Bright Club to shine a light on referendum

Published On Tue 14 Jan 2014 by Grant Hill

Some of Scotland's funniest academics will be using their expertise to apply some serious humour to the referendum campaign at the next Bright Club Dundee event next week.

Comedian Rory Bremner last year said the issue was too important to be left to politicians and called for more humour in the debate, and the Bright Club event, led by the University of Dundee's Revealing Research team, aims to do just that.

Dr Karen Petrie from Dundee's School of Computing will be joined by academics from the University of Glasgow for the event at Braes, Perth Road, on Tuesday, 21st January. In all, six researchers-turned-comedians will be bringing laughter to the debate from a range of perspectives including geology, law and literature, while the event will be hosted by well-known Scottish comedian Bruce Morton.

Event organiser Dr Jon Urch says humour has an important role to play in both communicating research to a lay audience and helping people engage with politics.

'Academia and politics share a similar reputation as being a bit serious but our events over the past year have shown how much humour there is to be derived from research, which helps people understand it in a different way,' he said.

'Comedians and social commentators have been satirising politics for centuries but, as Rory Bremner noted, this great tradition has been missing from the referendum debate so far so we aim to help redress the balance next week.'

The Bright Club movement was established by scholars whose thirst for knowledge led them to hypothesise what might happen if research and comedy were mixed and left to ferment in front of an audience. The gigs take place across the UK and set out to dispel the stereotype of the stuffy academic by giving them the chance to experiment with the world of stand-up comedy.

The Bright Club Dundee Indy ref Special takes place at 8.30pm (doors open 7.30pm) on Tuesday, 21st January. Tickets cost £5 and can be purchased by calling 01382 386660, emailing brightclubddundee@gmail.com or visiting www.brightclubdundee.org.

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