What’s On

Sunday Assembly London has a new home! We are very excited to welcome you all to our inaugural Assembly at our new HQ of the Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green, a legendary venue on the London events scene having played host to some of the best acts in the country! To sillybrate this joyous marriage of our two institutions we are today exploring the relationship between Science and Comedy, with two of the funniest nerds in the business! Dr Steve Cross is a stand-up comedian, presenter and founder of CLEVERmakeFUNNY, which trains academics, museums professionals, software engineers, architects and lawyers to make comedy part of their lives.

Dr Steve will talk to us about how finding the funny side of science helps to unpack its biases and helps us drive social and political change by embracing the concept of absurdity.

We are also absolutely thrilled to be tickled by the presence of award-winning comedian with a Phd in Statistics, Merry Martyn. Often seen performing with a Rubik’s cube, Merry was the winner of Queerovision in August ‘22, semi-finalist for Comedy Virgins #INGTE ’22 and West End New Act of the Year ’23.

Many feel that contemporary Western culture is in the grips of a meaning crisis. Are we unsure of our direction, as we grapple with climate change, runaway AI, geopolitical instability and increasing challenges around mental health?

In this talk, Alexander Beiner will examine this moment in history, with a particular focus on AI, social media and psychedelics, to argue that materialist metaphysics play a major role in our cultural dislocation today. Drawing on the research for his book ‘The Bigger Picture’, he’ll argue that ‘New Atheism’ is giving way to ‘New Animism’ and what implications this has for the future of humanity.

Alexander is a writer, commentator and co-founder of Rebel Wisdom, a media and events organization focussing on making sense of culture and complexity.

We are also thrilled to have poetry from Max Ingmar. Max is a queer, non-binary writer, musician and artist. They make art that acts as a series of small exorcisms; the good, the bad and the hopeful.

There will also be the usual smorgasbord of songs, tea and community.