The business of being funny: how creatives turn passion into a profession

Turning your creative talent into a business doesn’t mean sacrificing your passion or losing the joy.

Treating creative work as something sustainable, marketable and profitable is one way of turning your creative dreams into a reality.

Comedian Sashi Perera and producer/comedian Daizy Maan of Brown Women Comedy are two creatives doing just that. Both are performing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (23 March – 19 April).

Their careers look different, but they’ve both navigated turning a creative passion into a sustainable business.

The transition point: when creativity becomes a business

Turning a passion into a profession is rarely marked by a single, dramatic leap. More often, it happens quietly. Tickets, workshops, services, sponsorships – once revenue enters the picture, so do responsibilities.

Daizy Maan challenges the assumption that being creative is not being in business.

‘I think a lot of creatives know that they are business owners, but they might have studied the arts and not been taught these skills.’

Her lightbulb moment came when, as a producer for the Brown Women Comedy shows, she realised she ‘would have to manage budgets and things like that.’ Daizy discovered these skills were core to building a platform that has gone from 40 shows to 600 around Australia. She sees self-learning as part of the job, especially early on.

When Sashi Perera chose comedy over law, it meant walking away from stability, a decision that felt physically terrifying to her.

Understanding the business side of things was critical in gaining confidence to keep going with her path.

‘Understanding contracts, invoices and payment processes isn’t bureaucracy – it’s protection,’ says Sashi.

Tip: When you start to grow, business activities like pricing, budgeting, marketing and cash flow stop being optional extras. They’re the behind-the-scenes work that keeps the creative part going.

It’s a balancing act

One of the biggest challenges creatives face is protecting space for both sides of the work.

Daizy’s approach is deliberately unglamorous and highly effective. She does creative work in the mornings, then business tasks in the afternoons or one fixed day each week dedicated entirely to admin, finance and planning. This structure helps prevent financial tasks from being neglected.

‘Financial confidence is built through repeated action, just like stage confidence.’

Sashi has outsourced her management. It’s a balance that has helped her to grow sustainably without burning out.

‘Working with trusted managers and advisors has allowed me to stay informed while giving me time to focus on the creative side.’

Tip: Creativity needs time and mental freedom, but the business that supports it needs focus and consistency.

Finding your audience

Today, visibility is inseparable from viability. Sashi’s online reach – millions of views across platforms – isn’t just a vanity metric. It’s part of the business. A recognisable brand attracts bookings, media opportunities and partnerships, turning attention into leverage.

Daizy is direct about what has made the biggest difference in her career: marketing. Not because it’s flashy, but because it works.

‘Marketing leads to ticket sales and audiences are what turn ideas into something sustainable.’

Early on, that meant doing the uncomfortable work herself. Cold emails. Direct messages. Personal invitations. Opportunities didn’t arrive through discovery; they came through asking.

Sashi has also built her audience through consistent online content, using social media as a tool to promote shows and connect with fans beyond the stage.

Tip: A principle applies across different creative businesses: tickets don’t sell themselves and neither do services, workshops or ideas.

Scaling with support

Both women used grants to take creative risks and scale sustainably.

Sashi received support through Victorian Government's Stand Up! Program, a grant and professional development initiative for women and nonbinary comedians delivered in partnership with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The funding enabled her to stage her first Comedy Festival show.

The program gave her the resources and confidence to take her work from open mics to a fully realised festival season, helping her reach new audiences and build momentum in her career.

Daizy scaled from 6 shows to 40 with grants from the City of Melbourne and Multicultural Victoria, allowing her to book larger venues.

‘It helped us go from like 200 people to 5,000 and to take a bigger risk… without the grants I wouldn’t have taken the risk to book the larger venue with higher costs.’ 

Tip: Grants and other funding opportunities don’t replace revenue, but they can provide breathing space to make that next move as a creative.

Rejection, resilience and transferable skills

Creative careers are built on rejection. Whether it’s an application that goes nowhere, a pitch that fails or a joke that bombs.

Daizy draws a clear parallel between entrepreneurship and performance. Both require trying things that don’t work, learning fast and showing up again anyway.

She’s observed that men tend to treat rejection as information and move on, while women are more likely to internalise it. Her advice to female business owners is blunt and practical:

‘Normalise “no,” detach self-worth from outcomes and keep sending the next email.’

For Sashi, no experience is wasted in building a creative business.

Research skills, performance under pressure and clear communication all transfer seamlessly into developing a creative business. Comedy, she says, is simply a more forgiving environment to practise them.

‘In law getting it wrong can have serious consequences, but in comedy, if you flub a line people laugh, shrug and move on. It’s much more forgiving and allows you to learn.’

Tip: Failing on stage and in business is sometimes okay and a necessary part of refining your product.

Community as strategy

Both women return to the same foundation when it comes to the success of building their creative businesses: community.

For Sashi, role models and mentors have been essential.

‘When you feel like an imposter (which I still do sometimes), it helps to have people who are 10 or 20 years ahead of you saying, ‘You’re good, keep going.’’ 

Sashi has also built her creative network by taking part in Arts Centre Melbourne’s Creative Conversations series and associated podcast recordings, using those panels to share insights with peers, arts professionals and audiences.

For Daizy, community is the backbone of creative and business success. By attending arts markets, conferences and showcases before she was ready to pitch, she learned how decisions were made and built the connections that later helped her book shows across the country. 

Tip: Whether through mentorship, networking or simply being present, community is the engine that drives both creative and professional growth.

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More about Sashi Perera and Daizy Maan

Sashi Perera is a Sri Lankan Australian and former lawyer, turned humanitarian worker, turned comedian. Since leaving law, she has performed sold-out shows in six countries; been nominated for Best Newcomer at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival; appeared on Have You Been Paying Attention?; published her memoir, Standstill; and amassed millions of online views. 

Daizy Maan is the founder of the Australian South Asian Centre (ASAC) and producer/comedian with Brown Women Comedy. As a co-founder of ASAC she has built Australia’s largest platform for South Asian founders and creatives, dedicated to amplifying their voices across Australia. Over the past six years, she has influenced culture, community and gender equity across universities, startups and non-profits in Australia.