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.

How To Easily Create Your Own Tosh.O Style Show

I happened to check out this Laughspin video playlist the other day and it made me realize that it would actually be pretty simple for comedians to create their own Tosh.0 style series on YouTube where they would highlight and joke about various videos on YouTube, without really needing to have any major editing skills.

Basically, you could shoot wraparound segments where you introduce and joke about whatever clips you want to include and then combine them in a playlist along with the actual clips.

YouTube playlists are really easy to set up, are embeddable, and one video flows right into the next one so it would probably work pretty seamlessly.

The Laughspin playlist which you can see below is a decent example, although the only original content they include is just an intro as opposed to wraparounds between each video.

Would You Have The Guts To Do What Jay Hollingsworth Is Doing?

Seattle-based comedian Jay Hollingsworth recently launched JokeAWeek.com and I highly recommend you check it out.

Basically, Jay’s chronicling the process as he develops a new hour of material – sharing footage of himself trying out and developing a new bit each week through a series of videos. Besides being interesting, I have a hunch that many other comedians will find it really helpful to see how he works at his material and how it evolves.

Here’s Jay’s explanation of what he’s doing:

And here’s a look at Jay’s first Joke of the Week.

Ari Shaffir’s Tips For New Comedians

Speaking of comedians sharing their expertise, I recently came across a fantastic audio recording of comedian Ari Shaffir answering questions and giving advice to younger comedians at the Comedy Store.

I don’t know all the backstory on this, but I believe Ari just did it because it was the kind of thing he wished a veteran comic had done for him back in the day, but whatever the reason it’s a great source of info for comics who have questions about how the business actually works and want honest answers from somebody who’s living it.

You Should Pay Attention To What Lee Camp’s Doing

Lee Camp is a comedian out of New York who has been hustling his ass off the past couple years and building a strong following thanks in part to a video series he created called Moment of Clarity.

After doing about 220 episodes of the show, Lee has recently expanded to a much more elaborately produced show and recently launched a Kickstarter to fund more episodes at this level.

He’s already raised more than $14,000 from 300+ backers and is halfway to meeting his goal.

Here’s what he’s doing, why, and how he’s successfully pitching it to supporters. There’s a lot you can learn from what Lee’s done over the past couple years.

The Economics Of Producing Comedy Shows

Here’s a great piece in Chicago Grid that features several different producers of different kinds of comedy shows in Chicago revealing exactly how they make money (or in some cases, don’t make money) when it comes to putting on comedy shows.

The Comic Behind @DadBoner

Mike Burns is a comedian in Los Angeles who secretly started the popular @DadBoner Twitter account a couple years ago. Vice recently produced a short documentary about him, comedy, and the rise of that Twitter account and it’s a pretty interesting watch. Also, a great example of what can happen if you actually put some time into trying something…even if you initially do so anonymously.

More Stuff I’ve Been Thinking About

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

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.

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.

Comedian John Roy’s Entirely Free Comedy Class – On Tumblr

For the past several weeks comedian John Roy has been rolling out what he’s dubbed his “Entirely Free Comedy Class” on his blog. I highly recommend you check it out – he’s posted six lengthy posts worth of the class so far, and you can start with the first one here.

Here’s his explanation of why he’s doing it:

“Lots of people in every major city are charging money to take a standup comedy class. While I know comedians who have benefited from such classes, the majority consensus among fellow comedians are that these are of dubious value and, even if they help with some fundamentals or with building courage and comfort on stage, neither replace the time you will have to spend in open mics nor are worth the hundreds of dollars they normally cost.

The fact remains that there is no homework in standup comedy. You may practice your jokes at home until they are very polished, but you will not know how funny they are or the proper way to time your delivery of these jokes until they encounter a live audience and you see how people who expect to laugh react to them. So, I am now teaching a comedy class. On tumblr. For free.”

How To Get Sponsors For Your Podcast

Way back in December 2011, the Earwolf podcast network posted an episode in which they interviewed David Kahn, who at the time was helping monetize and attract advertisers to Kevin Smith’s Smodcast podcast network.

In the episode, Kahn talks about how he approaches advertisers, how he sees the podcast world evolving, and the general opportunities and challenges facing podcasters from a business perspective.

