Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal

Entertainment & IP attorney for comedians. Serious law for funny people. Comedy historian, Grammy-nominated producer, law professor. Attorney advertising.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

I made you something. Marketing people call it a lead magnet. I call it a bribe.

The Court Jester's Checklist: 8 ways to protect the business side of your comedy career. Free for your email.

https://t.co/4UAgKNp8G2

Attorney advertising. #CourtJesterLegal

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@HistryStandUp The stage changed and so did the paperwork. Same one person and one mic, but every new stage on that list came with a new question about who owns the recording.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@latenightercom A lawyer's guess, no inside knowledge: she sings "Over the Rainbow." The right to use a song in a live broadcast and the right to post it online are often separate licenses. Music is the first place I'd look when a sketch airs and then goes missing.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

The Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery merger closed today. HBO, Comedy Central and CBS now share a checkbook.

Fewer buyers, quieter auction. Read these harder: exclusivity, options on your next hour, who owns the special when the deal ends.

#standupcomedy #EntertainmentLaw

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

In 1975 ABC cut 24 of 90 minutes from Monty Python specials. The Pythons sued and won: Gilliam v. ABC.

Your name on a butchered version of your work is a legal injury, not just an artistic one, unless you signed that right away.

#standupcomedy #comedyhistory

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@latenightercom When the news desk is the segment a sketch show lets run long, that tells you where the room's confidence is. Curious whether that was the plan all week or it grew between dress and air.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@dcimprov @rafinhabastos Stand-up class graduation is the most underrated night on any club calendar. Everyone on that lineup is doing something brave for the first time. Congrats to the grads.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

Protections for comedy stop at the border. Material that's bulletproof in a New York club can be a career-ender, a lawsuit, or worse elsewhere.

Touring comics: know the rules of every room, in every country. The joke doesn't travel with its rights attached.

#standupcomedy

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@latenightercom Late night has always been a business as well as a performance. Carson understood that and turned a hosting job into a thirty-year institution. The numbers have always sat in the room alongside the jokes.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@HistryStandUp Lenny Bruce was arrested in Greenwich Village for his act, convicted, and pardoned only decades after his death. The freedom comics now treat as the natural state of things was litigated into existence, one prosecution at a time.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@latenightercom A writers' room that keeps meeting after the show ends is a great podcast origin story. General note for any multi-host show: decide who owns the feed, the name and the back catalog while everyone still likes each other.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

Every working comic is a small business with no HR department: contractor at the club, sole proprietor at the merch table.

Most workplace protections attach to employees. The ones a comic gets are the ones they build: contracts, an entity, insurance, a gig log.

#standupcomedy

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

Before season three, the Friends cast negotiated as one unit. Six actors can be picked apart; one united cast cannot.

Sketch groups, improv teams, podcast co-hosts: decide how the money flows, in writing, while you're still unknown.

#standupcomedy #EntertainmentLaw

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@NetflixIsAJoke Always good to see a comic's story get the full treatment. Behind every "The ___ Story" title is a rights conversation most viewers never hear about. October 23 is on the calendar.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

Two comics start a podcast. It grows. One wants ads; the other wants a network deal.

A podcast prenup is the deal you make while you still like each other: who owns the feed, the name, the back catalog, and what a departing host keeps.

#standupcomedy #EntertainmentLaw

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@HistryStandUp True, and the new stage comes with new paperwork. When comics build their own rooms, they become the network: they own the recordings, the feed, the name. That is freedom, and it is also why the business side matters more than ever.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@ComedyWorks @DEADLINE 45 years is a remarkable run for a comedy club. Rooms like this are where a lot of comedy history actually happens: the sets nobody filmed that shaped careers everyone knows. Congratulations to Wende and the whole team.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

Your stage name is a business asset. Most comics don't protect it until someone else uses it.

Once you sell tickets, merch, or a podcast under a name, it's worth protecting. I teach trademark law: doing it early is cheaper and calmer.

#standupcomedy #trademark

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@NetflixIsAJoke Congrats to Michael Che. For comics working toward a first special, three deal points worth understanding early: who owns the master, how long the platform's exclusivity runs, and what you can do with the clips.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

@latenightercom Anniversary specials tend to revisit old footage, which is a good reason for any comic who has taped a TV spot to know what their appearance release says about reuse in specials, clips, and streaming.

[Howard Leib | Court Jester Legal @HowardLeib]

The least funny sentence in comedy: "Send us a COI naming us as additional insured by Friday."

More bookers want proof of liability insurance. Performer policies cost less than one corporate gig.

Comics who lose them aren't uninsurable. They're unprepared.

#standupcomedy