Head of Live Comedy (Maternity Cover)

Head of Live Comedy (Maternity Cover)

Location: London (4 days in office 1 day wfh)
Contract: Full-time, 12-month (subject to change) maternity cover

Start date: Beginning of November
Reports to: Duncan Hayes
Salary: Competitive, dependent on experience

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced, connected and resilient Head of Live Comedy to join on a 12-month maternity cover contract and lead the Live Comedy Department within a busy talent agency. The role requires calm judgement, discretion and the ability to advocate confidently for talent while maintaining trusted industry relationships. This is a senior, strategic and managerial role, supported by an assistant who handles much of the day-to-day booking administration. The successful candidate will oversee the Live Department’s activity, lead on representation for the six clients currently represented by the Live Department, maintain strong relationships with agents and clients, and drive Live strategy across festivals, Edinburgh, clubs, international venues, work-in-progress shows, showcases and wider industry opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the Live Comedy Department during the maternity cover period, ensuring continuity, momentum and clear strategic direction across the team’s work.
• Manage, support and oversee the department assistant, providing clear priorities, guidance, regular check-ins and appropriate delegation of day-to-day booking activity.
• Lead on representing the six clients currently represented by the Live Department, ensuring their Live strategy, bookings, career development and communication are handled proactively and professionally.
• Build and maintain excellent relationships with all agents and clients, including regular meetings, check-ins and clear communication around Live strategy, priorities, opportunities and challenges.
• Oversee the live booking pipeline across clubs, festivals, previews, work-in-progress shows, showcases, corporate gigs, tour warm-ups, support slots and international opportunities, while ensuring everyday booking administration is effectively handled by the assistant.
• Lead on Edinburgh strategy for relevant clients, including increasing exposure at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, identifying the right venues, producers, showcases, press/PR and marketing opportunities.
  
• Lead on producing and delivering shows in Edinburgh, working with agents, clients, producers, venues, promoters and internal colleagues to ensure planning, budgeting, scheduling, marketing and delivery are joined up.
• Lead on recruiting and briefing the Edinburgh Marketing Manager and Street Team, ensuring they are aligned on client priorities, campaign objectives, invoicing and reporting.
• Lead the planning and delivery of industry showcases, pre-Edinburgh drinks and other Live Comedy events as required, ensuring they are strategically timed, well attended, professionally produced and aligned with client and agency objectives.
• Work closely with comedy clients to create and maintain Live career roadmaps for emerging and established talent, balancing commercial opportunity, profile-building and long-term career development.
• Lead on drafting Edinburgh producing contracts and carefully review, query and track all contracts that come into the Live Comedy Department, ensuring key terms, fees, comps, ticketing arrangements, responsibilities and obligations are clear, accurate and aligned with client and agency priorities.
• Maintain and develop strong relationships with promoters, venue programmers, festival bookers, producers, tour managers, comedy clubs and international partners.
• Chair or contribute to regular internal meetings on Live Comedy activity, ensuring agents and colleagues have visibility on progress, upcoming opportunities, risks and decisions required.
• Monitor department workflow, deadlines, Live Bookings sheet, client communication and fee tracking.
• Attend key gigs, previews, festivals, showcases and industry events, including evening and weekend commitments where required, to support clients and represent the agency.
• Monitor the Live Comedy market, identifying emerging trends, new venues, festival opportunities, audience developments and potential commercial partnerships.

About You

• Significant experience in Live comedy booking, talent representation, Live entertainment, touring, festival programming or a closely related senior role.
• Proven ability to step into a fixed-term senior cover role, quickly build trust, manage priorities and provide continuity for clients, agents and colleagues.
  
• Strong management experience, with the ability to brief, support and develop an assistant while keeping oversight of detail, deadlines and client service.
• Deep knowledge of the UK Live Comedy circuit, including clubs, theatres, festivals, previews, work-in-progress spaces and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
• Strong experience of Edinburgh strategy, including venue selection, show production, exposure-building and industry positioning.
• Experience recruiting, briefing or managing temporary festival support teams, including Marketing Managers, Street Teams or similar promotional staff.
• Experience leading industry showcases, networking events, or other comedy events that increase client visibility and strengthen industry relationships.
• Excellent existing relationships with promoters, venues, producers, programmers, tour managers, comedy clubs and comedy industry stakeholders.
• Confident client-handling skills, with the ability to run regular check-ins, manage expectations and communicate clearly with talent and their wider agent teams.
• Excellent negotiation skills and commercial judgement, with confidence handling fees, deal structures and competing priorities.
• Highly organised, detail-focused and able to manage a heavy workload without becoming overwhelmed, staying calm and effective while juggling multiple artists, diaries, deadlines, team members and moving parts at pace.
• A strategic approach to talent development, with the ability to balance short-term income generation with long-term career building.
• Outstanding communication and relationship-management skills, with the confidence to represent the agency professionally at all levels.
• A genuine passion for comedy, strong creative taste and an instinct for spotting opportunities for both established and emerging talent.
• Willingness to attend shows, festivals and industry events outside standard office hours.
  

Deadline for applications: 10am, Friday 11th September

Thank you for your interest in joining United Agents. As part of our recruitment process, we collect and use personal information about you.

The data we may collect as part of this process might include: your CV, cover letter, contact details, notes from interviews and, if you are successful with your application, references and Right to Work documentation. We will use this data to assess your skills and suitability for the role and contact you about your application.

If you are unsuccessful with your application, we will keep your data for up to 12 months after the recruitment process ends, in case other roles come up that you might be suitable for. If you would prefer that we didn’t keep your details, then please just let us know at any time. If you are successful with your application, then your data will become part of your employee record and stored accordingly.

Only our team involved in the hiring process will have access to your data. We will not share your data with any third parties except where it is required by law and with providers helping us manage our recruitment processes (e.g. recruitment or HR software) all of which are under strict data protection agreements.