Age of the comedy megagig

JUST when you thought it was safe to say comedy could not get any bigger, it has done just that. Last autumn the rude health of the London comedy circuit was notable - clubs thrived, Edinburgh transfers were selling out in the West End, national tours coming to a theatre near you. But no one could have predicted that the comedy landscape 12 months on would continue to buck hard times and then some.

Mock the Week host Dara O'Briain is in the middle of nine nights at the Hammersmith Apollo. By the end he will have performed to nearly 40,000 fans. At the weekend Eddie Izzard and Dylan Moran headlined Laughs in the Park, a three-day open-air comedy festival in St Albans. In 2004 fewer than 100,000 tickets were sold for arena comedy gigs. In 2009 the figure topped one million.

So what's behind this entertainment explosion? I have some theories. First, there was "Sachsgate", which made people ask themselves what's funny and what's not. Add in the fact that people want a laugh to take their minds off the economic meltdown. Plus, when Jonathan Ross's Friday night chat show was suspended in late 2008, it was replaced with the no-frills showcase, Live at the Apollo, which spawned Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow in 2009, making McIntyre a household name and introducing a new audience to live stand-up.

As a result the comedy bubble keeps inflating. Acts that were just ticking over have gone stellar. Liverpool's John Bishop plays the 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena in December and he says he owes it all to his television exposure ("Last year I played to 180 people at the Edinburgh Festival and I couldn't get arrested. It has happened that quickly.")

Former fish porter Micky Flanagan has also seen his stock soar since the Roadshow and has just announced his Hammersmith Apollo debut in 2011. The second Roadshow series has just started, so box-offices should prepare for another stampede.

All of this sounds healthy but there are a few notes of caution. Women still have difficulty breaking through. None has headlined the O2 Arena yet. Sarah Millican, who picked up a Fosters Comedy Award nomination last month, is building up a head of steam but stand-up remains a status-obsessed boys' club. You can cut the testosterone with a knife backstage at a gig.

Mick Perrin, promoter of Laughs in the Park, thinks that male stand-ups predominate because they thrive on playing the kind of venues that rock bands might play: "They can be the gods for one night."

The risk is that ambition may burst this bubble.As in-demand comedians spread themselves around there is a danger of their work suffering. One Show host Jason Manford has had to arrange for a motorbike to get him from the BBC to the Hammersmith Apollo stage later this autumn due to a scheduling clash.

And with so much work, it can be hard to generate new material. When John Bishop returned to Edinburgh this summer, some criticised him for delivering material they had already heard from him on television. Elsewhere, the lucrative Christmas DVD market is in danger of reaching saturation point, with more than 40 live shows being recorded for release.

There is also the problem that "enormodomes", as Bill Bailey has dubbed them, are not the best environment for stand-up. They're often soulless, the burgers cost an arm and a leg and one may end up watching a screen, so you might as well wait for the DVD. Australia's Tim Minchin has avoided this by hiring a full orchestra to justify booking the O2Arena; Bailey has opted for a theatre run instead. Even Mick Perrin, who has organised some of the biggest tours in recent years and believes they can be genuinely carnivalesque celebrations, has reservations. "I'd prefer to watch comedy in smaller venues, but the truth is these guys don't have the time now to swan around the country for 20 weeks. They have to get it done in three-and-a-half." And while punters buy tickets for these venues, who can blame the comics for making a mint? At some point there may well be a punk-rock style revolt against these superstars, with fans rejecting megagigs.

There are perhaps small signs of a backlash, with more intellectually ambitious acts such as Robin Ince setting up intimate themed nights, gathering like minds to joke about science and religion. The trouble is that even Ince has had to find a way to accommodate his growing fanbase and to that end has booked three nights at London's Bloomsbury Theatre in December. He'll probably end up adding the Hammersmith Apollo. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.