Professional Comedy

[confettiinmyhair]

There was an opinion piece article in the Guardian talking about how 'Mock The Week' got worse after Frankie Boyle left the show. For some reason it got me thinking about the panel show format in general and how some comics have made a living phoning it in on these formats. It made me think that there must come a point where you know you're not going to write a legendary stand-up show or star in a sitcom, or crossover into Hollywood. You simply turn up for a panel show recording, do your bit and make some money. I wonder, is this a bad thing? Professional Comic sure beats most 9-5 jobs.

[Sin Agog]

My only aim in life is to one day land a travel show with a posh and/or bossy member of my family.

[thenoise]

Better than travelling about playing Jongleurs to stag/hen parties. Although I presume there is quite a lot of overlap.

[thecuriousorange]

Yep. Put in the graft at the stag/hen nights until you hit panel-show paydirt.

[thenoise]

Everyone has to make a living.

[dissolute ocelot]

If it's a choice between getting easy money for panel shows and voiceovers, or spend years struggling for money begging your 1000 social media followers to support your latest GoFundMe, I know what I'd choose. And there's certainly no more artistic merit in touring the clubs with your hacky observations than ejaculating them all over the higher-numbered channels.

On the other hand there are a few people who have turned panel shows into art, like Frankie Boyle, or the previous version was those artists of the chat show, like Peter Cook.