Comedy booking & promotion
Making the UK laughsince 1983
Maria Kempinska MBE founded Jongleurs and built it into 16 comedy clubs. She now books comedians directly for shows, corporate events, festivals and fundraisers.
Comedy booking & promotion
Maria Kempinska MBE founded Jongleurs and built it into 16 comedy clubs. She now books comedians directly for shows, corporate events, festivals and fundraisers.
The Jongleurs stage
These acts played Jongleurs while they were still building their material. Maria booked them.
Lee Evans · Michael McIntyre · Eddie Izzard · Rory Bremner · Lenny Henry · Ainsley Harriott · Mike Myers · Stephen Fry · Sean Lock · Harry Enfield · Paul Merton · Graham Norton · Helen Lederer · Ben Elton · Jo Brand · Bill Bailey · Frank Skinner · Hattie Hayridge · Julian Clary · Arthur Smith · Alistair McGowan · Jim Carter · Alan Davies · Omid Djalili · Jim Jefferies · Steve Coogan · Shazia Mirza · Paul Chowdhry · Peter Kay · Adam Hills · John Bishop · Felix Dexter
Sixteen clubs gave comedians the stage time to develop an act and become famous. That network is why Maria knows which comedian fits which room.
What we book
Every booking starts with the audience. The line-up is chosen for your demographic, your room and your occasion.
Weekly or monthly comedy nights built for your venue. The bill is tailored to your demographic and your area.
Picking the right comedian for a corporate audience is the whole job. Maria has booked acts for a wide range of corporate shows, including performances for the Royal Family.
The comedy tent is now part of most festivals. Maria ran the London Comedy Festival in 2000 with Paul Pascoe and Alex Hardcastle of Unique TV, sponsored by ISM.
Cricket grounds, galas, awareness nights. The show has to land with the room and raise money at the same time.
Stream your show to sell more tickets and reach an audience beyond the venue.
Tell us the date, the room and who is in it. Maria will come back with a bill that works.
Start a conversationHistory
Started with a £300 overdraft and a bicycle as collateral.
Maria opens Jongleurs Battersea, a 300 seat venue.
The Cabaret from Jongleurs is filmed, the first of the alternative comedy shows. First investor Alan Page puts in £2,000.
Saturday Night Live, hosted by Ben Elton, runs all its warm-ups at Jongleurs, including Sam Kinison, Emo Philips, Rita Rudner and Judy Tenuta.
Across the Miles is established with Regent Inns and Jongleurs.
Jongleurs opens in Camden. The Regent partnership creates eight clubs, including Jongleurs Bow and Watford, plus six outside London.
Live at Jongleurs is filmed for the BBC.
Regent Inns buys the Jongleurs name for exclusive use in venues. The company is valued at £30m. Eight more clubs open, bringing the total to 16.
Comedy the Cure
A mental health workshop series that uses comedy skills to change how people handle their own lives. Six sessions, two hours each.
Maria ran the programme with Brentford Football Club Wellness Centre for four years. It draws on her PhD in psychoanalysis, where she studied how acquiring comedic skills contributes to growth and individuation.
Enquire about workshops
Causes Maria has produced shows for
About
Maria founded Jongleurs Comedy Clubs in 1983 and ran the company until 2014, growing it to 16 clubs across the UK. She was also CEO and director of Dingwalls from 1992.
She was awarded an MBE for services to comedy. Alongside the clubs she took a PhD in psychoanalysis at the University of Essex, writing her thesis on comedic skill as a component of growth and individuation, and an MA in psychotherapy at Middlesex University on psychological types in stand-up comedy.
Forty years of booking means she knows the acts, the agents and the rooms. She still books every show herself.
Bookings
Send the date, the venue and who will be in the room. Maria replies personally with a suggested line-up and a price.