Guest post written by author Tobias Madden
Tobias is an author and editor from Sydney, Australia, now based in New York, USA. Originally from Ballarat, Tobias worked for ten years as a performer, touring Australia and New Zealand with musicals such as Mary Poppins, CATS, Singin’ in the Rain, and Guys and Dolls. In 2019, he edited and published UNDERDOG, the first #LoveOzYA short story anthology for previously unpublished Aussie young adult fiction writers. Also in 2019, he wrote the cabaret show Siblingship, which played to sold out audiences in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra. Tobias is a passionate member of the #LoveOzYA and LGBTQ+ communities. Both his debut young adult fiction novel, the ABIA Award-shortlisted, ANYTHING BUT FINE, and his second YA novel, TAKE A BOW, NOAH MITCHELL, are out now.
I was born a nerd. In the most traditional, stereotypical sense. I was the kid at school who gave himself extra assignments ‘for fun’. I pored over encyclopaedias on Saturday mornings instead of playing sport. I read the dictionary on the toilet (and oh, how I wish I was joking about that one).
I nerded out over words. I nerded out over whales. I nerded out over games, puzzles, facts, science, history, I nerded out over everything. At least, I thought I did. But then, at the age of 14, I discovered something brand-new—something totally magical—to nerd out over…
Musical theatre.
When my mum took me to see a touring production of Cats by the lake in my hometown of Ballarat, my eyes were opened to a whole new world (no pun intended) of awesomeness. How was it that I’d spent 14 years on the planet without realising this glorious artform even existed? Why had I wasted my entire childhood not belting along to musical soundtracks in my living room? Regardless, once I’d witnessed Grizabella ascending to the Heavyside Layer, it was all over for me. There was no going back.
I was officially a theatre nerd.
My new obsession started with Andrew Lloyd Webber—most likely because he was the only musical composer Mum had actually heard of—but I soon turned my sights on other classics like RENT and Chicago, as well as lesser-known shows like The Witches of Eastwick and Aida. My favourite activity became scouring stores for musical theatre soundtracks (on CD, of course, because it was the early 2000s and Limewire had a distinct lack of Broadway showtunes) and then listening to them on repeat for weeks and weeks on end. I’d study the flimsy CD booklet like it was a leather-bound encyclopaedia, learning every lyric, every line. I’d research the actors on the communal computers in my school library—our dial-up internet at home was way too slow—and find out everything I could about the composer’s other shows, so I could track down the CDs and start the process all over again.
Nerding out over musicals became my sole hobby. That is, until I discovered that I wasn’t limited to just listening to musicals … I could be in them.
My first show was a local production of Oliver, where I played an orphan called Charlie. In the converted church hall where our rehearsals were held, I soon learned that I wasn’t the only theatre nerd in town. In fact, the cast of Oliver was full of theatre nerds. Nerds who knew even more about musicals than I did. That rehearsal room was where I found my community.
My people.
Fast forward five years and I was studying musical theatre at Australia’s most prestigious theatre institution. Fast forward another five and I was touring Australia in Mary Poppins, understudying the role of Bert. Little had I known when I was a fourteen-year-old theatre nerd acting out ‘La Vie Bohème’ from RENT in my bedroom—playing all 11 characters plus ensemble—that I’d ever go on to be a professional theatre nerd. And little had I known that I’d get to spend my Friday nights on the couch with other professional theatre nerds, scouring YouTube to find the single greatest version of ‘No Good Deed’ from Wicked (Ock Jyoo-hyun from the Korean production, and I will die by those words) or fantasy casting our friendship group in every Broadway shown ever written. (Seriously, what would you rather be doing on a Friday night?)
When I was a teenager, I remember being ashamed of my nerdiness. I remember wondering when—or if—I’d ever truly fit in. But it turns out, all you need to do to find your place in the world is surround yourself with people who are the same kind of nerdy as you are. And I mean, everyone is nerdy about something, right? Maybe it’s cars. Maybe it’s baseball. (Two things I know literally nothing about.) But there are millions of car nerds and baseball nerds who know everything there is to know about carburettors and batting averages. (And yes, I had to google those things to include them in this piece.)
So… if we can assume that all of us are nerds in one way or another, shouldn’t the term ‘nerd’ come with more positive connotations? To me, it just translates to ‘someone who is passionate about something’. Or ‘someone who is lucky enough to have found that one thing that truly makes their heart sing’. And on top of that, many of us have managed to turn our nerdy tendencies into careers. (Hell, I’ve done it twice!)
If you ask me, I think we all need to embrace our inner nerds. Fly our proverbial nerd flags sky high. Because if we all follow that spark of curiosity, that… nerd kernel (did I just coin a new term?), then we’re guaranteed to find our people and our paths in life. Maybe that sounds dramatic, but—speaking from a lifetime of nerdy experience—I think it just so happens to be true.
