At the intersection of nerdiness and comedy sits Juliette Burton. Whether it’s with her guided video game show, ‘Multiverse in Progress’, or her WIP on geek culture and sexuality, ‘Sexy Nerdy’, Juliette loves to take her audiences on journeys through far off lands and her own brain.

What is it about nerdy comedy that appeals to you so much?

There was always an undercurrent, I think, in my comedy because I’m a massive nerd in general, but I think it was the pandemic that really shifted things for me and I started to realise… looking back at my childhood and I realised how much I had distanced myself from. Suddenly this big box of joy just sprang open in me! My inner silliness. I’ve been squashing that down, as much as I’ve been attracted to comedy and doing comedy for years before that. Suddenly it all exploded! So I got really into cosplay. I got really into video games.

It’s all drag! All cosplay is drag! My LGBT community, my found family, they are 100% my inner world… and drag inspires me so much. I just do it in a nerdy way. We’re all cosplaying all the time and some of us might say it’s frivolous and silly and just putting on spandex… They clearly haven’t been courageous enough to put on some spandex because, believe me, you will learn a lot about yourself!

You have two shows on at GICF, ‘Multiverse in Progress’ and ‘Sexy Nerdy (WIP)’ – what are the main differences?

One of them you play a video game, one of them you don’t! One of them, you don’t know – I don’t know – what’s going to happen in it because it’s up the audience to choose. The other one, which is the ‘Sexy Nerdy WIP’, I know for a fact that is my best show that I’ve ever, ever done. I am so proud of it.

How did you come up with the idea of Multiverse in Progress?

I started doing a show called ‘Going Rogue’, which is a video game that you play in the audience. But it only had one narrative. This was us [Alastair Haig – game designer] just nerding out together. We’ve got these really cute little pixelated avatars that the audience get to create on the way in. I was like, ‘Since I have too many ideas, what if we gave the options to the audience?’ So they get to navigate around a map on screen and they get to vote which pathway you’re going down. There might be some surprises along the way…

And for Sexy Nerdy (WIP)?

It’s very much about sexual liberation and finding your – not only your inner nerd, your inner sexuality, which is different from sensuality, which is separate from eroticism. And becoming the powering woman I’ve wanted to be but never reached that extra power-up. I’ve had so many people come up to me after [shows], wanting to chat about the sexualisation of women in comic books and the sexualisation of character [in] cosplay. And I was fascinated because, actually when I cosplay as these characters, more often than not, I feel incredibly powerful! I wanted to explore that more because… each of these cosplays I do help me understand those aspects of myself and so much more. It’s definitely the silliest and sexiest show I’ve ever done!

What is special about a Glasgow audience?

They get comedy on a deeper level. They’re very comedy literate. Glasgow audiences like it brash, they like it bold. They like people taking chances and I think they just love authenticity. I feel like confidence is rewarded, boldness is rewarded the most in Glasgow and there’s a spirit to it as well. [Generally] when you get an audience who gets every niche joke, then I get to just play. If you have your nerds in there who live it as much as you do, then it’s like this little bubble of joy in your heart.

If you could only pick one form of nerd culture to exist, which would it be?

Okay, that is actually a really serious question. If we’re talking Desert Island rules, I think I’d go comic books because [they] can explore politics, art… and strong women. What we can learn about gender identity, about sexuality. Finding yourself in characters. When you find stories that you love and you share that joy, then you find other people who are also looking for you.

Sum up your shows in 5 words?

Sexy Nerdy, silly, hilarious, empowerment (so the name does what it says on the tin!)

‘Multiverse in Progress’ – Don’t watch show, play it.

‘Sexy Nerdy (WIP)‘ is at Gael & Grain, Glasgow on Sun 29 Mar 2026 at 20:30 and ‘Multiverse in Progress‘ will be at R-Cade Glasgow on Sat 28 Mar 2026 at 19:00 and 20:30 as part of the Glasgow International Comedy Festival.