24 Aug
07:35
How to compere a comedy night without losing the room
Geoff Whiting carries ten minutes he might never use Geoff Whiting has compered literally thousands of comedy shows and events. The first thing he does…
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
23 Aug
05:03
Leicester Comedy Festival owes £215,000 and the list is wrong
The Live Comedy Association is owed £103 by the charity behind Leicester Comedy Festival, for an event the LCA itself produced as part of the…
21 Aug
07:01
Tel Aviv court fines a comic £2,500 for a front-row fat joke
“You remind me of my cat. You’re as fat as she is.” That is the line, as the woman in the front row put it…
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…
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.…
