Comedy night out, anyone?🤩

Hey gang! 

Hope you’re all having a brilliant evening! Remember last week when I told ya about the launch of the brand-new comedy radio station, ComedyUK? 📻

Well, to celebrate their launch, they're having an amazing live celebration roadshow next month!

It’s all kicking off at the legendary Leicester Square Theatre on Thursday, 18th June. The fantastic Thanyia Moore is hosting, and she’s joined by an incredible lineup including Jessica Fostekew, Alex Kealy, Ria Lina, and Roman Harris. It’s genuinely going to be an absolute blast of a night.

If you haven’t sorted your plans yet and fancy a brilliant night out full of proper belly laughs, you can still grab your tickets here:

👉https://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/show/the-comedy-uk-radio-roadshow/ 

(Quick heads-up: If you’re one of our VIP or Lifetime members, you can totally ignore this post! Head straight over to the VIP channel right now instead - we’ve just dropped a separate message over there with a little exclusive perk for you! 😉)

For your eyes only...👀

Hey guys! You’re getting something special today.

We’re sharing a bit from Susie McCabe's show, Best Behaviour, right here in the community - before it drops on NextUp next week.

Consider this your early-access treat for being the brilliant bunch you are. Enjoy the sneak peek here! 😍

Guys, the UK finally has its own 24/7 comedy Radio Station - and it's live now! Here's a bit more about it...🤭

"COMEDYUK, the country's first ever round-the-clock comedy radio station, has officially launched, bringing non-stop laughter to audiences across the nation.

Whether you're into established legends, rising stars, or the timeless classics that shaped the UK's comedy identity, it's all here, all day, every day, completely free to access.

The station goes beyond the playlist. Each week, live comedy gigs are streamed directly to listeners, capturing the raw energy of the UK's world-class live comedy circuit and bringing it straight to your ears - wherever you are.

COMEDYUK also launches with an addictive new interactive feature: "Whose Laugh Is It Anyway?" - a fresh spin on the classic guess-the-voice format, challenging listeners to identify famous celebrities from their laugh alone. Simple concept, but harder than you think!

Streaming now at ComedyUK.online, and available via app, smart speaker and YouTube, COMEDYUK is the new home of British comedy, meaning there's never a bad time or place to sit back and have a good laugh."

How flippin' exciting?! We've been working hard behind the scenes to make this happen with our partners, and cannot believe it's officially real. Ahh! Go have a look and tell us what you think.💃

Hey NextUppers! I'm back with another Meet the Team post (it's been a while!) and this month it's none other than co-founder of NextUp, and awesomeness personified, Sarah! Enjoy getting to know more about her.🫶🤩

What’s your role at NextUp, in normal human terms?

It’s probably easier to explain that in terms of what I don’t do! I don’t do camera work, I don’t edit, and I don’t really do anything technical (although I do manage our lovely developer so the boys joke about my title being ‘Head of Tech’). So pretty much anything else is fair game. I’m currently working on the launch of a new comedy radio station (shhh), I do all the boring accounts stuff, I do grant applications and run big projects like when we digitised a load of venues to live stream into our platform, I’m HR(!)…basically I’m a Jack (Jill?) of all trades, master of very few, if any. And I’m co-CEO so I steer the ship with Dan. 

What’s the best part of the job?

I LOVE seeing comedians whose first show we filmed or that we feel like we ‘spotted’ early in their careers, take off - like Maisie Adam - we filmed her first Edinburgh show and it was such a joy seeing her on the Last One Laughing recently. Back in the day Kenny, Dan and I used to run a live night in Hoxton called ‘ComComedy’, and it’s been so pleasing seeing how well a lot of the people we loved and booked regularly in the infancy of their careers have done (James Acaster, Nish Kumar, Mae Martin, Joel Dommett etc.). We started NextUp to platform great shows and great comedians, so when I feel like we’re doing that well, it’s a really great feeling. The worst part (not that you asked) is spreadsheets.

How was NextUp born?

Briefly touched on it there, but about 17 years ago, Kenny and I met at the London Comedy Writers - a really supportive writers group above a pub in London Bridge. We became friends and started going up to Edinburgh and loved it. We decided to run a live comedy night and youtube channel called ComComedy in our spare time and soon after, Dan came on board to join our merry team. We’d film the live nights and lots of shows in Edinburgh and share clips on the channel. In 2016 we decided we really wanted to turn this into more of a ‘thing’, but that we couldn’t do it alongside our day jobs, so we came up with NextUp and cracked on (that’s the abridged version). We wanted to showcase the comics who were so worthy of a bigger audience, but not getting the spotlight via the mainstream channels. And we wanted to let comics make some money out of the hard work that had gone into the shows that would then otherwise just be retired…it was quite a different landscape back then and for most comics, filming their shows wasn’t such a regular occurrence.

Who/What got you into comedy? 

I’ve taken the winding path (law, musical theatre, training/coaching, playwriting, comedy)! But I think through the more challenging times of my life, seeing the funny side has always sort of helped. So - as I mentioned, I was a writer first (and still am), and got into producing and live comedy through that. 

Who’s your favourite comedian (or one you keep coming back to)?

I feel like Jen Brister is my spirit animal (am currently in my angry mother era). And Lou Sanders is an absolute treat on any day of the week. 

Besides comedy, what are your other interests/hobbies?

I’ve got a bad habit of always turning my hobbies into work - so I write - I’m writing the panto for Oxford Playhouse this year which is fun. I’m currently trying to get hench. I do a bit of yoga and breathwork when I can, oooh and I love a sauna and a COLD swim. Have done a 10k swim in a river before which I’m quite proud of. 

When and where were you born and raised?

Born in the early 80s in Chertsey, raised around there but moved to South London at 18 and never looked back!

What’s your most used emoji?

I’ve created a vagina emoji for the company Slack which I really enjoy (I felt an absence of a vagina-like veg emojis so I just went route-1). 

Do you have any pets?

A beautiful black schnauzer called Juno who I adore. And 2 human boys who are far less well behaved.

Tea or coffee? (There is a correct answer.)

Both. In the eyeballs. The kids don’t really sleep and get up at 5 so I’m obscenely tired and angry. 

Ideal night in vs ideal night out?

Not sure what this means? But I’d love to be in the community sauna and cold plunge with my pals. So I guess OUT?! OR in the bath with a book (IN). 

What’s a very normal thing you’re surprisingly bad at?

I have facial blindness to the point that if someone changes a jumper in a film - even a main character - I no longer know who they are. Oh and I can’t find my way ANYWHERE without a map - get lost on the way back from a loo in the pub, it’s very embarrassing.

Who is your favourite singer at the moment?

Raye - new album is a masterpiece in my humble and fairly uninformed opinion.

Finish the sentence: “Comedy is best enjoyed when…”

We have finally smashed the patriarchy. 

Last question, is there anything you'd like to say to the NextUp Community?

Thank you. We’re far from perfect - I think that’s what happens when comedy lovers start a company - we didn’t really know much about running a company, so it has been, and still is, a huge learning curve. So thank you for being part of this, and sharing our love of comedy and the fantastic artists that make it!

Hello! As an aspiring comedian who recently did their first 5 mins, I'm excited that today I discovered that Next Up exists! I'd previously watched a lot of standup on Netflix, but I cancelled my subscription a year or so ago because I was spending too much time bingeing on total dross. Then a few days ago I saw a Jimmy Carr clip where he said he thinks new comedians don't watch enough standup, so that got me thinking. Then today I googled "best streaming platform for standup" and here I am! Since I can't afford to go to a lot of shows, an upfront annual price that works out about £6/month is a bargain!