20 Jun
17:31
Audible backs the Edinburgh Comedy Awards with a £10,000 prize
Romesh Ranganathan spent £5,000 of his own money on a comedy prize this week. He said he was “absolutely delighted to give the public impression…
Reporter
River Leanox
River Leanox edits Open Comedy's newsroom. Coverage runs across stand-up's full ecosystem: comics on the rise, club owners booking the rooms, festivals, specials, and the working-comic economics behind the laughs. Tips, corrections, and counter-arguments welcome at river@opencomedy.com.
The running order
17 Jun
13:00
Chortle’s Fast Fringe books 30 acts into 140 minutes for £15
The maths gets there before the laughs do. Chortle has put 30 acts on the bill for its London Fast Fringe preview at the Pleasance…
15 Jun
12:54
Bristol Comedy Garden has five acts a night for £29
Five comedians a bill, a flat £29 a ticket, and by the time you read this you probably can’t get in. Bristol Comedy Garden pitches…
14 Jun
05:28
Jack Whitehall taped a stand-up chat show for Disney+
Disney+ is where you go for Baby Yoda, the Marvel back catalogue and a quantity of Bluey that should probably concern someone. It is now,…
12 Jun
16:14
Virgin Voyages puts 15 comics on a £1,052 week at sea
The Valiant Lady leaves Portsmouth on 20 August, sails to Zeebrugge for Bruges, then on to Amsterdam. It overnights in Hamburg and rolls back into…
12 Jun
07:09
Sarah Millican puts £4,000 into the Edinburgh newcomer prize
Sarah Millican won the Edinburgh Comedy Awards best newcomer prize in 2008 and used the money to pay off her car loan. Eighteen years on…
11 Jun
15:17
Live Comedy Association tells fans to email MPs about a £1bn sector
The Live Comedy Association reckons the UK’s live comedy sector is worth more than a billion pounds a year. This week it asked you, personally,…
6 Jun
05:56
Brighton Fringe gave 386 comedies just two awards this year
Brighton Fringe ran 386 comedy shows across May and handed out exactly two comedy awards for them – one audience vote, one judged. The audience…
5 Jun
09:12
Leicester Comedy Festival axes Abbey Park gig, keeps the £3 fees
Sunday 14 June was meant to be Lou Sanders, Phil Ellis, Tom Rosenthal, Kiri Pritchard McLean and Nabil Abdulrashid on a stage in Abbey Park…
4 Jun
10:47
Frankie Boyle’s company is sitting on £4.24m
Frankie Boyle’s comedy company, McShane Karate Limited, was sitting on £4,244,000 in shareholder funds at the end of August 2025. That’s the figure on the…
