Research Collaboration
For academics and independent researchers working on alternative comedy.
What We Collaborate On
AltComedy.com is a working archive of alt comedy as much as it is a consumer publication. We partner with researchers whose work fills gaps in the record — particularly where the primary sources (flyers, tapes, room bookings, zines) are fragile and not catalogued elsewhere.
Archival projects
Digitizing and contextualizing physical materials — club flyers, cassette recordings, photo archives — from scenes that were never institutionally collected.
Oral histories
Interview series with comedians, bookers, and room operators. We can help with production and distribution for projects that meet our editorial standards.
Data collection
Set lists, venue calendars, tour routing, and streaming metadata. We are especially interested in longitudinal datasets that can show how scenes change over time.
Cross-cultural studies
How alt comedy moves between national scenes — UK to US, US to Australia, translation and untranslatability.
What We Can Offer
- Editorial platform and distribution
- Access to our contributor network
- Co-authorship or credited research publication
- Help scoping and structuring long projects for a general audience
How to Propose a Project
Email [email protected] with a one-page outline covering: the research question, the primary sources involved, the intended output, and a realistic timeline. Graduate students working on dissertations in adjacent fields (media studies, cultural history, performance studies) are welcome to pitch early-stage ideas.