Comedy news: Jongleurs comedy club accused of 'poaching' rival promoter Big Night Out's comedy venue

Tweet

A deep rift has emerged between some of the biggest comedy promoters in London after a rival chain managed to take over the running one of central London’s most popular comedy nights.

Jongleurs, the comedy club chain which recently returned to its former owner Maria Kempinska, has been accused of aggressively trying to poach venues from rival promoters as she tries to re-establish the Jongleurs brand.

According to comedy website Chortle, the London company Big Night Out has been victim of a policy of encroachment by the Jongleurs brand after being ‘turfed out’ of one of the their London venues.

The promoters will cease to operate from the Sway Bar after the sites owners signed a new deal with the larger comedy chain. Insiders have said that the move could damage the live comedy circuit.

Jongleurs owner Kempinska said “It’s the nature of the business.”

“It’s not my intention to upset other people’s applecarts – bit also I don’t know their business and the contracts they have. I had no idea Big Night Out had a night in Sway. We were dealing with Nexus on a much higher level.’

In an email to the comedy industry Big Night Out said: “We brought comedy to Sway nearly three years ago. Through hard work, promotion and a genuine care for what we do, we created one of the most popular venues in London.

“The work we put in meant that both acts and audience enjoyed their time and in turn meant we consistently ran sellout shows.”

Jongleurs reverted back to Kempinska’s control after it’s parent company, Regents Inns went into administration last December.

Most former Jongleurs clubs were sold off to entertainment company Intertain and renamed Highlight while Maria Kempinska and John Davy immediately set about rebuilding a chain of Jongleurs Clubs.

Read the full story on the Chortle website here