Last night I went to Bright Club, run by UCL’s Public Engagement Unit, In a nut shell it aims to prove that underneath the tweed jackets and elbow patches, academics can be quite funny. You can find out more about it here. I didn’t quite know what to expect. I went along to support my colleague Anne, who is funny in real life, so I imagined she would be manage to be funny on stage. And boy was she!

Not only was it hilarious, and I was not at all bribed to have a good time by the free lollypops and retro sweeties on the tables, no. I learnt quite a bit too.

Did you know that the glass roof at St Pancras is self cleaning? I didn’t and it all because of some clever bio film. Thanks to Charlie Dunnill,for that gem… I will be championing the quiz team soon, I can feel it! I cant remember the difference between hydrophobic and hydrophilic bio film but one of them bounces right off!

A marvelous anthropologist/film maker/digital filmographer Mike Yorke told us about his time with some pretty cool tribes, contracting devils grip, going into trances and increasing your power…a little bit, by doing some very painful yet spiritual things with a big stick.

Peter Mullany, was also talking about bio film, but he focused on stripy icebergs and 1000year old bodily odours from polar bears.

Matthew Gandy told us all about world cinema, now I haven’t retained any snazzy quiz facts from this apart from its really easy to insult people in Korean by saying they have a bun shaped face. Matthew was just really funny. Either that or world cinema is really funny… maybe I’ve been watching the wrong films.

Then there was Anne.

She taught us that librarian’s, not only are chic but that they work not just with books, but exploding films too! And why Nitrate just won’t wait. Whatever you do, don’t take a nitrate film into a smoking carriage of a train, because disaster is sure to strike. Not only was Anne funny from start to finish, but she managed to plug the new Centre for DH, my work (also noting that I’m not a librarian), and her boss being on the BBC’s virtual revolution. Represent.

So all in all, a great night. Thanks to all involved!