Edinburgh Fringe: why up-and-coming comedians are making serious bucks

Now there’s a new kid on the block. Star celebrity manager Jonathan Shalit (of Charlotte Church and Katherine Jenkins fame) recently announced that Roar Global, his talent management company, is to open a comedy arm later this month. Heading it up will be Corrie McGuire, who has produced the likes of Noel Fielding, Tim Minchin, Russell Brand and Rhys Darby at SPANK!, the longest-running independent night show at Edinburgh.

‘Comedians are the new rock gods,’ says Shalit, who clearly wants a slice of the pie. ‘With the rise in stadium touring and the ability to reach international audiences online, comedy has become a very serious business.’ Like any job, not everyone is earning the big bucks. A jobbing circuit comic can bring in around £1,200 a week, while a run-of-the-mill comedian can expect £180-£240 for a headline slot in Central London. An appearance on a panel show will earn you in the region of £2,000. A mid-level comedian might expect to earn between £70,000 and £100,000 a year. Fill The O2 at £50 a ticket and you could make £500,000.

It’s all a far cry from a decade ago, when only a handful of comedians, such as Kay, Jo Brand, Lee Evans and Eddie Izzard, could claim celebrity status. There is a far more diverse range of voices sharing the spotlight with the big hitters at Edinburgh this year. Record numbers of women are breaking through, for instance. Word is that all eyes are on Diane Spencer and Aisling Bea at Edinburgh, with insiders predicting they are both tipped for stardom. And the whip-smart Katherine Ryan and Sara Pascoe are finally getting the same level of exposure as their male counterparts (Ryan recently fronted BBC Two’s televised hair-styling competition Hair), which is no mean feat, considering the ratio of male to female comics in the UK is 4:1.

‘The public are seeing a lot more female comedians, so they’re not as suspicious as before,’ says Bridget Christie, stand-up, actor and author of the hilarious A Book For Her. Christie won the top comedy prize at Edinburgh in 2013 for a show about feminism. ‘I definitely experience a lot less sexism these days,’ she says.

More diversity means a greater pool of talent to choose from when it comes to lucractive ad deals. Typically featured in beer and insurance campaigns, comedians are breaking out into glossier endorsements. Fashion giant H&M has cast US comedian Kevin Hart alongside David Beckham in its new campaign. The pair were seen shooting together in New York last month.

The rise of corporate gigs, which can range from a half-hour stand-up performance to hosting an evening of entertainment and prize-giving, for which even a relative unknown can earn £1,000 to £1,500, means that fewer would-be stars need part-time jobs and can devote more energy to hitting the spotlight.

But there is something else happening, too. Comedy is becoming more professional — even at the lower levels of the industry. Christie credits the strategic approach of today’s aspiring talent, as well as clever guiding by their agents, for their success: ‘When I started out 11 years ago, I don’t think we were as professional as the new lot are. It’s so expensive living in London and trying to earn a living doing stand-up. I was lucky in that I went to drama school and got a grant, but these kinds of things don’t exist any more. If you want all your income to come from comedy, you need to be thinking, “How can I boost my profile? Well, I can do a set that can be broken down and edited easily on a stand-up programme. Then, after about four years of building that up, I’ll do a show in Edinburgh” — it’s all meticulously planned. It’s taken me years to get to this point. I might have got there earlier if I’d been cleverer about it and the new generation are much more savvy so they are succeeding quicker.’

Rising star Alex Edelman is one of these savvy new operators. The 26-year-old Bostonian scooped the Best Newcomer award at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe for his debut show Millennial and recently supported Simon Amstell on tour. He cites social media as helping the new generation of comics to get ahead. ‘My breaks didn’t come from Twitter, like they did for some brilliant one-liner comedians, but I did use it as a baseline filter for jokes. You find out what you’re interested in and what you want to talk about and do it in small doses on Twitter, then larger doses on stage.’

Covering everything from uni fees to MDMA in his material, the Converse-wearing Edelman neatly captures the Gen Y zeitgeist. He’s just one of many young comedians making waves. Alfie Brown, Rhys James, Aisling Bea, Joe Lycett: these rising stars are not only bringing an edge to British comedy, but an unprecedented level of professionalism to boot. ‘A lot of these acts could easily be mistaken for established comedians,’ says Edelman. ‘In the UK, you find really mature young comedians with distinct voices, long before a comedian would mature in the US, simply because of the sheer amount of stage time they’re doing at events. Americans tend to tour off projects that have become successful, whereas lots of Brits have become successful simply from doing stand-up. The live scene here is enormously healthy.’

Although there is more money to be made these days, if you don’t get signed up, it’s as tough as ever. Christopher Hogg, a PhD researcher at the Centre for Cultural and Entrepreneurial Studies at Goldsmiths University of London, recently surveyed 540 comedians (half in the capital and half in the rest of the UK) and found that most drop out within three years of starting.

So how do you convince potential representation that you’re the next Jack Whitehall or Josie Long? For hot-shot promoter and manager Christian Knowles, the man behind Micky Flanagan, it’s all about attitude, timing, originality — and a sense of mischief. ‘I’m looking for someone who takes chances,’ says Knowles. ‘I saw a comic, Tom Ward, online at the BBC Radio New Comedy show this year, hosted by Patrick Kielty. He improvised ridiculously for five minutes about how Jools Holland was Kielty’s dad. It was total nonsense, but he riffed it beautifully and I thought, “Wow, you have balls of steel to throw away a polished set you’ve been honing for however long.” So I signed him.’

Some might think that being taken under the wing of one of these industry powerhouses may involve compromise — a bit like those indie kids who think Simon Cowell really digs their piercings and original songs, only to wind up in front of 10m viewers belting out ‘Shake It Off’ in sequined jeggings. Hogg doesn’t think so: ‘A comedian has to keep their voice if they’re going to be authentic. An agent will help you decide what your comic angle is, but those who make it to the very top — the John Bishops and the Micky Flanagans — do so because they’ve got a true voice that speaks to one of the tribes in British society.’

Keep it real, in other words, and the streets of Edinburgh may well turn out to be paved with gold.