Bright Club: Scotland's Fringe

Science meets standup in the punningly titled Bright Club. It brings together academics from various Scottish universities and lets them loose on Fringe audiences, hopefully to turn their research into rib-tickling minutes of enlightening entertainment. The line-up changes daily and each show is compered by an experienced comic performing elsewhere at the Fringe.

Some genuinely fascinating facts make their way off the stage in a show that delights in intelligence. With roughly five acts per hour, it's entirely possible to leave having picked up the basics of soil composition, an understanding of redundancy patterns and an insight into both the mating habits of bats and the role of wood in a strong erection. (No sniggering at the back, please.)

Seeing education and intellectual achievement celebrated in this way is great. The show pulls off the trick of coating facts with laughter, without patronising us in process. It's accessible, irreverent and often pleasingly tongue-in-cheek.

But if Bright Club succeeds at bringing science to the masses, it's on less certain ground when it comes to out-and-out comedy. Its well-lettered participants are relative newcomers to this world and, although they're always interesting and engaging, this sometimes shows in a lack of timing and comic judgement.

Nevertheless, this is still a hugely enjoyable way to boost your knowledge while having a laugh in an atmosphere brimming with goodwill. If only science lessons at school had been this fun.