Make people laugh for the climate: Join UCL's Sustainable Stand-Up course

We’re searching for a small group of people to take part in UCL’s first ever ‘Sustainable Stand Up’ course.

The course is a unique space to see what happens when we use humour to illuminate and engage others in the issues we care about. It culminates in a loving and compassionate stand-up comedy show, held in the Grant Museum of Zoology on Thursday, 22 May, where each participant will perform their comedy sets to a supportive audience.

The course is facilitated by the course creator Belina Raffy, who has previously run it over 50 times across 11 countries. The Sustainable Stand-Up course has been part of National Science Week in Australia twice. Previous alumni include climate scientists, humanitarian workers, sustainable transport professors and UCL students and staff. The course usually costs several hundred pounds but, thanks to UCL Grand Challenges funding, we’re able to bring it to UCL for free. What we’re asking instead is that you put in the required work which includes deep reflection, lateral thinking, writing and refining, and some vulnerability to share parts of the real and wonderful you.

The course flow is as follows:

• 9 April from 2-3:30pm. The course starts with an in-person and interactive visit to the Grant Museum.
• We then have four live online courses on 16, 23, 30 April and 7 May, from 4:30pm UK for 90 minutes to two hours.
• We then have an online, one to one comedy coaching and consulting deepdive for 30 minutes on either May 9, 10, or 12.
• We have one more online class on 14 May from 4:30-6:30pm.
• We then shift to in-person.  Our class 6/rehearsal on the UCL campus will be 21 May from 1:30pm to 5pm.
• Our live in-person show will be in the Grant Museum on 22 May.  We get there at 5pm and the doors open to our audience at 6pm. Our show is from 6:30pm until about 8pm.
• Our last class is a debrief class that will happen in-person on 23 May at 11am over a relaxed coffee in or around the UCL campus.

In addition to the classes, you will have around 2 hours of homework per class/meeting until the show.

You can read more about Sustainable Stand Up here: https://www.sustainablestandup.com/

We expect this course to be popular and spaces are limited. We’re asking interested people to fill in a short form telling us (briefly!) what climate, environmental, or social issue they might be interested in working on and what they hope to get out of taking part. We’re hoping to recruit a mix of people from across UCL, from first year students to emeritus professors and professional services staff. Participants don’t need any previous experience of this kind of thing. All we ask is that they have a desire to communicate an important topic in a loving and relatable way, an open mind, and a commitment to be part of creating something special.

To register your interest, please sign up here by Friday 7^th March.

Register your interest for the course here