The Comedy Club Database is the result of a group text between several comedians in the US complaining of a lack of women and people of colour in nationwide comedy line ups. The comedians got in touch with a computer scientist and together they gathered data over three months to see if their suspicions would be confirmed and there was an inbalance in booking.
Turns out, they were right! In three months, in 55 comedy clubs across the US only 16% of the line ups were women. 6% of these women were women of colour. These comedians know as well as we do here in the UK at Funny Women that there are plenty more hilarious comedians who are women of colour so these numbers do not add up.
You can read the full report here, from data gathered between September and November. The comedians behind the project hope that bookers in the US will be a little more mindful when booking and consider including LGBTQ+ acts, as well as more women and more people of colour in their line ups.
