 Shaw was known in the fan community for his wit.Following his early membership of Irish Fandom, with Walt Willis, and James White, he always remained a keen reader of and contributor to fanzines.Later, and for many years, at the British science fiction convention Eastercon, he would deliver a humorous speech (often part of his famous series known by the tongue-in-cheek label of "Serious Scientific Talks"); these were eventually collected in "The Eastercon Speeches" (1979) and "A Load of Old Bosh" (1995), which included a similar talk from the 1979 Worldcon in Brighton, 37th World Science Fiction Convention.