For creatives working or aspiring to work in comedy in the UK, British Comedy Guide’s BCG Pro service is a unique resource.
Hobbyists and newcomers to the industry will be more than suitably served by the range of content and services on offer. Through the Pro website, a section titled Skills Academy offers a number of in-depth tutorials (with more, I’m told, on the way), including an unmissable step-by-step guide to sketch-writing.
The same section also lists a range of courses and services - such as stand-up coaching and script-reading - offered by trusted third parties, all at a discount for BCG Pro subscribers.
Pro similarly curates competitions and notable job adverts from broadcasters, production companies and other organisations within its Opportunities Hub, while also running regular contests exclusively for its members (often in conjunction with production companies; previous partners include Hat Trick Productions and Baby Cow), a weekly gag competition (with cash prize), and annual ‘Talent Awards’.
Everything across BCG Pro is split into categories, making it easy to identify relevant material for your own discipline: writing, performance and production. The first is self-explanatory; the second focuses on materials related to the performance of comedy, whether that’s as a stand-up or comic actor; and the third caters for behind-the-camera talent like directors, gig promoters and cinematographers.
Networking features are also a staple of the service, and are where Pro really becomes more than ‘just’ a website. There’s an online community being fostered in its Groups and Activity Feed functionality, offering both social networking and collaboration-finding opportunities, but BCG Pro also arranges semi-regular events across the country. Locations so far include Edinburgh, London, Bristol and Leicester, with some run as simple socialising and networking evenings, whilst others see an invited speaker join the gathered crowd to talk about and share valuable first-hand insights from their own work in UK comedy.
These networking events are also accessible to more established talent subscribed under the service’s Pro membership tier.
Aimed at people who’ve progressed beyond flirtatious dalliances with the various circuits and are starting to make money from working in comedy - again, in any discipline, from stand-up to Radio 4 gag-writing - it offers additional data through the website’s BlackBook (a huge directory of companies and people working across comedy, comprising millions of records), and control over their own profile within British Comedy Guide’s People section, such as Lucy Beaumont’s page for example. Pro plan subscribers can edit their page, add further credits, images, contact details and bios - plus enter additional information relevant to casting directors, agents and bookers who may be on the look-out for creative talent with specific attributes, backgrounds or interests, through that BlackBook system.
Finally, for full-time professionals (particularly producers and those working at production companies and agencies), the Business subscription plan offers all of the above plus further data and analytics. Agencies can sign up to control the People profiles of all of their clients; development producers can browse Pitch Centre, a unique library of clearly organised format ideas and script samples submitted by other creators; and all can rifle through the Business Insights tools. This latter section is packed with a near-overwhelming ream of data, tracking the status of production of dozens of films, radio and television programmes, as well as deep analysis of broadcast commissions by hour, genre, channel, production company and network.
Anyone who has taken a show to the Edinburgh Fringe in the last decade should already be familiar with Pro’s industry-leading tracker tool, which collates press coverage, ratings and offers other tools in relation to British Comedy Guide’s own annual Fringe coverage and comprehensive comedy show listings.
All three types of user also benefit from access to Pro’s Inside Track service: a catalogue of industry news, features, interviews and other insights. Some, such as news stories on personnel hiring across the industry, is rather timely, whilst other pieces are organised into a Library as “timeless”, and all organised by those three fields of discipline - writing, performance and production - plus numerous other more specific categorisations, such as improv, children’s comedy, writer’s rooms, and directing.
Additional offerings include a ‘Consult BCG’ offer, whereby members can submit queries that they can’t find answers to elsewhere for consideration and investigation by British Comedy Guide’s dedicated team of comedy brainboxes; exclusive columns; and semi-regular Pro Sessions, live interviews conducted via Zoom with famous and important names, particularly in the field of broadcast comedy: producers, writers and commissioners amongst them.
All-in-all it seems a hugely compelling service, providing a range of useful tools, data and features for pretty much anyone at any stage of working in comedy, from production company CEOs to open-mike stand-up starters - and probably even commissioners, to keep tabs on the orders of their rival networks.
Prices are very reasonable, starting at £45 for a year’s membership on the Starter plan. At the time of writing BCG is running an offer of lifetime £25 annual discount on whatever each plan’s full price is, and if you enter the code BTJ you can get an additional £5 off the first year’s subscription price too – it’s the perfect time to jump in and give the BCG Pro service a go!
Check out BCG Pro by clicking here.
