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The latest updates from the global comedy scene, including industry announcements, major deals, legal stories, platform changes, and breaking news affecting comedians, venues, and audiences.

Brighton Fringe gave 386 comedies just two awards this year

June 6, 2026 River Leanox

Brighton Fringe ran 386 comedy shows across May and handed out exactly two comedy awards for them – one audience vote, one judged. The audience…

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Leicester Comedy Festival axes Abbey Park gig, keeps the £3 fees

June 5, 2026 River Leanox

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…

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Frankie Boyle’s company is sitting on £4.24m

June 4, 2026 River Leanox

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…

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Jon Petrie leaves the BBC for Hat Trick in August

June 4, 2026 River Leanox

“A fairly brutal reminder of my age” That’s Jon Petrie, the BBC’s outgoing director of comedy. He’s reacting to taking the creative director job at…

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Matt Hollins wins the £150 comedy prize 100 over-35s entered

June 1, 2026 River Leanox

The trophy is a pigeon, the prize was £150, and the qualifying rule is that you can’t be a professional. That is the Not So…

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Aberdeen Comedy Festival 2026 stretches to three weekends

May 31, 2026 River Leanox

Three weekends instead of two Russell Howard opens the Music Hall on Saturday 19 September with a show called “Don’t Tell the Algorithm”. It’s the…

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Gilded Balloon hands £2,000 each to five Fringe shows

May 30, 2026 River Leanox

£2,000. That’s what each of the five shows on the inaugural Gilded Balloon Show Support Fund will get this August. Tim Minchin and his wife…

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Ania Magliano gets the Rose d’Or gig at Kings Place

May 29, 2026 River Leanox

The Rose d’Or press release dropped on 13 May with a sentence I genuinely had to read twice. Ania Magliano was asked why she’d taken…

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Simon Amstell’s first Fringe headline run since 2009 is two nights long

May 29, 2026 River Leanox

Two nights, 7pm, McEwan Hall. £24 a ticket or £22 with a concession, 70 minutes, 16+. That’s Simon Amstell’s entire 2026 Edinburgh Fringe, on sale…

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BBC New Comedy Awards pulls every 2026 heat to Coventry

May 28, 2026 River Leanox

Applications for the BBC New Comedy Awards opened on Wednesday morning, and the geography has narrowed considerably. Every heat in 2026 will be filmed in…

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