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Curiosity Club: The Road To Utopia

Wednesday 22nd February 2017

At Revelation

Doors 7:15 pm

Price £8 / £10

Curiosity Club is a topical engaging place to hear talks and share ideas, for this addition there is your host David Bramwell (Radio3/4 Sony award programme winner) and special guest Stevyn Colgan (BBC TV series QI and BBC Radio 4’s The Museum of Curiosity).

‘A natural storyteller:’ Radio Times

Dr. Bramwell is a man who likes to keep busy. A magpie by nature, he is a Sony-award winning presenter for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, host of Brighton’s Catalyst Club, A evening of interesting talks and discussion, author of the No9 Bus to Utopia, creator of the successful Cheeky Guide series, guide books with a twist, and singer-songwriter in the atmospheric Indie band Oddfellow’s Casino.

As a performer he has toured several solo shows, won awards for ‘Best Comedy’ and Outstanding Theatre’ at Brighton Fringe Festival and, together with fellow musician Eliza Skelton, entertained festival and cinema audiences with “Sing-along-a-Wickerman”. He also co-hosts a popular fortnightly podcast, The Odditorium, with fellow performer, Dave Mounfield which has run as a spoken word tent at Wilderness, Secret Garden Party and Brighton Fringe Festival.
More recently Dr Bramwell has become known for his entertaining lectures and has spoken on such themes as ghost villages, the trickster, utopia, the community of Damanhur and postal pranks at TEDx, The School of Life, 5X15, Idler Academy, Hay Literary Festival, Wilderness, Sunday Assembly and the Lowry Theatre. He is however, just as happy performing in the back room of a pub.

AWARDS
Brighton Happiness Champion 2015
Sony Silver Award for ‘Best Radio Feature’ for BBC Radio 3 Haunted Moustache 2011
Best Comedy Show, Brighton Fringe Festival 2009
Nominee for Best Male Performer Latest Awards 2009
Outstanding Theatre, Brighton Fringe Festival 2008
Society, Hendricks Carnival of Knowledge. Secret Garden Party.

The Road to Utopia:
Imagine a world without government, crime or pollution. Imagine a world where energy is free and cities feel like caring, sharing communities. Imagine a world where men finally take a back seat and women are in charge. A mad utopian pipe dream? Hippy nonsense? Or could it be achievable in our lifetime?
Through entertaining talks and contributions from the audience, David and Stevyn will challenge the popular notion that the world is destined to go to hell in a handcart, in favour of a more optimist vision for the future.
The Road to Utopia will re-invigorate your soul and send you home in the knowledge that it’s going to be ok after all (especially if you buy some books at the end).

Stevyn Colgan
is an author, artist and popular public speaker. He’s one of the writers of the hugely successful BBC TV series QI and BBC Radio 4’s The Museum of Curiosity. In a previous career, he spent 30 years as a police officer in London during which he became involved in a small but potent revolution.He is passionate about creating a crime-free future. He is the author of ‘Why Did the Policeman Cross the Road?’

David Bramwell
After his partner left him for someone, ‘younger but more mature’, David embarked on a global adventure to learn how to live with others. He visited an anarchist community in Denmark, a futuristic city in the desert and found paradise in a Californian retreat, dreamt up by Aldous Huxley. Most fantastic if all was Damanhur in the Italian Alps, with an underground temple the size of St Paul’s Cathedral, and a ‘fully functioning time machine’. Along the way, David’s quest raise issues that best many of us. Why is depression rife amongst those who have wealth and freedom? Is getting what you want really utopia? And could alternative communities teach us a better way to live in both our relationships and our modern cities? This wry, self-deprecatingly funny and philosophical talk asks some big questions and finds the answers surprisingly simple.

‘David is a true philosopher, great journalist and excellent writer. He has gone where others only imagine trading, and the book is packed with gags, wisdom and pathos. It actually IS a must-read.’ – Tom Hodgkinson, The Idler