Honour for services to charity and entertainment

The founder of the Comedy School, which uses stand-up for social good, has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours. 

Keith Palmer’s award is for services to entertainment and  charity and recognises the good work his London-based organisation does. 

He set up the charity in 1998 to provide workshops for aspiring comedians, businesses and public-sector organisations.  Money raised from commercial courses goes towards programmes to  help tackle issues such as illiteracy, youth knife crime, gang culture, offender rehabilitation and mental health through comedy.

The late Felix Dexter was a big supporter of  The Comedy School, and took part in its projects in prisons and young offenders' institutions to broach difficult subjects through humour. 

Last year, National Lottery bosses made a film honouring Palmer’s work  which aired on primetime ITV: 

The Comedy School’s Wellbeing Project, which uses stand-up comedy and improv to help those with mental health difficulties, was previously awarded £120,000 of National Lottery funding.

Published: 9 Oct 2020