‘The diversity of the industry will be hit’: NextUp founder on the impact of Covid on comedy

With comedy venues reopening in England and Scotland, Sarah Henley discusses the effect of the pandemic, online audiences and being a woman in male-dominated sectors

Telling jokes to live audiences over Zoom has offered an alternative for standup comics since comedy clubs shut last year.

It has also presented them with a new set of occupational hazards, as the comedian Andrew Maxwell discovered during an online gig where he got momentarily upstaged by an audience member's cat showing its bum to the webcam.