What’s so funny about volcanoes? According to New York comedian Ben Miller, a lot. In February 2023, Miller spent a month-long artist residency at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park writing an hour of volcano-themed material. Now on tour, Miller performs the show, Standup Science Presents: Volcano, March 4 at Wildish Community Theater in Springfield. Miller was just as surprised as anyone that a comedian got the volcano residency nod when a poet, musician or painter might seem a better fit. But Miller has a science and engineering degree from Columbia University, and when he applied for the stay at the park he’d already performed a sold-out run of Standup Science performances at the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe — with the same joke-writing approach, if fewer exploding mountains. His volcano show mentions several well-known volcanoes, like Pompeii, with a multimedia presentation as a backdrop for Miller’s sharp and insightful one-liners. Miller says at one point in the show that in Oscan, the original language of Pompeii’s residents, Pompeii meant five, as in “5,4,3,2,1,” leaving the explosion unsaid. “Too soon?” is the tag. “To be honest, when I first started doing comedy,” Miller tells Eugene Weekly in a phone call, “the first four years or so, I did not mention my science background at all. I was worried people would be like, why are you talking about this? But then I said, no, actually, you can embrace what makes you different and share that with people.” Joining Miller at Wildish are two Oregon “STEM” comedians: Eugene’s Sarah Hagen, who draws on her academic math expertise in her material, and Oregon State University roboticist and standup comic Naomi Fitter. 

Ben Miller’s Standup Science Presents: Volcano is 7 pm Tuesday, March 4 at Richard E. Wildish Community Theater; 630 Main Street, Springfield. $15-25; all ages.