

The Martin Grant was established by Steve Hofstetter and Next Round Entertainment in order to identify and reward up and coming stand-up comedians. It was inspired by Hofstetter's work on Laughs, and the loss of his father. Read the full story here. The grant was named in honor of Hofstetter's father, Martin. The grant will be awarded in order to aid a talented comedian with rent, car payments, or anything else that will help them focus on developing their art. A panel of some of the most influential television executives, comedy club owners, talent agents, and managers will view applications and eventually decide a winner. The grant is funded thanks to Reddit.com and their wonderful store. A unique comedy tee was designed exclusively by Inkventive, and 100% of all proceeds from sales are used to fund the grant. The spread of COVID-19 has been and will be devastating for many industries, and comedy is certainly one of them. While we don’t have the ability to help everyone, we’re going to do what we can to help as many comedians as possible. We are taking our $10,000 grant this year and turning it into ten $1,000 grants. We’ve also raised enough money already this year that we are up to twelve grants, and we are hoping that number keeps rising. The purpose of these grants is to help those who normally do stand-up full-time that just lost months of income. To that end, we’re calling it a Friendly Shoulder. These grants will help give the artists who receive something to lean on while they wait until they can stand up again on their own. When we get through this (and we WILL get through it) comedy will serve as an excellent distraction. Hopefully, giving some comedians a Friendly Shoulder will help them be there for us when we do.