On the Origin of Faeces is a scientific and comedic investigation into the excellent world of excrement and gut bacteria. How do astronauts poo in space? Did ancient cultures worship poo? What lurks in a gut microbiome? The answer lies within ourselves.

Alanta spent a fair bit of her 20s working around the globe in sanitation, inspecting Ugandan drop toilets. If one stares into a latrine for long enough, the latrine starts to stare back into you. Alanta was left with more questions than answers. What makes a healthy poo? Do our gut feelings account for more of what we do than we give them credit for? Forget the lust for space; is the microbiome the final frontier of human discovery?

Humanity is fundamentally a walking digestive tract. Excrement is the only thing some people ever produce. This show takes a bottom up approach to some scientific scat chat, as we dive into the bowels of the matter, to learn about poo horoscopes, DIY faecal transplants, and why dogs defecate on a north/south axis. 

This is a s#$ show. Join science comedian Alanta Colley for a festival of effluvia, exploring how gut bacteria makes us who we are, and how we feel about poo. So grab a stool and join us for a diar-really good time.

Alanta’s debut solo show Parasites Lost sold out its entire run at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and was given an Inspiring Australia Science-Arts Grant to perform in FRINGE WORLD Perth in 2019. Alanta’s second solo show Days of our Hives about bee-keeping and bee-losing attracted more bee keepers than any other show at comedy festival. Alanta’s nerdy concoction of evidence-based comedy and personal confessions has been warmly received by audiences across Australia and internationally.

Alanta is a public health practitioner, comedian, storyteller based in Melbourne and runs Sci Fight Science Comedy Debate year round at Howler Melbourne.