Newsrevue producer Emma Taylor on the crisis in the ecosystem

As the long-running topical comedy sketch show NewsRevue returns to the Edinburgh Fringe, its producer offers a troubling state-of-the-industry assessment...

UK live comedy contributes around £1 billion per annum to the UK economy. Where does that go? Seemingly and ironically, very little is channelled back to the people who create it and provide the platforms for it. The grassroots comedy industry is still woefully unfunded, misunderstood, and unsupported. 

At worst, it is looked down upon as an inferior art form. Apparently, between 2010 to 2025, Arts Council England awarded well under 1 per cent of its overall spend to projects that contained the word ‘comedy’. When I applied for the Covid Survival Grant, a savvy, fellow Fringe theatre director, advised me to downplay the emphasis on comedy and the comedy careers we’d helped launch and focus on those that had gone on to illustrious theatre, TV and film careers. It worked. 

Earlier this year, when the news broke that SNL UK had been greenlit, it became the most highly anticipated new comedy enterprise to reach our shores and screens in a long time. 

‘So, what did you think?’ was the question on everyone’s lips after its first episode. My initial thoughts matched those of my peers – a bit hit and miss, (inevitably) but on the whole, promising with some brilliant bits. Most importantly, it was happening.  

One could argue that TV is a tired format and if the aim is to inspire the next generation of comedians, is it too little too late? 

British comedy never needed to emulate the blueprint of the hit TV American show, having produced an endless list of classic comedy from Monty Python to Not the Nine O’Clock News to The Fast Show, which made household names of so many sketch comedians over the decades. 

The rise of online, short form, clippable content may appear to be king but it’s a welcome, additional way to view comedy, not a complete replacement. Clearly the live circuit continues to thrive, but comedians need and deserve platforms where they can reach thousands if not millions of viewers. So perhaps the best news to come out of SNL UK’s first series is the confirmed second series. Long may it continue. 

Would the first series have received more views had it been aired on the BBC? Undoubtedly. Sadly, the BBC, once the pioneer of political satire is now so risk averse it cuts more than it commissions. While SNL UK is not the saviour of the British comedy scene, it’s a most welcome addition. 

So, how do you create an institution? Speaking from experience - 25 years at the helm of the 47-year-long show NewsRevue – institutions are much harder to build and maintain than any individual show. A show’s identity compounds over time and eventually becomes a brand with a reputation that needs to be upheld. One of the ways to achieve this, is by doing regular live shows and having annual exposure at the comedy world’s largest trade fair: The Edinburgh Fringe. 

With the Fringe becoming exponentially more expensive and increasingly prohibitive to many participants and public alike, it dismays me that year on year, a huge portion of our expenditure lines landlords’ pockets. With no legislation in sight to curb this, it will voraciously continue to bite the hands that feed it. 

Spirit of the Fringe?! It’s more like WizzAir. Ten years ago, if you needed a few chairs on stage, you’d be welcome to help yourself. Nowadays, cash-strapped venue operators need to monetise everything – and they do. 

‘You need chairs – here’s the cost per item, per show – you want wooden chairs – they come with a surcharge. You need to use a prop table backstage? That’ll cost you, too. It’s now cheaper for producers to buy chairs and foldable prop tables and transport them to Edinburgh and be able to re-use them each year. 

The same is true for radio mics. If a sketch show has four performers, there was a time you could invest in your own and thereby avoid hire costs of over £1,000. Now, there’s no escape. For a cast of four, you’ll have to pay £1,000 plus, regardless, just to access radio frequencies. 

It’s pitiful that venues are being forced into these positions of passing on and often multiplying these fees to the ‘nurses of the comedy industry’. They’ve got us over a barrel and they’re fiscally weaponising it.  

We’re all part of the same ecosystem but I see performers and small venues being squeezed the most. The eventual outcome – the increase in the rise of the trustafarian comedy-makers. Some of my favourite comedians come from financially privileged backgrounds – they’re lovely and talented but we need all the other voices too. 

Newsrevue currently has a song about funding university and drama schools costs via Only Fans. It mimics an earlier iteration of a Spearmint Rhino parody we had in the early Noughties. Plus ça change. 

Problem is, we’ll probably never know to what extent these songs are the lived experience of many people trying to get a foot in the door and stay there. That’s no laughing matter. 

• Emma Taylor is also artistic director of London’s Canal Café Theatre, and co-producer of SketchFest. NewsRevue is on at Pleasance Courtyard at 6pm daily. 

Published: 4 Aug 2026