Hi,

Our firm (Ward Williams) is looking to hold a charity networking event on Thursday 4th December from 6.30-8.30pm at the Old Vinyl Factory in Hayes (Middlesex) to raise funds for the Children's Ward (Peter Pan & Wendy Ward) of Hillingdon Hospital. In addition to delicious canapés & wine, we thought it would be really fun to have a stand-up comedian.

I was hoping someone on this forum might be able to help/put me in touch with a comedian who may be available for the evening? - even if its just for a 15 minute sketch, this will boost attendee numbers so we can raise as much as possible! Unfortunately we don't have a budget to pay for the comedian's time, but we can reimburse travel expenses.

Hope to hear from someone on here!

Please email me: emma.zovich@wardwilliams.co.uk.

Many thanks
Emma Zovich

Hi Emma,

Just a couple of points worth bearing in mind, whilst comedians are often happy to do charity gigs for nothing/expenses bear in mind that December is a comedian's busiest month (as a pro-comic I often earn about 20% of my yearly earnings in the run up to Christmas) so you are asking them to sacrifice a night where they could be earning several hundred pounds for the warm fuzzy glow of altruism.

Also, charity gigs are tough, people aren't necessarily there to watch comedy but just there to support the charity and the event often doesn't have any of the helpful trappings of a comedy night (e.g. proper stage, PA, lighting, MC to warm up the audience, etc).

These two facts will often mean that you'll be getting an inexperienced comedian (the only ones that will be available on a Thursday in December) combined with a tough room/audience, which can be a dangerous combination.

Also, bear in mind that you are putting all your eggs in one basket if you just get one comedian.

In my opinion, a better solution might be to get a budget to pay a couple of acts and an MC and see if you can run it more like a normal comedy club (say an MC, a support act and a headliner with a break in between).

Thank you very much for your advice Tony,

Kind regards
Emma