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.