But comic gets paid after Chortle intervenes

Comedian John Scott has credited Chortle with helping save his honeymoon at the last minute – after we intervened in a dispute over unpaid fees from club chain Jongleurs.

The stand-up faced cancelling his romantic trip because Jongleurs owed him more than £1,000 in late payments.

Yet last night, after waiting up to three months for the money, £760 of it miraculously appeared after Chortle asked the company for a comment on the situation.

‘You can draw your own conclusions from that,’ Scott said this morning.

The money appeared just days before the Newcastle-based Scot and his new wife Lesley – who married last weekend – were due to leave. They are now planning to fly to Spain on Saturday, the only time she can get off work.

Scott started by sharing his grievance on social networks – the latest public embarrassment for the firm, which boasts of being the single biggest employer of comedians outside of the BBC, but which continues to anger circuit comics with late payments stretching into thousands.

Scott, who has worked for Jongleurs for a decade, wanted the £1,040 he was owed for gigs at the chain's Glasgow, Bristol and Cardiff clubs.

He said today: ‘I did eventually get my fees and a promise they wouldn't be so delayed in the future. We have all had a lot of promises like this before. As I say it's a shame I've had to go to such lengths to get their attention and get paid.’

He added that he has recently experienced delays of up to six months in being paid, prompting huge fears for the future.

'I know of other comics whose delays in receiving fees and the amount they are owed to be much more severe than the situation I was in,’ Scott added. ‘But the main point is that I had absolutely no idea of when these fees would arrive as Jongleurs continue to deal with these problems by not answering calls and refusing to communicate their end of the situation.'

Jongleurs did not respond to Chortle's request for comment, but Scott was paid hours after we made inquiries.

His protest echoes that of stand-up Alistair Barrie, who went public in December with an open letter on Facebook, highlighting the company’s empty promises of ‘cheques in the post’ and difficulty in getting a straight answer to when he would be paid.

At the time, Jongleurs finance director Marios Lourides admitted that comedians had ‘suffered’ from going unpaid, that the company had previously promised payments that never materialised, and that they had a poor record of communicating with comics.

He also promised that the chain would improve its payment schedule and 'redevelop some kind of relationship with the comedians who are the lifeblood of our business. Without them we are nothing. We don’t want them to feel undervalued and bullied, as they may have done in the past'.

Problems persist according to Scott however, because while late payments are 'part and parcel of the industry we work in … you only have to speak to comedians working on the circuit to realise that the problem is much more severe with Jongleurs’.

The chain is putting comics into 'downright horrible situations' with 'their continued non-compliance of their duties as a comedy promoter and employer’, Scott added: ‘I know of people missing mortgage payments, of one comedian nearly becoming homeless and I myself struggled to pay my tax bill this year. All of this because of lengthy delays in fees from the organisation.

'It’s not just the money they owe me just now that’s the problem but also the fact I’m supposed to return to work for them at the start of October and I have dates booked in for them for next year as well. All of this just leaves me and many of my fellow acts living in a dreadful uncertainty’.

In February, Jongleurs re-acquired the Highlight chain of clubs that had been created following the collapse of Jongleurs’ former owner, Regent Inns.

Scott is calling on Jongleurs to establish better communication with comics and suggested that their 'number one fear' is 'what if the company goes under while owing many of us thousands of pounds? How are comedians expected to keep working with that axe hanging over their livelihoods?

'I’d like to keep working for them. But when I get back from honeymoon I definitely need to figure out some solutions to the financial difficulty I’m experiencing just now.'

- By Jay Richardson

Published: 18 Sep 2014