Here’s this week’s semi-rambling look at things I’ve been thinking about, stuff comics should know about, and more food for thought for comedians.

Comedians Have Too Many One-Night Stands

As much as I’d love to talk about the sordid details of comedians’ sex lives here, that’s not actually what I’m referencing in the headline above. Rather, lately I’ve been thinking about the idea that comics have too many one-night stands with the audiences that see them perform.

Way too many comics are having way too many one-night stands with their audience – they do their set, the crowd enjoys it (hopefully), and there’s never another interaction between them after that. It’s one and done…and it’s meaningless.

One-night stands might be great when it comes to getting laid, but from a career standpoint? Not so much.

Louis CK on Howard Stern

Louis CK paid another visit to Howard Stern last week and it’s another interview well worth listening to. He talks about a variety of stuff ranging from his comedy, to his career decisions, to the reasons he’s taking a break from his hit TV show when it’s at its peak.

You can watch/listen to the first part of the interview below, and click through to hear the rest at the end of the video.

Bert Kreischer’s Advice For Newer Comedians

Bert Kreischer recently had Chris Gore on an episode of his Bertcast podcast and about halfway through the interview (around the 30-minute mark) it turned into Bert offering some comedy career tips to Chris. Bert’s got a lot of great advice to share and I highly recommend checking it out below – especially if you’re a newer comedian trying to figure out how to get out on the road, how to develop an hour-long set, and other things you need to learn to take your act to the next level.

WeWantShows.com

I recently came across this site which is designed to help indie bands connect with each other to trade show opportunities. It looks like a pretty new site and not sure if they’d allow comedian participation or not, but it’s an interesting concept and the kind of thing that likely could help a lot of comedians if a comedy version of it existed.

Casting Directors On Twitter

If you’re interested in landing acting gigs and don’t yet have an agent to send you out on auditions, one of the things you might want to do is start trying to follow and connect with various casting directors and casting agencies on Twitter. I’m not suggesting you start spamming them looking for work, but it’s probably worth following some of them and trying to start developing a genuine relationship with them.

Toward that end, I recently came across this list of Twitter lists featuring casting directors/agencies that might be a good place to start finding some.

Most Comics Seem More Interested In Getting Booked Than Getting Better

I get all kinds of questions from Connected Comedy readers about a wide variety of topics, but one of the things I’ve realized recently that I think is interesting is that by far the most common question I get asked is some variation of “How do I get booked?”

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that question and it’s certainly an important part of the business, but I think it’s telling that way more comics ask me that than ask, “How do I get better?” or “How do I get more fans?”

The bottom line is most comedians are still focused on the issue of getting a booker – or some other industry gatekeeper – to give them permission to have a career as opposed to focusing their efforts on figuring out how to build one for themselves. It also reflects an assumption by many comics that they are good enough to deserve to get more bookings and/or that there’s some kind of “trick” to getting booked.

I mentioned this on Facebook and it’s spurring some interesting discussion which you can check out here.

Gonzo Fame

There’s a new site called Gonzo Fame that’s featuring interviews with comedians such as Doug Stanhope and Ralphie May sharing their thoughts about comedy. There’s not a lot up there yet, but it looks promising and might be worth checking out.

More Stuff I Was Thinking About

If you enjoyed this post, check out some of what else I’ve been thinking about in recent weeks.