Lucy Beaumont was right... our analysis reveals the depth of gender imbalance on the circuit

Some comedy clubs are booking more than six times as many men as women, Chortle analysis has revealed.

Almost one in five weekend bills at some of the UK’s biggest venues are still all-male affairs, and overall 72 per cent of comedians on these high-profile shows are men. 

Our research comes after comic Lucy Beaumont, pictured, yesterday called out a number of clubs for presenting all-male comedy line-ups, and asking: ‘Where are all the women?’

Some of the men who hit back on social media accused her of cherry-picking the shows, so Chortle examined 168 line-ups at 12 major comedy clubs between now and the end of November. 

Of those 34, just under 18 per cent were all-male, and of the rest, the vast majority featured just one woman on a bill of around four comics. Only in a very few cases did women outnumber men. 

At London’s 99 Club, which runs a bursary for female comedians, six of the 25 nights examined featured two women and one man in the three-strong line-ups. Otherwise only one show at the London Comedy Store and a weekend at Brighton’s Komedia Comedy Club  featured a majority of women.

At three clubs we looked at – Comedy Carnival in London, Hot Water in Liverpool and the Last ​Laugh in Sheffield – less than one in six comedians playing the prestigious  weekend gigs were women. Komedia had the best ratio at 60:40

Across all the venues, 184 of the slots went to women, compared to 470 men. 

Here is how the venues compared on gender balance. Men in grey, women in red.

And here's how many women were on each show:

In response to Beaumont's comments yesterday, Hot Water said they were committed to diversity but added there were insufficient women who were good enough to be booked ‘without compromising the overall quality of the show’.

And they said that calling out venues that booked overwhelmingly male comedians ‘hinders progress’ towards equality.

In response to Chortle' research, Banana Cabaret said on Twitter: 'We committed to no all male shows many years ago, as our track record shows. Admittedly it tends to be 1 woman on a bill of 4, although we were delighted to be able to bill 5 out of 8 solo shows from women at our Balham Comedy Festival this year. As the pool of women continues to increase, we look forward to championing still more female comics.'

We looked at Hot Water in Liverpool. the Frog and Bucket in Manchester, the Comedy Store, Banana Cabaret, Comedy Carnval, Up The Creek and 99 Club in London, the Glee in Birmingham, the Komedia in Brighton, the Last ​Laugh in Sheffield, the Comedy Box in Bristol and Just The Tonic 

Our analysis included all the named comedians listed on shows from now until the end of November, if available (the Last ​Laugh and Banana cabaret only had listings to the end of October).

Only the landmark Friday and Saturday gigs were counted, and if it was the same line-up both nights, or for early and later shows, it was only counted once. The figures would have shown even more male bias had they not.

• Comedian Dani Johns compiled a list of more than 400 female stand-ups working in the UK for bookers looking to close the gender gap. It's here.

Published: 12 Sep 2024