The 2nd Silesian Scientific Stand-Up is behind us!
On May the 17th, 2025, the stage-lights at the “Spiral” club went on, and scientists appeared on the stage...! They took on two of the most difficult tasks: to make audience laugh and learn. We can assure you that the mission has succeeded, and the 2nd Silesian Scientific Stand-up has gone down in history.
For the second time in Gliwice, we met at the Silesian Scientific Stand-Up, during which we could listen to light and funny stories about scientific research and the backstage of everyday scientific work. Scientific stand-up is definitely one of the most innovative forms of popularization of science, requiring a lot of courage and distance from each other.
– “Scientific stand-up is an absolutely unusual form of popularization of science and education. For scientists, it is particularly demanding, because they have to get out of their “comfort zone” and show that they have a sense of humour and, above all, present scientific content in an appropriate way, so that they are understandable, fun and interesting” – says the Director of the Science Popularization Centre, Prof. Aleksandra Ziembińska Buczyńska, initiator of the Silesian Scientific Stand-up.
Stand-up performances were preceded by 2 days of workshops with Antoni Syrek-Dąbrowski – comedian, improviser active on the Polish comedy scene since 2010, author of the podcast “Bity”. During the workshops, the researchers learned the secrets of traditional stand-up, i.e. ways of creating bits and writing jokes or getting used to the stage.
- “I taught scientists different comedy strategies, different tricks that comedians use to amuse the audience,” says Antoni Syrek-Dąbrowski. -“I hope that they will be able to amuse the audience and that they will take this knowledge and skills into their academic work and will be able to use them, tell in a funny way about what happens to them in scientific life, and entertain people while teaching them”.
The audience gathered in the "Spiral" Student Club could see how difficult life is for the automation-analyst's wife, how an architect feels when thrown into a room full of construction engineers, or why people have loose materials ... everywhere, but not in their hearts.
The 2nd Silesian Scientific Stand-up was attended by:
• Aleksandra Ziembińska-Buczyńska (Silesian University of Technology),
• Tomasz Grzejszczak (Silesian University of Technology),
• Marta Stasiak (Institute of Mining Technology KOMAG),
• David Frąckowiak (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań),
• Bogusław Ziębowicz (Silesian University of Technology),
• Marcelina Jureczko (Silesian University of Technology),
• Marzena Halama (Institute of Theoretical
and Applied Informatics of the Polish Academy of Sciences),
• Monika Sroka-Bizoń (Silesian University of Technology),
• Rafał Doniec (Silesian University of Technology).
The 2nd. Silesian Scientific Stand-up
Photo relation from the scientific stand-up workshop
