Hello to all you lovely Blizzard Comedy fans and supporters and generally cool individuals who have kept us going/enabled us for so long. We hope you’re having as lovely a time as it is possible to have in current circumstances.
We have a bit of an announcement to make. We’ve alluded to it and I’ve likely mentioned it in passing to a lot of you at some point or another, but just to confirm: we need to let you know that after August of this year, Blizzard Comedy will be taking a break.
Since starting in April of 2019, we’ve never had more than a month off of running these shows, including through a global pandemic, and frankly we need a breather. This show has become probably the biggest part of my life, and I adore it so much. But I need to recognize that several times over the last couple of years I’ve been pushing myself to the brink of burnout. And that’s just me, Kirstie does far more work on this than I do!
So I think we’re long overdue some time off.
More than that, my life and career were in very different places when starting this show. While we’ve been rattling along for the last 5 years, the scale of what Blizzard Comedy is and how we actually go about doing it is a bit mismatched. We need to have a bit of a rethink about the show’s behind-the-scenes administration. Basically go a bit back to square one with a clear mind and the wisdom and disillusionment of age, so that when we relaunch, we’re a bit more prepared to sustain the longevity of it.
That being said, there’s a couple points I want to stress:
- This is NOT Blizzard going away forever. We very much intend to bring the show back as long as there is a community and audience for us, and the last few years have shown me demonstrably that there is.
- When Blizzard Comedy comes back it will remain a “Pay what you can” model. This is one of the core principles when setting up the night that I refuse to budge on. Whatever the Patreon or other monetisation looks like in the future, there will always be options for people to watch a cool, inclusive queer comedy show without having to strain themselves financially. In a world where the third space is all but extinct, places where young*, hip, queer leftists can hang out without it being a financial drain just to exist in the area are hugely important. Accessibility includes accessible costs, and there is no better way of implementing that than a trust system for people to give based on a) how much they thought the show was worth and b) how much they can afford. Including if the latter is nothing. We’ll never turn people away based on inability to donate.
We don’t have a definitive date of when we are going to return, but watch this space for updates on that. And we may do the odd show in the interim, such as a New Year’s special stream. But as for when we are going to return to monthly shows, I think giving an estimate would be additional pressure on us and also potentially misleading you. I will say that I suspect we’ll be back no later than 2025 at the latest. But as for more specifically when, just watch this space.
If you are a supporter on Patreon, payments will be paused during this hiatus so you will no longer be charged while we aren’t doing shows. The tiers, goals and incentives are likely to shift when we do return, but we will give you as much notice as possible before the payments are turned on again regarding any changes to our Patreon to allow you to adjust or cancel your payments accordingly if you so wish.
And while our live shows will be paused, we have a whole host of content on our YouTube channel – and will likely still upload some clips periodically, so give us a subscribe on there and hit the notification bell so you don’t miss new uploads!
Our last Live show will be our Pride special on the 22nd August 2024 – which will be streamed to our Twitch channel on the 26th August 2024.
I want to once again say a huge thank you to everyone who has performed, volunteered, donated or even just attended or watched our shows either live or virtually. It’s a cliché, but we are legitimately nothing without you. You make this show what it is as much as if not more than we do, so thank you for your continued support and involvement over the last few years.
You’re all amazing. See you at our last few shows, and we’ll see you again in 2025 if not earlier ❤
*shhh let me have this.