Even though it’s more than a year old, it’s still very relevant and worth a listen if you have any interest in monetizing your podcast – or for that matter, any content you create online.

Meet The New TV – It’s Like The Old TV, Only Totally Different

I don’t want to say I told you so, but remember that post I wrote a couple weeks ago about why every comedian should pay attention to the new Twitter TV ratings? Well, Wired recently published a much deeper dive on the subject and breaks down the rise of “social TV” (an admittedly obnoxious term) and explains why “The Nielsen Family Is Dead.”

It’s worth a read if you have any interest in TV or ever being featured on one. And if you’re a comedian, I’m sure you have that interest.

Media Hacks

Several years ago I saw Mitch Joel speak at the Montreal Comedy Festival and he gave a great talk that in some ways inspired what Connected Comedy would ultimately become. Mitch has an excellent marketing podcast called Six Pixels of Separation which I highly recommend, and a recent episode might be a good one for you to check out since it actually touched on comedy a little bit.

In his Media Hacks episode, Mitch is joined by several other leading marketing/social media experts for a great discussion including a bit of talk about Funny or Die, its initial struggles and recent success.

Video Podcast Network

Have you checked out the Video Podcast Network on YouTube yet? It features video versions (some animated, some not) of several popular comedy podcasts including the Adam Carolla show and the Earwolf network. It’s also an example of the development of something I wrote about way back in 2011 when I shared the 5 Reasons Your Podcast Should Include Video.

On a side note – yes, I know the irony that I wrote that piece and yet I don’t include video as part of our Connected Comedy podcast but stay tuned…that may be coming soon.

Would You Want To Read Comics’ Reviews Of Other Comics?

There’s a new online publication called The Talkhouse that features reviews of new music albums, written by other musicians. It’s a pretty interesting site that got me wondering how much of a disaster a site would be featuring comedians reviewing each other’s albums?

Get Your Marketing Nerd On With Marketing Experiments

My newest obsession (because I’m a marketing geek) is the Marketing Experiments blog, and in particular the series of videos the site produces where they review and reveal the results of various tests they run to determine things like what email subject lines work best, how best to get people to subscribe to things or purchase things, and assorted other geeky marketing conversion topics.

This is certainly not going to be for everybody, but that doesn’t mean it’s not helpful. For an example, check out this video in which they discuss the 5 easiest changes to make to your web pages to increase conversions:

“If You Get Offended By It, It’s Not For You”

I came across a Kickstarter recently that I thought many of you might want to support – it’s for a documentary called That’s Not Funny that will be “An exploration of controversial topics in comedy and an examination of recent incidents involving comedians who have crossed the line.”

You can watch the trailer below, or go here to donate to the Kickstarter to help make it happen.

Want More Stuff Like This?

If you’ve enjoyed this post, you might want to also check out The Most Annoying Thing Comics Do And More Stuff That Was On My Mind Last Week.

And Now, One More Question For You…

I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me and say they’d like to hear more success stories from comics who have tried different things in the marketing/business side of their career. So, if you’ve got anything you’ve done that you found successful and you’d like to share it with me and my readers, please shoot me an email and let me know. Thanks!

The other day I threw out a hypothetical scenario and asked what comedians thought would happen if they got paid based on some kind of audience voting mechanism at shows. I was really just kind of thinking aloud and then posted a similar question on the Connected Comedy Facebook page.

The reaction I got shocked me.

The vast majority of comedians who responded acted like it was an insane suggestion and fired off a barrage of comments about what a terrible idea it was and how comics deserve to be paid no matter what the audience thinks of them. They even compared a comic’s act to a plate of bad food that a restaurant might serve – you should be paid regardless of whether the customer enjoyed it or not.

And it didn’t stop there.

Lots of commenters went on to talk about how allowing the audience to determine payment for comedians would result in terrible comedy, hack jokes, and audiences packed with friends of comics who would unfavorably sway the vote to make their buddy more money.

Honestly, it was really eye-opening on a lot of levels to see where so many comics (admittedly, many of them just starting out) are coming from. It also brought to light something else…

Lots of comedians hate comedy audiences.

Those comics are going to fail, and here’s why…

[NOTE: This isn’t about the specific idea of the audience determining pay any more, but rather the underlying attitude of the reactions that idea generated.]

