinburgh Fringe

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Fringe First Winner and science rapper Baba Brinkman (Rap Guide to Evolution) teams up with neuroscientist Dr. Heather Berlin to explore the brain basis of improvisation.

What's going on "under the hood" when a comedian or musician improvises?

Why are the spontaneous moments of life always the most memorable?

Does anything actually rhyme with Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex?

A married couple in real life, Baba and Heather bring you the latest research on brain science and creativity with featured guests mixing their scripted material with unscripted moments of hilarity.
. Heather (aka Dr. Heather Berlin, PhD, MPH) is a cognitive neuroscientist at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York - she recently hosted Superhuman Showdown a show on the Discovery Channel about people with extraordinary talents.

Baba and Heather are currently leading in a study at NYU which places rap artists in an fMRI scanner while they freestyle and also while they recite memorized lyrics, the aim is to see which parts of the brain are active during each activity.

Heather will interpret the findings of this study and other similar studies and in Off the Top, she and Baba will explain what the results mean in practical terms in relation to other performing arts, i.e. comedy, music, improv and theatre.

The show will be made up of a heady mix of comedy rap songs and other material about the brain (written by Baba), brain science explained by Heather, and a rotating roster of daily guests.

Afterwards Baba and Heather will challenge the guests to perform material from their own shows, but to insert at least one unscripted moment somewhere in the performance, and discuss the performances panel-style afterwards.

And to top it all - Baba will be summing things up at the end of each show with a freestyle rap about the day's unscripted moments.