Academics from the University are organising a new stand-up comedy night that aims to take their passion for their subjects out of the lab and to the public.

Billed as “the thinking person’s variety night”, the Bright Club is a new kind of comedy event that gets academics onstage to talk about their research work within a comedy context.

The format has already proved to be very popular and has spread quickly. Already several UK cities host Bright Clubs, and now Glasgow is the latest to join in the fun as a group of young postgraduate researchers from the University have organised the first Bright Club Glasgow event in the Admiral bar on Waterloo St, on 17 November.

Zara Gladman is a PhD student in the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine investigating crayfish populations in Scotland. Having performed at a Bright Club gig in Edinburgh recently, she used to be Glasgow’s sole representative on the Bright Club circuit; nowadays however, she is Glasgow’s comedian-in-chief and unofficial coordinator of the city’s first event.

The night itself promises to be an eclectic mix with five performers from the University of Glasgow featuring on the bill, including a criminologist, a mathematician, a cell biologist, a fish biologist and an engineer; plus an economist from the University of Strathclyde.

Such is the popularity of Bright Club that unfortunately all the advanced tickets have been snapped up for the event on the 17 November, although there will be a limited few available on the door. If you are keen to get involved with the Bright Club in the future there is more information available on their Facebook, Twitter, or website.

You can also learn a little more about the Bright Club in this short BBC video.

First published: 8 November 2011

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