You Don’t Need To Please Every Audience, You Need To Find YOUR Audience

A lot of the reactions I got were coming from comics who seem to assume that the hypothetical audience they would perform for wouldn’t “get” them and therefore wouldn’t choose to pay them their fair share of the money. Setting aside the weird mix of ego and insecurity that this reveals, what’s really interesting is that it also reveals that most comics assume they’ll perform for people that aren’t their target audience.

If you have a particular style of comedy or niche audience you believe will enjoy you, then you should concentrate on seeking out opportunities to perform for those people. You’re never going to please everybody so don’t even bother trying – focus on who is most likely to enjoy you. That’s who will ultimately determine your success or failure.

Nobody Owes You Anything

There’s clearly an assumption that venues, promoters, or bookers owe you something and that you have some inherent right to get paid for standing on somebody else’s stage and telling jokes to somebody else’s crowd on somebody else’s dime. That’s just not true.

If somebody promises you payment, they should pay you, but I don’t believe that anybody has to promise to pay you any more than the value you provide. And the reality is that the value you provide is directly connected to the number of people that come to see you, the experience they have while seeing you, and the likelihood they’ll come back to see you (or the venue) again.

That, plus how easy or difficult you would be to replace with somebody else, is what determines what you’re entitled to in terms of payment. So really, whether you like it or not, it’s ultimately the audience determining your payment even if you may not realize it. Speaking of which…

The Industry Doesn’t Want You, They Want Your Audience

You might think bookers are booking you for your talent, but they’re really more interested in your audience. You’re just a middle man to help them put people in the seats and/or keep them there. You might not realize this when you’re starting out on the open mic circuit, but you certainly will learn it as you move up the ladder.

There’s tons of feature acts who may be “better” than some headliner who happens to play the wacky neighbor on a TV series and do standup as a hobby/cash grab, but the TV guy will get the bookings and the bucks because he/she attracts an audience to their shows. They sell tickets and that’s ultimately what it’s about.

Most comics spend so much time trying to get the industry to notice/like them that they don’t even realize the industry is actually looking for is people with an audience.

Yes, you have to be good to build an audience. But it’s not enough to just be good – you have to understand that the power lies with the audience you can summon as much as it does your act.

We’re Living In A World Where The Audience Controls Everything

This shift of power to the audience is something that extends way beyond just the world of comedy. Look around you – music, business, media, technology, they’re all increasingly driven (and monetized) by audience reaction as opposed to the pre-Internet world where a select few gatekeepers determined who got paid and for what.

The #1 song on Billboard right now is “The Harlem Shake” because the audience put it there, not radio. The Veronica Mars movie is happening (in part) because the show’s fans are funding/clamoring for it.

In a world where the audience dictates success or failure to such a large degree it’s foolish to think comedy should/will operate differently. Do you think Comedy Central is more or less powerful than it was 10 years ago? Just something to think about…

Have Some Balls

Perhaps the most discouraging thing about the reactions I got to my original question was that so few comics actually assumed they would succeed in an audience-driven model.

It was amazing – especially considering so many comics talk about how they kill each weekend – that so few of them believed an audience vote would actually make them more money than they currently earn at a show.

In short, they assumed they’d be losers. That the audience wouldn’t like them enough to pay them. That’s kind of sad, don’t you think?

As I talk about all the time on this site, I believe it’s important to be willing to experiment, to believe you can succeed, and to put the audience first.

Sure, this was only a hypothetical scenario, but unfortunately it seems like there’s not a whole lot of comedians that share those beliefs.

In the spirit of experimentation, I thought I’d try a new type of post out today. Here’s a somewhat rambling look at several things I’ve been thinking about and that have caught my eye recently that I thought might be worth mentioning.

The Worst Possible Thing To Do With Your Mailing List

I deal with lots of comedians who I don’t personally know through Connected Comedy, and I’m amazed how many of them just add my email address to their mailing list and send me email blasts that I never signed up for and that are completely irrelevant to me (i.e., I’m probably not going to fly from LA to Cleveland to check out your next Open Mic).

Here’s a hint – Don’t ever do that!

Not only is it technically illegal due to spam laws, but it’s also just plain stupid. If people haven’t subscribed to your email list, it’s because they’re not interested in what you have to say. To think that suddenly spamming them with an email is going to win them over and convert them into a fan of yours is insane – it will actually do the opposite.

