Bright Club is a variety night for lateral minds, where researchers become comedians for a night! Each event features academics from science, humanities, and social science talking about their work alongside professional comedians and musicians. Originally pioneered in the UK, Bright Club came to Ireland in 2015 and now over 100 events have taken place in Dublin, Galway, Cork, Limerick, Athlone, Sligo, Monaghan, and many festivals and conferences. With comedy, music and more besides, Bright Club is the only variety night where you’ll furrow your brow before laughing your face off.

Our full mission statement is here, describing our commitment to public engagement, research communication, and equity and inclusion. Bright Club does not tolerate sexism, racism, homophobia, or other prejudicial behaviour at our shows and if you witness any of these at a Bright Club show, we encourage you to write to us so we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Bright Club is supported by CÚRAM, CKI, and the University of Galway Research Office. It has been covered by RTÉ, The Irish Times, Newstalk, TodayFM, and Silicon Republic.

Meet the team

  • Jessamyn Fairfield: Founding Director
    • Denny Farrell: Speaker Training
    • Morag Hannah: Website & Graphics