No laughing matter

[ursaminortaur]

Three quarters of comedy venues are facing closure without financial support.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jul/08/77-per-cent-comedy-venues-in-uk-face-closure-survey-emergency-arts-funding-coronvirus

Three-quarters of British comedy venues face closure within a year without financial support, according to a survey of hundreds of people in the industry who say they fear the government is ignoring the sector.

The Live Comedy Association (LCA) survey suggests “an industry in crisis”, with 77% of venues saying they will be forced to permanently close within 12 months and a third saying they will go under in six months.

The LCA, which is a new body set up to represent the sector, said that without help venues would go bankrupt, jobs lost, comics would quit and many would never return. It is calling for comedy not to be overlooked when the £1.57bn emergency arts fund, which was announced by the government on Sunday, is allocated later this year.

[Howyoudoin]

Three quarters of comedy venues are facing closure without financial support.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jul/08/77-per-cent-comedy-venues-in-uk-face-closure-survey-emergency-arts-funding-coronvirus

Three-quarters of British comedy venues face closure within a year without financial support, according to a survey of hundreds of people in the industry who say they fear the government is ignoring the sector.

The Live Comedy Association (LCA) survey suggests “an industry in crisis”, with 77% of venues saying they will be forced to permanently close within 12 months and a third saying they will go under in six months.

The LCA, which is a new body set up to represent the sector, said that without help venues would go bankrupt, jobs lost, comics would quit and many would never return. It is calling for comedy not to be overlooked when the £1.57bn emergency arts fund, which was announced by the government on Sunday, is allocated later this year.

Makes you wonder where all this money is going to come from.

If you talk about the 'Arts', stand up comedy must come pretty far down the list, if it even appears at all.

HYD

[bungeejumper]

I don't belong to the right demographic at all for comedy clubs. I'm over 35 and I don't live in a major city, which just about wraps it up for any entitlement that I might have to say anything of value on the subject.

Unfortunately, that's also why I rather doubt that much of the population at large will consider comedy clubs to be a major priority for a tax handout? Isn't there already a hefty geographical bias toward the metropolitan arts venues?

And another thing. There was I, naively thinking that the whole strength of stand-up was that it didn't rely on elaborate stage sets and suchlike? That the rough-and-ready structure was exactly appropriate to the sharp-elbowed, intelligent, edgy and essentially meritocratic nature of the alternative comedy business?

Modern stand-up (as distinct from music hall) surely had its true roots in the clubs, the pubs and the tiny venues where it was an adjunct to the serious business of selling alcohol? (And still is around these rural parts, and very good it is too.) It was only when it became a television industry that it became a bit precious. The comics who quit the game now because their audiences aren't big enough to fill their wallets might be well advised to consider their options. Although in practice, I doubt that many of the good ones will quit for good.

BJ