... and when do most new acts quit?

Most aspiring comedians drop out of the circuit within three years of starting.

The result was revealed in a survey of 540 comedians, former comedians and open spots – half in London and half in the rest of the UK – and found that on average comics try stand-up for 2 years 10 months before quitting.

Research also reveals how long it takes to make any money from comedy, and how small most the spoils are. After one year the average pay per gig is less than £25 – and more than a third of comics have never been paid at all.

After three years, the average fee per gig is £41, after six it rises to £149 and for those gigging nine or more years, it is only slightly higher, at an average £158, suggesting a plateau on the circuit.

But of those going five years, 55 per cent had earned less than £500 in the last six months.

Of all those who answered, most (54 per cent) had not done a gig in six months or more, which might stretch the definition of being a stand-up. Yet more than 75 per cent said they wanted to be a full-time comic if they could.

When asked what would most help in their career, half said they wanted a centralised online portal to contact all of the country's promoters. Many also wanted free spaces to write and rehearse, or a map of all the country's comedy clubs.

The figures were obtained from by comics who chose to fill in a questionnaire posted online by Chris Hogg, a researcher at the Centre for Cultural and Entrepreneurial Studies at Goldsmiths College, London.

He said: 'The really interesting stuff is when you compare men and women.

'There doesn't seem to be a difference between pay between men and women, until you get to the top pay brackets when there simply very few women.

'And women prefer to do courses to get into the industry. A majority of men just get up and do a gig. For men university is a forming ground for comedy.'

Hogg is writing a thesis about the business of comedy and how the entrepreneurial strategies used by tech start-ups could be used to incubate comedy talent.

Here is the presentation of some of the survey's key initial results:

• Hogg's email is goldenanorak@gmail.com.