Kory Mathewson and Julian Faid in TEDxRFT. Photo by Aaron Pedersen

TEDxRFT(Stage 11, Nordic Studio Theatre)

A TED talk, if you have escaped the phenomenon, is an opportunity for someone who knows a lot about something to talk about it for twenty minutes, usually without notes, usually with slides.

These are experts and enthusiasts, typically with a lesson to impart.

Kory Mathewson and Julian Faid, two of the city’s finest improvisers, have a unique take on the TED talk: what if our presenters knew nothing about their subject? What if, instead of being experts, they are simply enthusiasts?

The format of this hilarious hour of nerdery is simple: Mathewson builds the slides for Faid, and vice-versa. Neither of them has seen the slides before arriving on stage. The audience comes up with the title and… voilà, we watch two very funny young men suffer a lot of intellectual discomfort.

Mathewson and Faid have travelled the world with their know-nothing TED talks. The one thing they both know a lot about is the process of improvisation, and how to make an audience laugh.

This may be among your last opportunities to see a TEDxRFT (the RFT stands for Rapid Fire Theatre). Our expert non-experts have received a cease-and-desist letter from TED, a rather well-resourced and non-comedic enterprise.

— Todd Babiak