What happened to comedians' money?

The leading comedy industry group is demanding answers to just how much organisers of the Leicester Comedy Festival knew about their financial woes before collapsing into insolvency.

The charity behind the event, Big Difference Company, ceased trading earlier this month with debts believed to exceed £100,000 – much of it owed to comedians.

Now the Live Comedy Association wants to know why the money from ticket sales was not ringfenced – especially as concerns were raised more than two years ago. Instead, that income apparently went into funding the charity’s day-to-day operations.

The LCA also wants to know the full size of the financial black hole, how they decided which comedians to pay and which to leave high and dry, and what happened to certain public funding the charity secured. 

The association, which represents 1,600 people in the industry, has sent a list of questions to the trustees of Big Difference Company, including its chair Chris Traill, following an online meeting held on Sunday involving promoters, comedians, suppliers and staff.

The questions to the trustees are:

1. In your audited accounts from June 29, 2024 there is reference to the reserves policy not being met and changes are required to the business/charity to ensure its long-term sustainability.  What specific changes were made at this time?
2. How much money was raised in financial year 2025/2026 from donations and fundraising activity?  What specific activities was this spent on to help achieve the charity's objectives?
3. Did Trustees know at the time that the CEO promised promoters in November 2025 that ticket money from Leicester Comedy Festival 2026 would be ringfenced, safe in a separate bank account?
4. How much money has been lost in total?  What is the size of the debt and how many people or organisations are owed money?
5. When were the trustees first made aware of the policy/process of using money from ticket sales to pay core costs of the Big Difference Company? Who signed this off?"
6. Following Leicester Comedy Festival 2026, we know some people were paid. How did you decide who received payment?
7. What was the £150k (or more) funding/income you were expecting to have by August that you didn’t get?
8. We know a community, libraries project was planned for June 2026 and acts were booked for this.  We understand the income for this project was a successful funding bid from a public agency.  Where have the funds gone?

Chortle has also put the same questions to Traill.

LCA chair Jessica Toomey said: ‘We wish we weren’t in a position to have to ask these questions but the Big Difference Trustees have been annoyingly silent since the announcement they were ceasing trading was made earlier this month.  

‘As a charity, they have a responsibility to communicate with the community they were supposed to benefit and we hope the trustees will reply to our questions soon so we can update our members and the wider grassroots live comedy community.  We have asked them to reply by the end of this month.

‘We invited the Trustees to attend the meeting on Sunday but they replied saying they had "concluded that it would not be helpful for us to do so at this stage".’

Leicester will have a new independent comedy festival, with no connection to the old one, in February.

Published: 19 Aug 2026