Being in “show business” (or at least as close as doing planetarium shows about cool stuff in astronomy gets me), I often deal with the question “What do I tell the audience?” It’s sort of a back-door way into asking, “What does the audience want to know?” But, to my way of thinking, the first question that should be in the back of any creative talent’s mind is, “How can I make them feel?”

In talking and/or writing about astronomy, it’s actually not too difficult to figure out what stuff turns an audience on because there’s a whole universe of objects and processes out there to talk about, and there are a million tales to tell. So, my shows take you all over the cosmos, from the solar system to the limits of the observable universe.

So, how does “show business” get invoked here? Well, creating shows for people to learn about and/or enjoy the cosmos is a “people business” — meaning you have to think about the audience. Maybe not necessarily what they do or don’t know, because if you’re writing for a general audience you have to think generally. You have to make them feel at home in the universe you’re creating for them in your program (whether it’s a TV show or a planetarium show). At a very basic level it means that you use language people can understand. Jargon, while it may sound cool and demonstrate that science and technology have their own language, also irritates people because they don’t know what it is. Use some term like “stochastic nature of star formation” in a show without explaining it (and why would you explan statistical assumptions in an audio-visual entertainment?), and your audience spends the next couple of minutes wondering “the whatty nature of whosie-whatsis? huh?” and then they’ve missed what you said next. Not good.

As much as we might denigrate TV or movies or “show business” as reaching for a lowest common denominator, there are important lessons to be learned from the success of show business. It uses techniques that entertain and inform, whether they’re striking visual work, a song, a stirring speech, or whatever it is that catches the audience’s attention and heart.

So, when I write a show, I work a lot on the language that people will hear in the narration. It has to invoke their interest AND their emotions in order for them to remember and learn. Same with the imagery, whether it’s slides or videos or 3D animations. Put together, these elements should appeal to your audience at the same time it educates and entertains.

It’s tough to do all this, no question about it. But if I’m going to be a good science communicator, I also have to bring a little “show business” into the dome with me.