20 Aug
10:38
Comedians’ Choice Awards 2026 pay the winner in rehearsal time
“I’m so taken aback, I want to thank all the comedians who voted for me!” That was Alison Spittle collecting best show at the 2025…
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
19 Aug
15:44
Leicester Comedy Festival trustees get eight questions and a deadline
The people who ran the charity that owes comedians more than £100,000 were invited onto a video call on Sunday, and they declined. The exact…
15 Aug
09:04
So You Think You’re Funny is back at Teviot with a train sponsor
£13.50 gets you into a So You Think You’re Funny heat at 21:45 in Gilded Balloon Teviot, which is probably the cheapest ticket in Edinburgh…
15 Aug
08:30
SNL UK comes back 12 September with a Microsoft Forms ballot
At 10am on Friday the ballot for a seat inside Britain’s only live network sketch show opened. The thing standing between you and studio TC1…
13 Aug
07:31
ISH awards hit £16,000.01 and the tech op gets £1,000
The tech op gets £1,000. An actual cash prize, in a category called best tech. It’s handed over at a ceremony that starts at half…
12 Aug
14:52
Count Us In puts nearly 60 overlooked comics on Princes Street
One of the placards on the corner of Princes Street and Hanover Street on Monday afternoon read “hard to find? look harder”. Another read “Count…
11 Aug
05:35
Levity Live Oxnard closes August 17 and 69 jobs go with it
A general admission ticket to Gary Owen’s late show this Friday at Oxnard Levity Live is $55, and TicketWeb adds $12.55 of fees on top.…
10 Aug
07:25
NextUp’s Fringe award grows to 204cm and still pays £500
The prize list for this year’s Biggest Award in Comedy runs as follows: a 2m 4cm inflatable trophy, £500 in cash, and a hand pump.…
8 Aug
13:35
Have A Word is filming eight Apollo-style shows and taking pitches
The most consequential line in this week’s Have A Word announcement is an email address. Producers are inviting comics, agents and managers to pitch to…
6 Aug
12:58
Leicester’s comedy charity took £499,562 last year and still went bust
Big Difference Company Limited took £499,562 in the year to 29 June 2025 and spent £495,352 of it. That is the last set of numbers…
