How clubs will emerge from lockdown... in their bosses' own words

Chortle asked the bosses of some of Britain’s biggest purpose-built comedy venues for their thoughts on when and how they might reopen after lockdown. Here’s what they told us…

Mike Jones
The Stand
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle

It now seems extremely unlikely that government policy will allow us to reopen in time to resurrect any kind of Edinburgh Fringe - a fond hope that we were hanging onto for a few weeks after the Festivals made their announcement at the start of April.

In fact, it feels that being able to open in September is probably the most optimistic prediction right now, with Christmas as maybe a more likely scenario.

But who knows. The hardest thing in terms of business planning is that the situation is not within our control - we can only react to government policy as and when it is announced. 

Clearly, venues like ours are going to be at the back of the queue of businesses being allowed to recommence trading. The prospect of some kind of phased reopening with restricted capacity allowing for social distancing is not an appealing one – it’s the antithesis of what we do – and is probably not economically viable in any case.

At the moment we're existing on the company's modest reserves and mostly reliant on the range of government financial support available. We've retained all of our staff and are topping up to 100 per cent of their normal wages. This is only sustainable with the support of the government’s job retention scheme. 

One additional income stream available to us is donations from our loyal customers. The level of support has been a pleasant surprise and has helped us commit to topping up our employees wages for the immediate future.

One thing we've seen from the positive response to our live-streamed Saturday shows is that our brand is strong and that there's a lot of loyalty from our customers. 

It would be nice to think that this appetite for quality live comedy will enable a quick rebound once we are back up and running, but there's obviously speculation that not everyone is going to want to get together in close proximity with their fellow humans until a vaccine exists.

 So a continuation of support from central and local government sources is going to be key - rates relief, small business grants, business loans etc.

We will also continue to diversify and look to generate new online material that will allows us to generate an income of sorts, although one well below our normal annual turnover of £4million.

Jessica Toomey
Frog and Bucket
Manchester

The Frog and Bucket has been around for 26 years and have no doubt it will be around for at least another 26 years.  There is a level of uncertainty due to not knowing when we will re-open and under what restrictions, its also hard to gauge customer confidence in attending live comedy but our location and young audience puts us in good stead.

Although we don’t get the Government grant due to the rates threshold we have found the business support offered by the government in terms of furlough payments and other support measures helpful and we will remain strong.  

However we have been writing to our MP to highlight that the current grant programme only supports alcohol led venues and restaurants and needs to incorporate theatres, live music venues and comedy clubs or we risk changing the cultural night time offering in cities which would be a real shame.

We very optimistically hope to re-open in July but also doubt anyone knows anything more for sure and expect if there was a July open it would be on restricted terms and audience confidence wouldn’t yet be fully restored.  We have also made plans to remain shut into September / October if forced.  We are almost certain, though, that the Christmas office party season will be hit hard as employers are still mindful of social distancing staff.

Before we had closed we had put a number of plans together for reduced capacity,  which is a model we will now use coming out of lockdown.  The number of tickets credited and our heavy programming of tour shows that are still selling well gives us an optimistic outlook for 2021, new roadshows have already been planned in new venues and the comedy courses are still very popular. The barrel of laughs will keep rolling!

Richard Daws
Komedia
Brighton and Bath

The best-case scenario from a business perspective is for this to all go away tomorrow, but of course, that is not going to happen. You could imagine an opening of sorts post-summer, presumably with restrictions but next year feels more likely. Worst case, current guess, September 2021?

Komedia's venues will be less exposed than many other venues, some of whom exist on the edge of existence. Brighton has been an engine room for the comedy industry for decades and since stepping into community ownership, Komedia Bath has flourished and gained greater financial resilience. 

But the crisis has created a real risk to both. Taken at face value, the government support through furloughing and business interruptions loans would support our needs. Albeit leaving the organisations with large debts to repay. It would seem inconceivable that the government would remove furlough payments before allowing venues to reopen. And a reopening with restrictions might cause us more problems than being closed fully. If they removed furloughing without allowing reopening it would be cataclysmic, so I don't expect that to happen. 

We would anticipate a gradual recovery of customer confidence and we are likely to be opening into a recession, so business will be challenging. So we will be lobbying for a tapering of support in the first full year of trading. 

Large rates bills hamper the viability of venues that, in general, add to the fabric and social cohesion of society. The positive social impact of venues should be measured and, where possible, factored into ongoing support measures. No one is going to get rich running venues in this sector but society will be much be poorer without a comprehensive network of midscale venues. 