The quickest way to make people hate you – and ensure they’ll never join your email list – is to add them without their permission. I’m sure there’s a zero percent success rate of getting those people to come to your show or buy your product, so all you’re doing is turning potential fans into enemies.

You Never Know Where It’s Going To Come From

60 Minutes did an interesting feature on Twitter founder Jack Dorsey last week and I highly recommend you watch it below.

It doesn’t really have anything to do with comedy, but it’s interesting to see how Dorsey thinks and specifically that the original idea for Twitter evolved from his fascination with trains and the way police communicated with each other in short bursts.

The point is that even if your interests or expertise isn’t comedy related, there may be ways you can take what you’ve learned and adapt it to your comedy career. Just something to think about…

Birthday Posts On Facebook

It was my birthday recently and just like everybody else on Facebook, I got the usual batch of birthday wishes from friends posted on my Timeline.

But one thing I happened to notice was this image from comedian Leighann Lord which happens to have some built in promotion for herself and her website.

I’m not sure I exactly love this execution – feels a little too promotional and not personal enough – but I do think it’s an interesting concept and potentially clever way to take advantage of an everyday occurrence to get more exposure for who you are and what you do.

Keep An Eye On Medium

Have you checked out Medium yet? It’s a pretty interesting new blogging platform/social network from the guys who originally brought you Blogger and Twitter (which bodes well for its chances of success).

It’s basically a site where you can write blog posts and then have them grouped along with posts from other people about a specific topic. It’s currently by invite-only, but it seems to be developing nicely and is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Another Reminder That There Are No Rules

Have you heard about that Steve Jobs movie that’s coming out starring Ashton Kutcher? Well, so did Funny or Die and they decided to make their own full-length Steve Jobs parody movie and release it online before the Kutcher movie hits theaters.

The announcement got a ton of press and is a really clever marketing stunt – whether their movie winds up being any good or not.

This is a good example of how you can piggy back on big entertainment events to attract some attention for your own projects. You may not have the resources to make a full movie like Funny or Die did here, but there’s other stuff you probably could have done. Like put out a Making of the Jobs movie parody web series? Or a fictional Jobs movie production meeting blog?

Opportunities are everywhere if you start to think differently – no pun intended.

An Interesting Twist On A Crowdfunding Project

I recently saw that Katie Goodman (who you may remember from a great appearance on our podcast where we talked about women in comedy) has launched a campaign to raise money from fans to help pay for a show she’s putting on in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. You can see her campaign on Indiegogo to raise the money here, but what I really found interesting was an email she had sent out to fans before launching the campaign.

That email, which you can view here, was actually soliciting her fans to donate goods or services which she could then put up as prizes for people who donated money – as opposed to the usual straight ask for money. I thought it was a really interesting way to get fans involved beyond just giving money, and also allows her to provide some pretty interesting prizes that aren’t just of the usual tickets/merch variety.

What If Comics’ Worked For Tips?

Speaking of monetization, I saw a bunch of buzz this week about Chirpify, which describes itself as a “social commerce and payments platform.” That’s basically a fancy way of saying that they’ve created a way for people to pay you (or donate money to you) simply by posting a tweet or Facebook update.

It remains to be seen if it will catch on and I haven’t tried it yet myself, but it looks like it could be interesting and certainly something that could be helpful to comics – if it catches on among users. And if it did, think about this idea – could crowd members at a show directly “tip” a comic for their performance by tweeting from their phones in their seats? And if so, would that provide comics with another way to monetize their gigs directly from people who are in the crowd and based on the quality of their performance?

Taken one step further, what if when you bought tickets to a comedy show the comics’ share of the ticket prices were put into a pool and the audience got to decide what percentage of their money went to each comic on the lineup based on their performances? That seems more fun for the audience, better for the comics (the good ones at least), and like a pretty interesting hook for a show.

And Now, A Question For You…

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I run Connected Comedy lately and how I can best serve what’s become a pretty large audience of comedians who care about their career and growing their fanbase.

I’d be curious to hear from you guys – what would you like to see more of in the Connected Comedy universe and how do you think I could provide more value to you?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or feel free to email me if you’d prefer. Thanks!

If you found this post helpful, I hope you’ll consider supporting Connected Comedy.