Reaching the summit

Success for CRAFT means comedy is fairly recognised, funded, and supported as a distinct artform within government and key institution frameworks, alongside sport and the major creative industries, as well as included as a standalone artform with the Arts Council (alongside music, theatre, digital, combined arts, dance, literature, visual arts, museums and galleries). Fair means proportionate to comedy’s reach, impact, and contribution to the British economy and culture.

Success would be demonstrated by:

1. Formal classification – “Comedy” appears as a named artform/category across government and key institution frameworks, categories, guidance, consultations, documentation and reporting (existing and future).

2. Award parity – Comedy success rates fairly align with comparable artforms across funding competitions.

3. Funding share – Comedy receives a proportionate share of public cultural investment, benchmarked to reach/participation/economic contribution, published annually.

4. Dedicated funding pathways – Criteria reflect comedy’s formats, business models and audience relationships, allowing all formats of comedic work to compete fairly.

5. Representation in decision-making – Comedy-specific expertise is embedded in government and key institution staff, panels, and assessors, including individuals with direct experience in grassroots, working-class, and underrepresented parts of the comedy sector. This includes representation on the Creative Industry Council (CIC) and within all current and upcoming government creative industry-related plans, documentation and reports, like the Creative Industry Sector Plan and Better Futures Fund.

6. Portfolio presence – CRAFT would become a comedy-specific business in the National Portfolio. (There are currently no comedy-dedicated organisations in the 2023–26 NPO list).

7. Venue resilience— Grassroots venue/night count stabilises or grows YoY; business rates misclassification cases materially reduce.

8. Future crisis funding – A written crisis-trigger mechanism explicitly includes comedy organisations, brands with residencies, and non-leaseholding producers. 

9. Measurement — Annual “State of UK Comedy” reporting exists with cultural, economic, and social indicators.

10. Recognition of the full ecosystem– Funding and support should recognise not only talent and not-for-profits, but also the wider industry ecosystem—including producers, venues, agents, festivals, crew, and platforms sustaining comedy. This extends to:

    • Inclusion of diverse, neurodiverse, and disabled acts, as well as talented acts without access to financial resources, recognising comedy’s reliance on outsider perspectives and ensuring these voices are not excluded by systemic barriers.

    • Support for projects and partnerships that identify and remove barriers in the comedy ecosystem—similar to measures already applied to other artforms—so comedy can compete on a level playing field.

    • An equitable learning period in partnership with comedy-specific advisory boards or organisations to understand the sector’s formats, challenges, and needs.

    • Identification, protection, or replacement of existing supportive funds (e.g. Fringe bursaries) that are under threat, and recommissioning of past funds proven to be particularly beneficial.

    • Panels on fund preservation convened with sufficient comedy expertise to guide decisions on which funds to protect, replace, or recommission.

    • Dialogue with both new and established acts—to understand current barriers and pressures, and to capture what earlier generations believe made comedy possible for them when they started and progressed.