Plea for quango to drop its comedy ban

Comedians have launched a public campaign to persuade the Arts Council to relax its blanket ban on funding comedy.

The quango refuses to hand out grants to comedy shows, believing it to be a ‘commercially viable’ genre in no need of public backing – a fact that will come as news to performers at the Edinburgh Fringe, where losses of £6,000 are not uncommon.

The organisers of the London Sketch Comedy Festival, with the backing of the newly-formed UK Comedy Guild, have written an open letter to Arts Council England chief executive Darren Henley calling for a reversal of the policy and recognition of comedy as a valid art form.

In it they call for ‘a proper consideration of arts funding for comedy, passing judgement on a case-by-case basis rather than blanket discrimination of all comedy applications.’

And they argue that the ban ‘hinders the artistic progression of British comedians, weakening our potential to develop the nation’s talent, provide audiences with uniquely different points of view or enable access to a wider range of comedy artists.’

In a Chortle Correspondents article to back the letter, London Sketch Comedy Festival producer Adam Dahrouge, pictured, suggested the Arts Council was ‘seriously negligent towards the state and nature of comedy’.

And he raised the issue of controversial grants previously handed out by the quango, saying: ‘No comedian should have to mask their work as something else to receive recognition and support from an institution that will quite easily give £25,000 to a writer to travel Latin America in search of poets and adventurers.’

Their call has been backed by the UK Comedy Guild, the newly formed collective of comedians campaigning for better conditions and working practices across the industry.

Arts Council England plans to hand out £210million in grants over the next three years, excluding museums, national organisations and strategic work. But a spokeswoman told Chortle: ‘The main reason we don’t fund comedy directly is that it tends to be a commercially self-sustaining performance form.

‘Comedy clubs are commercial entities and programme comedy in a commercial transaction for both parties. Touring and creation costs for most comedy tend to be low, technical requirements and consequent production time are generally modest, audiences are healthy, ticket prices strong and routines extremely portable.

‘There is therefore limited argument for the need for subsidy, distribution of comedy around the country is good and it is a performance form readily and regularly available to audiences on TV and the internet.’

Arts Council chiefs point out that they does fund many venues, such as the Soho Theatre and regional arts centres, which stage more creative shows ‘at the intersection of comedy and theatre’.

The spokeswoman added: ‘We might occasionally fund a comedian who wants to extend their creative ambitions and create a theatrical show. This would be judged, as all applications are, on the strength of its artistic quality, and there we’d be looking at the quality and artistic track record of the other collaborators, the input and demand from theatres with respected programming, and the strength and integrity of the artistic idea.’

Published: 10 Aug 2015