Politicians hear concerns at Westminster meeting

Politicians were told of a ‘perfect storm’ of issues battering the comedy industry at a gathering in the Houses of Parliament yesterday.

Representatives from across the comedy world aired concerns affecting business, from Westminster Council clamping down on street entertainers in Central London  to TV comedy productions not getting the same tax breaks available to expensive high-end drama.

London deputy mayor Howard Dawber appeared open to the concerns of those putting on live comedy in the capital, acknowledging: ‘One of the sectors we’ve ignored, but which has become bigger and bigger in our thinking, is the experience economy.

‘We sell more tickets to live events than any other city on planet Earth. Tonight there are 12 big comedy shows on [in London], that’s on a normal Wednesday night in October.’

And he said issues such as the licensing and the loss of grassroots venues ‘has really come up on our thinking relatively recently’.

Dawber – whose responsibility is for business growth in the capital –  said that local authorities should consider the cultural benefits of live venues when considering licences, rather than thinking them merely as commercial business. ‘They have benefits beyond making money and selling pints to people,’ he said. 

He asked those present to come up with a list of ten proposals that would help the industry for him to consider.

The session was also attended by Labour MPs Rachel Blake, who represents the Cities of London and Westminster, and Simon Opher, who represents Stroud and has been instrumental in pioneering ‘comedy on prescription’ to use the artform to help patients with mental health problems.

It was convened by Louisa Jackson from Craic Comedy, who shared sobering research about the state of the live comedy industry.

She said findings showed that 90 per cent of the money in comedy goes to a 'small cohort’ at the top of the tree. ‘Most others are struggling and pay has stagnated for a decade,’ she added. ’80 per cent report financial instability, 50 per cent report slow payments; 68 per cent unpaid/low-fee barriers [to getting into comedy] over 70 per cent earn less than pre-pandemic; 54 per cent see fewer pathways as TV/radio commissions decline.’

She also said there were also health and safety concerns in comedy, with 55 per cent of those in comedy citing mental-health challenges, adding that: ‘Abuse including sex assault is widespread from within the industry and the public, including online.’

‘Venues are under strain: one in three runs at a loss or breaks even; 72 per cent say audiences and revenue haven’t recovered since the pandemic; 94 per cent cite the cost-of-living crisis [affecting sales]’.

She also pointed out that of the £1.9billion distributed in the UK government's Culture Recovery Fund after the Covid pandemic, just 23 comedy-related organisations received a total of £3.8million, or 0.2 per cent of the total.

Other concerns included lack of parental leave, the monopoly of large ticket agencies, and the fact that theatre tax relief is not routinely available to comedy venues.

All this while AI  ‘scrapes and replicates comedy IP at scale without consent, attribution or payment, while eroding secondary income streams’ such as voiceover work.

‘All of these problems create a perfect storm where comedy, despite its universal appeal, remains the underdog of the entertainment world.’

Tom Walker – the comic behind the Jonathan Pie news reporter character – told the panel that comedy is an ‘industry of tens of thousands of small businesses’ and that those embarking on a career in stand-up should be considered as start-ups. ‘We need to think how to get the money down to all those small start-ups,’ he said.

Much of the conversation revolved around funding bodies and other arms of officialdom officially recognising comedy as a distinctive branch of the arts – work which the Live Comedy Association has been particularly vocal in pushing for.

Jessica Toomey, the LCA co-chair who runs the Frog & Bucket comedy club in Manchester, said that that her venue had to pay the same insurance premium as a nightclub because there was no provision for stand-up venues.

Jackson read an email from Arts Council England saying they had no plans to specifically have comedy as a category when applying for grants, but that was part of a wider policy not to consider specific disciplines at all.

Comic Matt Green, who also runs the 99 Clubs in London, pointed out that it was hard to unlock such cash for venues as they do not have specific projects that would benefit from funding, but sometimes need help in general operations.

The session – which Chortle attended –  featured representatives from most of London’s major comedy clubs as well as agents, TV producers, arts campaigners, the BBC, the Centre for Comedy Studies Research, Funny Women, and groups such as The Comedy School and On-Side Veterans, which use comedy as a mental health tool.

Published: 16 Oct 2025