Comedian Tommy Tiernan’s main entertainment firm last year felt the Covid-19 pandemic impact as it incurred losses of €270,602. He is one of several Irish comedians whose latest accounts show a financial hit from the pandemic.
New accounts filed by Tiernan’s Mabinog Ltd show that the 2020 losses follow pre-Covid profits of €222,304 in 2019 - a negative swing of €492,906.
The company’s main income stream of live performance was cut off during most of 2020 due to the Covid-19 shutdown of the live entertainment business.
Saturday night TV
The Co Meath native has kept himself busy with an extended run of the very successful The Tommy Tiernan Show on RTE on Saturday nights.
During the pandemic, 52-year-old has also made a very successful foray into podcasting with the Tommy, Hector and Laurita podcast recently recording 10 million downloads.
However, the lack of ‘live’ income for Mabinog resulted in Tiernan having to dip into the company’s cash reserves in order to fund directors’ pay last year.
Tiernan sits on the board with his wife, Yvonne Tiernan.
The pay to directors last year totalled €340,123 - a drop of €170,694 or 33% on the €510,817 paid out to directors in 2019.
The company had one other member of staff last year.
The directors’ pay last year contributed to the company’s cash reserves declining by just over €200,000 from €686,294 to €486,240.
The €270,602 loss for the year resulted in the company having accumulated losses of €219,845 at year end that was an accumulated profit of €50,757 at the end of 2019.
Tour dates
However, 2022 is already shaping up to be a very profitable year with the comedian due to embark on an exhaustive tour of Ireland next year with an initial 24 dates across January and February along with a string of tour dates also pencilled in for the UK in March and April.
Underlining Tiernan’s growing popularity through his chat show and podcast, 11 dates at Vicar Street in Dublin for January and February have already sold out.
Separate accounts filed by Dancing with the Stars contestant, Neil Delamere show that profits at his firm, Neil Delamere Productions Ltd plunged last year to €17,398 from profits of €130,173 in 2019.
Directors’ pay last year totalled €122,211.
At the end of 2020, the company was sitting a cash pile of €990,405.
The company’s accumulated profits at the end of last year totalled €987,565.
Comedians
In another example of the pandemic impact on comedian’s finances as the live entertainment industry was shut down, Des Bishop’s Blow In Entertainment Ltd last year recorded a loss of €26,482 and this followed a profit of €82,549 in 2019.
Directors’ pay last year stood at €70,000. The company’s cash funds reduced from €326,349 to €197,395.
Separate accounts filed by Ardal O’Hanlon’s O’HaHaHanlon Productions show that it recorded a loss of €139,295 during the pandemic hit 2020.
Best known for his Father Dougal role in Father Ted, O’Hanlon’s firm’s loss last year followed a profit of €217,203 in 2019.
