Chortle Conference: Ask Equity
Panel: Michael Day and Louise Granger (Equity), Mark Kelly and Ria Lina (Equity's Comedians' Network), hosted by Viv Groskop.
Day and Granger confirmed that performers need to have earned £500 from performing to join Equity. I then spent about ten minutes trying to figure out if I had crossed that threshold or not, which tells you everything you need to know. The subscription fee is based on earnings, with a minimum of £120 at the lowest level and based on self-declaration.
The main benefit of joining from a comedian's perspective seems to be public liability insurance. The Comedians Network has emerged recently to provide collective action for stand-ups in the hope of standardising the industry. Kelly and Lina argued that this collective action is key to securing the rights of performers. A separate guild was formed a year ago to address issues such as unscrupulous promoters.
The two are distinct in their roles. Equity addresses legal and pay issues, while the guild is concerned with mediation in areas of dispute. There was a general perception that Equity did not serve the needs of performers in this way in the past but all are in agreement that comedians are better off on the inside of the union than the outside. There followed a long and to my mind not particularly relevant debate about classifications of performers within Equity and why stand-up comedians don't have their own category, nor indeed do children's entertainers.
Membership of Equity will never be compulsory under current legislation, while it was stressed that the guild was not simply for acts but also promoters, venues and staff. The Q+A section brought up a few logistical issues in terms of how the guild would actually operate that will need to be ironed out. But in my opinion, it's a positive first step towards providing union representation for comedy performers.
Day and Granger confirmed that performers need to have earned £500 from performing to join Equity. I then spent about ten minutes trying to figure out if I had crossed that threshold or not, which tells you everything you need to know. The subscription fee is based on earnings, with a minimum of £120 at the lowest level and based on self-declaration.
The main benefit of joining from a comedian's perspective seems to be public liability insurance. The Comedians Network has emerged recently to provide collective action for stand-ups in the hope of standardising the industry. Kelly and Lina argued that this collective action is key to securing the rights of performers. A separate guild was formed a year ago to address issues such as unscrupulous promoters.
The two are distinct in their roles. Equity addresses legal and pay issues, while the guild is concerned with mediation in areas of dispute. There was a general perception that Equity did not serve the needs of performers in this way in the past but all are in agreement that comedians are better off on the inside of the union than the outside. There followed a long and to my mind not particularly relevant debate about classifications of performers within Equity and why stand-up comedians don't have their own category, nor indeed do children's entertainers.
Membership of Equity will never be compulsory under current legislation, while it was stressed that the guild was not simply for acts but also promoters, venues and staff. The Q+A section brought up a few logistical issues in terms of how the guild would actually operate that will need to be ironed out. But in my opinion, it's a positive first step towards providing union representation for comedy performers.
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