The Myth of Inclusivity: exploring barriers to representation in stand-up comedy through Leicester Comedy Festival's archive (1994-)

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Leicester-based registered charity Big Difference Company uses comedy to produce social change, an aim partly achieved through the context for this research - Leicester Comedy Festival. Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2023, LCF started as a DMU student project in 1994. Led by its founding director, Geoff Rowe BEM, BDC's LCF is the UK's largest dedicated comedy festival. BDC's charitable objectives mean it nurtures emerging talent through collaborations with DMULocal, the Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year award, and comedy training workshops. One aim of this PhD is to theorise the 'unspeakable' barriers to equality in comedy so informing how BDC/LCF target interventions. A DMU strategic partner, BDC's LCF festival provides a supportive research environment for BA and MA student placements and research projects. Geoff Rowe is a DMU honorand and lectures annually at the university. In 2014 Rowe introduced the 'I say Comedy Conversations', interviews with significant comedians regarding comedy's history and practices, providing unique insights for students and researchers. This CDA is the culmination of nearly three decades of collaboration between DMU and LFC. From 2008-2014, the Playing for Laughs symposia provided an academic focus on comedy's social impacts, identifying its ability to represent different perspectives and transform narratives as sources of empowerment. The annual Beyond a Joke seminar programme (2015 - present) continues this push to theorise comedic practice as cultural intervention and critique and foster dialogue between industry professionals, academics and comics. These conversations between all areas of the comedy industry are vital in exploring barriers to participation and in widening understanding of LCF as a microcosm of the comedy industry. In 2021 virtual panels focused on the industry and the comedy economy of the East Midlands, paving the way for this collaboration with its focus on the conditions of comedy production and their impacts on comedy practices.