Bright Club tests an innovative model for public engagement through comedy. Every month in a Clerkenwell pub different UCL staff and students perform short sets about aspects of their research, always around a theme (‘Lust’, Heroes’, ‘Metal’), to growing audiences, mainly 20-40 year-olds outside HE. To date there have been 21 Bright Clubs, 70+ performers, and there are now always queues around the block. The £5 ticket price covers all costs of production, professional comperes and musicians; UCL staff and students perform free. Other universities (Manchester, Cardiff) are now experimenting with this as a sustainable form of public engagement