Blizzard Comedy is the brainchild of Non-Binary comedian Jonny Collins and operational, admin and all round legend Kirstie Summers. It is a retaliation to the aggressive, punching down atmospheres of many big comedy clubs that put off so many from seeing comedy live.
Blizzard Comedy was founded with three main objectives:
Provide a safe space for audiences
- We believe that audiences shouldn’t fear humiliation or being the butt of the joke at the hands of the acts, or have anxiety related to that. We promise to keep unsolicited audience interaction to a minimum, and a blanket ban on abusive and demeaning comments.
- There is a risk with watching live comedy that some of you may have triggers or content you’re not comfortable hearing. While it is impossible to completely eradicate this problem, we pledge to content warn audiences where possible common triggers are likely to come up. We do this with a setlist complete with content warnings displayed before the show starts and during intervals, as well as reminders while acts are on stage using the projector. If an act is going to discuss a topic that you would struggle with, you are completely welcome to duck out and come back later to avoid that – or at least be pre-prepared that a certain topic is likely to come up.
- All our shows are to be as accessible as possible. Many clubs are in basements with no disabled access. We take extra care to only use venues that have adequate disabled access so as to not exclude anyone from our nights. This is difficult in central Manchester with our budget, but we have a room with minimal steps to the main venue and a temporary ramp set up, as well as reserved space for a wheel or power chair if needed. Gullivers also has accessible toilets and from street to bar is completely step free. For full accessibility details see their website. (We are in the lounge room, not the upstairs music venue.)
- As much as we think freedom of speech is important, we do not believe that it is necessary to use it to be a bigot. There will be zero tolerance for racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, transphobia, or any other form of prejudice. We will never book acts who feel that their right to freedom of speech is more important than their audience’s well-being.
Give platforms for under-represented and marginalised communities to present their comedy
- As much as some of our favourite comedians are cishet white dudes, we are tired of big clubs only putting these people on. At Blizzard, we aim to get as much cultural, racial, gender & sexuality variety as possible. Due to our limited budget and scale this is not always possible, but we always strive to keep our line ups as diverse as possible. For accountability here are our 2024 stats:
- 53% of our acts identified as Women or Non-Binary
- 50% of our acts identified themselves as LGBTQIA+
- 46% of our acts identified as Working Class
- 36% of our acts were disabled and/or neurodivergent
- 29% of our acts were in the 18-30 Age bracket
- 25% of our acts were BAME, Expats living in the UK or Non-British Citizens
- Moving into 2025 and beyond we will be focusing on booking more acts from BAME backgrounds, Expats, and Non-British Citizens – as well as acts aged 18-30. If you are a comedian who falls into one of these backgrounds and is interested in performing at Blizzard Comedy, please fill in our application form here.
- Encourage newer and younger comedians to progress, especially those from marginalised groups.
Being a genuine alternative to mainstream clubs
- The phrase “alternative comedy” is thrown around a lot these days. We at Blizzard aim to champion acts who are doing different things and aren’t often showcased on TV or larger clubs.
- No exploitation of open spots. We pay all our acts, and offer progression to our favourite newer acts. There are no traumatic gong shows, just a supportive audience to hone their craft, and when they’re ready, elevated to longer, higher-paid spots.
And on top of all of this, we make every effort to make our show is available to everyone, regardless of income.
Blizzard Comedy aims to keep its shows Diverse, Inclusive, and Accessible. We achiev part of this accessibility by making all of our shows free to attend and book, relying on donations rather than a set ticke price so that people can donate within their means and what they think the show is worth. No one should have to sacrifice a night of quality live comedy because they’re already struggling to eat and survive a cost of living crisis. We ask those who can afford to donate to give so those who can’t don’t have to.
We are a not-for-profit indie club, who rely on optional donations from audiences to keep it running. If you like what we do here, you can donate to us on Ko-Fi here.
If there is anything else you’d like to know and you can’t find answers on our FAQs page, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Details can be found on our contact page.
Thanks for reading, pop by soon!
Jonny and Kirstie
