Harry Baker is a person who can write a witty love poem about prime numbers that is as emotional as it is clever.
But that is what you get from a mathematician who has turned slam performance poetry into a career.
The English performer and 2012 World Slam Champion is taking his unique style around Australia, and performed in Wollongong, New South Wales on Thursday night.
"I was good at maths and science at school and there are right and wrong answers in those subjects, so I was pushed in that direction and was pushed to study medicine," he said.
"Writing poems was an escape on the side, but I studied maths and German.
I think the competitive element started as a bit of a gimmick to get people to come along to a poetry event and make it exciting.
"It was only through studying maths at a higher philosophical level did I realise the two were more linked."
Baker, who finished a maths degree before travelling the world as a performance poet, said he enjoyed applying nerdiness and maths to poetry, and applying creativity and poetry to his maths work.
His most famous work is his Love Poem for Lonely Prime Numbers, a piece he first performed for a poetry evening inspired by prime numbers (yes, it exists), but most famously delivered at a TED Talk in Exeter in 2014.
"I wrote it for a specific night and a lot of the people had researched their specific prime number and made it rhyme," he said.
"There were a lot of intense facts about numbers, but I tried to make mine a love story and gave the numbers their characters.
"I like the prime numbers because they're different."
The poem tells the story of the number 59 looking for love, and finally finds it when it meets 61.
Baker writes:
"He told her the very definition of being prime was that with only one and himself could his heart divide.
"And she was the one he wanted to give his heart to. She said she felt the same and now she knew the films were half true.
"Because that wasn't real love, that love was just a sample. When it came to real love they were a prime example."
Poetry as a competition
He may be an international poetry slam champion, but Baker can see the funny side of turning poetry into a competition.
"I think the competitive element started as a bit of a gimmick to get people to come along to a poetry event and make it exciting," he said.
"Some people take it more seriously than others, but if you win you can pretend it's a perfect system, and if you don't win you can say judging poetry is ridiculous and unfair."
Wollongong has a strong poetry scene, driven by the Enough Said group that ran the poetry slam Baker performed at.
He said performing under competition conditions could be challenging.
"I have certain poems in mind that I think I want to do, and as long as someone doesn't go up and do something about the same topic, normally once I'm up there I know what I'm doing," he said.
When maths met Jay Z
At school Baker managed to blend his love of poetry, rap and maths into one song — a parody of Jay Z's hit rap song 99 Problems.
Renamed I've Got 99 Problems But Maths Ain't One, a school-aged Baker wrote in a 60-digit pi solo recital delivered at rapid speed.
"It was complete, unashamed nerdiness," he said.
"This was in a battle of the bands competition where most of my friends were playing covers of their favourite rock songs, but I loved the creativity and being able to put myself into my work.
"I've always tried to write about stuff I can relate to."