We have seen an outpouring of generosity from the public and performers since closure. We are also fortunate to have a large archive having filmed acts performing over a number of years. So whilst we are closed to the public, the directors of the businesses are focusing their energies on creating new and innovative streamed entertainment content on the Komedia Live YouTube channels.

One upside of the crisis is we are seeing a burst of creativity that would never have otherwise happened. In time, venues and live entertainment will return in full force, but the relationship with online content will have evolved beyond all recognition. 

Covid-19 will in some way reshape how we deliver and consume entertainment. Nothing will ever be the same. Thankfully, nothing will ever totally replace the experience of live entertainment, upfront and personal.

Paul Blair
Hot Water Comedy
Liverpool

We wouldn’t want to open with any social distancing measures as we just don’t think comedy would work this way in terms of the number of people in the space, the profitability and the standard of the show with so many gaps.

I’d be surprised if there’s another proper live comedy event this year. Best case scenario is obviously as soon as possible as long as it’s safe to do so. If comedy club’s aren’t open again before Christmas and miss out any busier period then it’s going to be a long hard year in 2021.

We’re fine at the moment and have a few exciting online projects in motion but I think if the government stop the furlough payments before allowing comedy clubs to reopen (or advising people to stay away from mass gatherings) then it could put a lot of our industry in a very bad position.

Mark Tughan
Glee
Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Nottingham and Oxford

I’ve been quite taken aback at how many staff have commented along the lines of ‘I just want to get back to work and back to normal’!

We ruled out a ‘one step back to normal’ as soon as Michael Gove said that almost all hospitality would be at the back of the queue. I get that this has to be so, we just hope that this doesn't end up being a hugely long wait. It's the disease that will dictate the timescale. 

While we can function with a small loss of capacity, there comes a point where it would be more loss-making to be open with big distancing restrictions, but with no financial life-support. The whole hospitality industry is worried about distancing: you go out to enjoy the company of others and that just doesn't happen if there are rules to keep you apart. Audiences not only need to be there, but they also need to be both feeling safe and in the mood. So I'm fearful, if I'm honest.

I just hope that the penny drops in government circles, and that the issue of how business models work in hospitality is understood. If there isn't, there could well still be carnage in all areas of hospitality, not just comedy and live events. I'm reasonably confident the government will get it though. Famous last words?

If economic support ends in a cliff edge, but we are still living under restrictions, therein lies the potential for mass bankruptcies.

 Obviously we'll bring everyone back to the fold when furlough ends but if I have a fear it's that business will take time to return to vaguely normal, let alone good. There will be caution for sure. We were trading our socks off before this broke. We had plans for another Glee.  Now we are assuming things will be poor, very poor, and catastrophic. If we do end up trading well quickly, that's great, but I don't want to give false hope.

Thankfully the Glee was a debt-free business and had some rainy day reserves. We went into this in good shape and thus, I think we're going to emerge possibly stronger. It's what happens after that counts. We had good relations with our landlords and we're even extending leases. But if the ‘unlock’ is not properly thought-out, the worst may yet be ahead of us, from a business point of view.

We actually had business interruption insurance.  Have we had a payout, let alone a decision? You must be joking! We were not entitled to any of the grants and our bank seems to be taking an age to reach a decision on a CBILS loan.  [Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme]

Furlough was a game-changer. It's still not easy or comfortable, but it enables is potentially to resume where we left off, people wise. The alternative was unthinkable. One of the things I'm most proud of is NEVER having made ANYONE redundant - in 26 years. 

Shorter answer - as long as we have a viable business model, I'll do what it takes to get open again. 

But the rates must not come back - not in the old form. They were broken before this crisis, and they have been holding back the expansion of the Glees repeatedly.  I also think that this crisis may well bring about a fundamental shift in the dynamic between landlords and tenants. Really ‘old school’ landlords are finished now - good! 

Also, I think there will be a greater appreciation by the public of hospitality staff. I certainly hope so

I'm glass half-full. This will pass, It's just going to take time. I'll suck up a really bad patch of business as long as it's still fundamentally viable and I have support, of staff and performers. 

There is a chance this could be forgotten quickly if the danger really subsides. There will still be a need and a huge desire to gather together and laugh together. That just isn't going away.  Have you seen how unwatchable HIGNFY is right now? Audiences matter! You still can't beat the live experience.

Published: 30 Apr 2020