Can You Make A Living Writing Comedy? Yes But…
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For the first three decades as a comedy writer for TV and radio there was only one piece of advice guaranteed to confer an immediate advantage over your competitors. All you needed was to be a white middle-class man.
Lucky me.
That’s changed. There’s never been a better time to choose a comedy writing career for anyone. Women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities. You’re all invited to participate.
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However there are far fewer opportunities. Across Britain and the US, the old commissioning model is broken. Around the world and on social media, unscripted comedy is king.
It’s never been harder to pick up a commission for a radio or TV show.
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Yet it’s never been cheaper or easier to make your own projects.
You can create and sell your own funny stuff without having to talk to a single gatekeeper. Podcasts, sketches, TikTok videos. Fancy writing a novel? Your life story? There’s nobody and nothing apart from your credit card limit to stop you.
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Unfortunately, just because you build it, that doesn’t mean they will come.
As I gaze towards the middle horizon like a misty-eyed grandpa in a Private Health Plan advert contemplating the infinite pleasures of my forthcoming retirement (less money, more back pain, intimations of mortality), I’m aware that it’s a lot harder to make a living from writing funny than when I started out 40 years ago.
I can’t offer easy solutions. I can tell you what’s out there, and what you can do to improve your chances of achieving success.
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