comedian vs performer

comedian and performer both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
comedian	Yes	No	No	No
performer	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, performer is a hypernym of comedian; that is, performer is a word with a broader meaning than comedian:

comedian: a professional performer who tells jokes and performs comical acts
performer: an entertainer who performs a dramatic or musical work for an audience

Other hypernyms of comedian include performing artist.

comedian (noun)	performer (noun)
a professional performer who tells jokes and performs comical acts	an entertainer who performs a dramatic or musical work for an audience
an actor in a comedy