One of the first questions most comedians ask me is either “How do I find an agent?,” “What does an agent do?,” or “Why isn’t my agent doing anything for me?”

At the root of all these questions is some confusion about exactly how agents work and what their role should be in a comedian’s career. So, I thought I’d share a few basics about the agenting game that will hopefully help answer those questions.

1. There are different kinds of agents for different kinds of tasks.

The first thing to understand is that not all agents bring the same skill sets to the table so the kind of agent you will want may vary depending on what your career goals and needs are at the moment. Among the most common types of agents are Personal Appearance/Booking agents whose job it is to book you live gigs, Theatrical agents who are the ones that will hep you land acting roles and auditions for film and television projects, Commercial agents who can help you get work in commercials, and Literary agents who can help you sell screenplays, books or get hired to write for TV shows.

Typically (though not always) you’ll wind up getting represented by a single agency who will have a team of agents to work with you so that each of these individual needs are covered by the same company. But one thing you’ll want to keep in mind when you’re just starting out and seeking or getting the attention of an agent, is to have a clear understanding of what kind of agent they are and what they’ll be able to help you with. Make sure it matches your goals.

2. Agents only get paid when you get paid.

Any agent that wants to charge you an upfront fee to hire them isn’t a real agent. Keeping that in mind should protect you from a lot of scam artists out there.

True agents only get paid when you get paid – they make a percentage of the income that they help you generate, typically 10% of that income. This is important to understand not only because it can help protect you from getting scammed, but also because it frames the way agents work and how they decide who to sign.

An agent will only represent you if he/she believes that you have the potential to earn money relatively soon – because otherwise they have no way to get paid for the time/effort they put into you. This is one of the biggest misunderstandings I see among comics about what agents are looking for – yes, you need to be talented, but what really will catch their attention is if you’re talented and have a clear path to financial success. There’s lots of talented comics out there that can’t get representation and it’s usually because they have no fanbase, niche, or traction in the business side of comedy.

3. Getting an agent doesn’t mean that you’ve made it.

Another common point of confusion is that many comedians seem to think once they have gotten themselves an agent, that they’ve “made it” and they can sit back and let the agent do their magic while the cash and opportunities roll in. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

In reality, once you get an agent your work is only beginning. A good agent will push you to spend more time/effort on your career, create new opportunities for yourself, and build things that the agent can help you sell. Remember, your agent is only going to get paid if they’re able to monetize something that you do so they’re really going to need you to be “doing” a lot in order to justify the time they’re spending on you.

4. Your agent works for you, not the other way around.

Even though your agent will pressure you to work harder and try to guide you to a financially successful career, it’s important to remember the context of the relationship. When you get an agent, you are hiring them – not the other way around.

Ultimately, it’s your career and your agent works for you (for a fee). That means that you should always be in control of your career and ensuring that it’s headed in the direction you want it to go. It also means that if you feel like your agent isn’t paying attention to you or isn’t working hard enough for you, that you shouldn’t be afraid to leave them and seek out a new agent. Having a bad/lazy agent is worse for you than having no agent at all.

However, if you’re going to dump your agent you should make sure that you’re doing so for the right reasons. You need to be honest with yourself about whether you’re giving the agent enough material and projects to help you with as opposed to just scapegoating your agent for your own laziness.

I’m sure many of you have had interesting experiences with agents in your own career – leave a comment below to let us know what you think other comedians should know about agents…

What would you do differently if you only needed 10 true fans to have a successful comedy career?

Probably, a lot. And surprisingly, what you would do would probably be a lot more effective than what you currently do in pursuit of thousands of fans.

Here’s a breakdown of what I think you’d do different and why those differences would likely serve you better than an approach that’s based around trying to attract as many fans as possible.

You’d Think More About Which Potential Fans You Targeted

The first thing I think would change if you only needed 10 fans to succeed is that you would spend more time thinking about who you would target as your potential fans.

When you think you need thousands of fans, it tricks you into believing that your comedy (and marketing) needs to be broad in order to reach the masses. But if you only needed 10 fans, that would probably go out the window and you’d focus your efforts on a much smaller (and more targeted) group of potential fans based on people that you already have a connection with based on shared interests, geographic location, or an existing relationship. The reason for that is because you would inherently know that those people will be easier to convert into your fans than the masses.

Ironically, that focus on targeting a specific niche is also a key to building a larger fanbase.

You’d Pay More Attention To Your 10 Fans

If you only had 10 fans, you’d probably get to know them a LOT better. Most likely, you’d know exactly who they were, what your relationship with each of them was like, how you met them, and what they liked about you and your comedy.

You’d also probably spend a lot of time directly communicating with them about their interests as opposed to just promoting your stuff to them.

On the flipside, chasing thousands of fans gives you an excuse to not really get to know any of them or actually engage with them. Because it’s just not practical to be able to actually pay attention to thousands of people, right? (That’s sarcasm in case you can’t tell)

You’d Work A Lot Harder

Here’s an interesting one: Even though there’s a lot more work involved in gaining thousands of fans, I bet most comics would work harder if they knew it would only take 10 fans for them to have a successful career.

That’s because attracting 10 fans seems so much more doable than the daunting task of attracting thousands. The belief that gaining 10 fans is truly possible would likely motivate you to work harder than you currently do at what might seem like an overwhelming task to build a huge fanbase.

Again, a focus on just attracting 10 fans would wind up helping motivate you as opposed to allowing you to use the bigger challenge as an excuse to be lazy.

You’d Communicate With Your Fans In Different Ways

If all that mattered was having 10 fans, would you still be as obsessed with Twitter, Facebook, and assorted other social media platforms? I love social media as much as the next guy (and a lot more than this guy), but I’m guessing that if all that mattered was having 10 fans, you’d be more likely to communicate with them by email, text, phone, or even in person (seeing your actual fans in the flesh – imagine that!).

Social media is a great tool, but it can also be a great distraction. It’s easy to spend all your time broadcasting to the masses on social media instead of communicating with your actual fans in other ways that are more meaningful. Again, a 10-fan approach to your career might help you remember what really matters.

You’d Care A Lot Less About The “Industry”

Comics’ obsession with agents, managers, bookers, and other industry types is really driven by one thing – it’s perceived as a shortcut to reach the masses. But if you only needed 10 fans to have a successful career, you’d probably care a whole lot less about what the industry gatekeepers think and a whole lot more about what your actual fans think.

While we’re not there quite yet, we’re rapidly moving toward a comedy world where what fans think of you is more important than what the industry thinks of you, so again, I see a 10-fan thought process being very helpful to you in terms of who you try to impress with your your time, effort, and resources.

Your Act Would Be Better

I don’t spend a lot of time talking about the actual art of stand up comedy, but I’m guessing that if you knew your act only had to appeal to 10 people it would be a lot different than if you think it has to appeal to thousands. Too many comics shape their material to fit what they think other people want to see – they do what other successful comics do, or they do what bookers want to see, or they do what they think will get them noticed.

But if you only needed to appeal to 10 people, you’d probably be a lot more likely to do what YOU want to do. And that’s really how you ultimately find your own unique voice, which happens to be the biggest key to actually building a successful career and ultimately a huge fanbase.

Now obviously, all of these thoughts are based on a hypothetical assumption of what would happen in a world where 10 fans is all you need to have a successful career. I know that’s not true.

But I also know that if you actually did follow this approach you would likely wind up with a lot more fans than you currently have.