How much are our top comedians worth?

How much are our top comedians worth?

Michael McIntyre

Man of the moment Michael McIntyre has cemented his place in the comedy elite with a 58-date tour starting next August that could add as much as £20 million to his already sizeable bank balance. This would make it one of the most lucrative tours ever with around 600,000 people shelling out at least £35 each for a ticket at some of the UK's biggest venues.

The 35-year-old funnyman became a household name after appearing on many of the TV comedy panel shows and hosting his Comedy Roadshow on BBC1 on Saturday nights. Now his debt-ridden days as a struggling stand-up are long gone following a reported £2 million book deal with Penguin for his autobiography Life & Laughing and around £2 million from his bestselling DVD Live & Laughing. He also earned around £5 million from a 2009 tour that included a string of sold-out nights at arenas including Wembley and the O2. And, just in case anyone in the UK still is a little unsure of who Michael McIntyre is, he found his way onto the judging panel of Britain's Got Talent.

Buy Michael McIntyre Products Below

Frankie Boyle

The former Mock The Week panellist usually earns most of his cash from his TV work although his sell-out I Would Happily Punch Every One Of You In The Face tour between March and December 2010 reportedly netted him around £3 million including merchandising.

His book, My S**t Life So Far, proved to be a hit with the public, reportedly boosting his bank balance by around £1 million with a further £600,000 coming from his first live DVD. The Sun, for whom Boyle writes a regular column satirising the news of the week, estimates that he earned £4.5 million in 2010. At the end of last year Boyle launched his controversial six-part TV show Tramadol Nights, which drew heavy criticism from critics, censors and the public over inflammatory jokes made.

Buy Frankie Boyle Products Below

Jason Manford

The Manchester-born comedian has earned a tidy sum from touring and his TV appearances in recent years. Manford pocketed an estimated £1 million from his 2008/09 tour with his Live At The Manchester Apollo DVD bringing in another £250,000. Last July he took over as the host of BBC1's The One Show for a "fraction" of previous host Adrian Chiles' £1 million pay packet before resigning in November.

The former team captain on 8 Out Of 10 Cats is currently writing his autobiography following a rumoured £100,000 advance and also does the voiceover for the Churchill insurance TV adverts. However, despite his current 100-date Off On Tour We Go proving popular, Manford is planning on jumping off the comedy bandwagon and has said that his last gig will be in London in November.

Buy Jason Manford Products Below

Dara O Briain

The Irish comedian started off his working life as a children's television presenter but quickly found he was better suited to making adults laugh - a talent which netted him £2 million in 2010 through tours, DVDs, corporate work and his book Tickling The English. O Briain built his name in the UK as the host of Mock The Week and the BBC Three show Three Men In A Boat before branching out into presenting The Apprentice: You're Fired and a live BBC Stargazing programme.

Buy Dara O Briain Products Below

Lee Evans

The award-winning comedian and actor has won millions of fans with his own brand of slapstick humour. After years of scraping by as a jobbing comic, his big break came at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993 and was followed by a string of sell-out, record-breaking tours. His 66-date Roadrunner tour is his most ambitious to date and £7 million of tickets were sold the day they went on sale. DVDs and merchandising helped the ex-boxer notch up earnings of £5.5 million last year, according to the Sun.

While stand-up comedy accounts for a large chunk of the 47-year-old's wealth, his acting career has also helped pay the bills with roles in There's Something About Mary, The Fifth Element and MouseHunt. He's also trodden the boards in the West End with starring roles in Samuel Beckett's Endgame, Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter and the musical The Producers.

Buy Lee Evans Products Below

Jimmy Carr

The host of TV comedy quiz show 8 Out Of 10 Cats has a reputation for being one of the industry's hardest workers, balancing up to 300 stand-up shows a year with his high-profile TV career. Since hitting the spotlight, he's even found time to slot in an advertising campaign flogging suits for M&S, as well as bagging small roles in films Confetti, Alien Autopsy and Stormbreaker.

The deadpan comic is currently on his ninth solo tour, Laughter Therapy, and his dedication to the comedy cause is certainly paying off. Sales of his six DVDs, tour ticket sales, TV and radio salaries and appearance fees made him the second-highest-paid comedian in 2009 with earnings of £5 million, according to the News of the World. And if the one-liners ever dry up he can always fall back on his training as a psychotherapist.

Buy Jimmy Carr Products Below

Frank Skinner

After years of building up a nest egg through touring, presenting a variety of television shows and co-writing the football anthem Three Lions, Frank Skinner was anticipating a comfortable retirement. However, not even high profile comedians were immune to the credit crunch.

Skinner saw his bank balance plummet after being advised by bankers at Coutts to put his life savings of "a few million" pounds into American insurance giant AIG a year before it collapsed. Although Skinner has got half of the money back the rest remains frozen along with all the insurer's assets until 2012 and there's no guarantee he will see it again. Having learned the hard way not to put all his eggs in one high-risk basket he's apparently put the remainder in National Savings & Investments. On a more positive note at least he earned £200,000 in 2010, according to figures from the Sun.

Buy Frank Skinner Products Below

Peter Kay

The Bolton-born comedian has a huge audience in the UK with around a million tickets sold for his current Tour That Doesn't Tour Tour. The sell-out, record-breaking stand-up show takes in more than 100 venues and has grossed an estimated £35 million in box office takings. His 2002 Mum Wants A Bungalow tour previously netted him £4.5 million.

However, Kay's talents are not just restricted to stand-up - his sitcom Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights earned a BAFTA nomination and the second series became the UK's fastest-selling DVD in 2003. The DVD of his series That Peter Kay Thing repeated the feat in 2004. His bank balance has also been boosted by his John Smith's beer adverts and his best-selling autobiographies The Sound Of Laughter and Saturday Night Peter.

Last year industry estimates put his earnings at £7 million, a far cry from his days as a £3.50-an-hour cinema usher. Kay is now following up his first two memoirs with an "ambitious" third book called The Book That's More Than Just A Book Book in a "major new deal" with publisher Hodder & Stoughton. It will be out in September.

Buy Peter Kay Products Below

Tweet