Are the majority of people respectful when they do approach him though?

“I don’t think there’s any respect involved, I think it’s just normal politeness that you should just have towards anybody,” he said.

“People are polite to most people, and everybody’s polite to everybody in general. 

“If you’ve read my 34th book, you would have read that one per cent of men, and about two per cent of women have psychopathic tendencies.

“So, some people are not polite, but the overwhelming majority of people are as polite as they’d be to anybody at the bus stop. If I’m going into the supermarket, normally I’ll get stopped twice in a supermarket shop.”

Dr Karl’s media career entails radio, TV, books, newspapers, magazines, professional speaking and more. 

He has degrees in Physics and Maths, Biomedical Engineering, Medicine and Surgery and has worked as a physicist, tutor, filmmaker, car mechanic, labourer and medical doctor.  

However, he maintains that “I’m not particularly smart”.

“My IQ is only barely above average, about 110, and the average IQ is 100. 

“So two-thirds of the population sit between an IQ of 85 and 115, and I’m in there with two-thirds of the population. But what I have as the advantage is if I force myself to read up on these subjects.

“I’ve just finished my 40th book, so putting it into books forces you to go to a higher level of fact-checking, getting it right and understanding it.”

Dr Karl will make an appearance as part of the Wollongong Fringe Festival. 

Yours & Owls and Destination Wollongong are collaborating to present the first ever Wollongong Fringe Festival. 

It runs from September 23 to October 2. Dr Karl will appear at 7pm on Friday, September 30 at the Arts Precinct, Wollongong. 

“I’ll do something that’s got a little humour, a little bit of heavy stuff, a whole bunch of different topics,” he said.

“People will laugh and learn, but mainly have a good time. Then I’ll open it up to questions at the end.”

Tickets for Dr Karl’s appearance are available from Moshtix.