....and neither of them played a gig this year

The top two live comedians of 2015 have been named – and neither of them have done a gig all year.

Billy Connolly was the best-selling comedian of the year and Micky Flanagan named the most popular by listings website Ents24.

In the popularity ranking, based on visits to a performer’s page on the website, Flanagan was followed by Sean Lock and Frankie Boyle.

He said: ‘Doing old-school fuck all sometimes pays off. Multi taskers and proper busy people take note.’

Connolly topped the chart of sales for the advance box office for his High Horse tour, which runs for 12 nights at the Hammersmith Apollo next month.

He was followed by Sarah Millican, Bill Bailey, and Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse.

The figures mean that the Big Yin beat fellow Glaswegian Kevin Bridges, who sold out 15 nights at the 10,000-capacity SSE Hydro in Glasgow as part of a UK tour of more than 100 dates.

But while Bridges sold more than 400,000 tickets to his 2015 tour, it was announced in October 2014, so the vast majority tickets were sold before the start of the year. It means that technically in 2015, he was outsold by the likes of Paddy McGuinness and Kevin Bloody Wilson. And as for the popularity list, Ents24 say Bridges would have come in at No 21.

The full top ten lists are:

2015’s 10 Most Popular Comedians

1. Micky Flanagan
2. Sean Lock
3. Frankie Boyle
4. Jasper Carrott
5. Peter Kay
6. Jimmy Carr
7.Sarah Millican
8. Russell Howard
9. Michael McIntyre
10. Paul Chowdry

2015’s Top 10 Biggest Sellers in Live Comedy

1. Billy Connolly
2. Sarah Millican
3. Bill Bailey
4. Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse
5. Jimmy Carr
6. Paddy McGuinness
7. Tim Vine
8. Nina Conti
9. Milton Jones
10. Kevin Bloody Wilson

Today’s announcement follows on from Ents24 naming Patrick Monahan as the hardest-working comic of 2015 last week, based on the number of different venues he played.

Published: 16 Dec 2015