Speeches by Hinds.

“Venues are operating businesses. Do you expect employment and prices to be affected? Might some venues close? If there is the same amount of money but all the prices have gone up, the money does not go as far. What will the effects be?”

“A couple of you, Geoff in particular, mentioned possible Government support, incentives and cost reliefs that the sector might be looking for. Do we know of any other countries that do that? Any success stories?”

“Is Juste Pour Rire still going?”

“Going back to the live comedy sector as distinct—and you are here to talk about the live comedy sector—I am also interested to know who you would see yourself as most like. Are you most like a sitcom actor, most like a band playing in a pub or most like someone delivering a serious monologue in a theatre? Who do you ha…”

“I wanted to come back to something you were saying about your long list of comics who you could send into a school or hospital and have no worries about them. It strikes me that the brilliant thing about stand-up is you do not know what you are walking into. Also, the terrible thing about stand-up is you do not know wh…”

“The mix does not work if you bring your mum or your child. Do you know what I mean?”

“I was trying not to put words into our panel’s mouths but one question might be, yes, do you have some sort of—”

“There you go. She said it.”

“You are right. People do that.”

“In this debate about opt-in, opt-out on AI and copyright, it could apply differently in different sectors. When you hear the opt-in, opt-out, it sounds like people have a view about whether their material should be used or they can stop it being used. Actually, in some senses, in music, for example, it does not sound l…”

“Is that how it would manifest, basically, “Go to The Comedy Store. Here is a ticket,” or is it something else?”

“I can, yes. Social prescribing is a big thing. It comes up quite a lot more, probably, for all of us in our constituencies. People see great potential for it. It has no national framework or co-ordination. It is probably not the first thing that people think about at the GP surgery. Comedy is probably not the first thi…”

“I guess that is the point. As with music, potentially live experiences become more valuable, not less. In a world where so much stuff is an artifice and is coming to you, the experience is going to it and interacting with other people, particularly with comedy, as with the roar of the crowd for music and sport, the lau…”

“How long do we have?”

“Back to AI, how much of a competitive threat ultimately is this? Will AI actually be funny on purpose?”

“I am talking about the scraping.”

“I should not have interrupted you. Sorry, I misunderstood what you said. Are you saying that the same remuneration system for when you write material for somebody else could be used for remuneration for your material being used by AI, even if you cannot say, “I produced this. It appeared there”?”

“There is a curriculum review—a curriculum and assessment review, technically—going on at the moment. What are your hopes for that process, and have you been given any indication of what may be in the outcome?”

“When is that?”

“Has anyone had a letter? I want to go!”