Live comedy has historically been, and can still be, pretty hostile to women, queer people, people of colour…not straight white men basically. This is why we make a point of being explicit, not implicit, in how important it is to make extra space for these voices.

We don’t love the reliance on star ratings in reviewing the arts. We are of the belief that you can’t boil humour down to a points system, and rating a comedy show out of five doesn’t really much help performers or audiences, so we won’t be using stars. Ever. The comedy reviewing world has been built by handful of people and nothing has changed for a long time - who says we have to do it like they do just because that’s how it’s always been done?

We began as a service to recommend shows to people who love comedy, and this continues in our approach to reviewing. If we didn’t like it, if the show doesn’t feel cooked yet, or if the performer was having an off day, we don’t think that needs to exist permanently online. We’d rather return at a later date. Constructive criticism is useful, but our style is talking about why we love the things that we love. We want to direct people towards comedy, not away from it.

We will never recommend mixed-bill comedy nights that are just white people. No explanation needed.

Comedy is entirely subjective. Obviously. Everyone has biases, and we believe that writers should be open about what theirs are. We are proudly biased. We don’t publicise a show in the newsletter just because we’re sent it. There is a reason behind everything we publish, and believe us, you’ll know what it is.