stand up comedy

5 Tips For Stand Up Comedian Arbel Kodesh

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In 5 Free Tips, I provide some advice specifically tailored to one person’s content. If you’d like me to give you 5 Free Tips, please send me an email and tell me a little about yourself.

Today’s free tips are for stand up comedian Arbel Kodesh, who sent me the following email:

Hi Josh,

My name is Arbel Kodesh. I’m a 21 year old stand up comedian currently living in Palo Alto California. I read your “5 Free Tips” and was wondering if you could help me out. I’ve been doing stand up for about a year and enjoy it a lot. I try to take advantage of every opportunity I get to perform but I still don’t feel like that’s enough. I really want to get a lot of people to see my material and what I’m about, and I don’t feel that performing once a week (normally in front of a lot of other comedians) is the way to get a following or get my name out.

Here are some links to some youtube videos of me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4fm0ZyBpyQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUbQgc4rzp4&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbStFyATZu8&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AssENJ8_OeM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpBC2GPrHWI&feature=related

I also have a facebook fanpage:

http://www.facebook.com/arbelkodesh

If you have any advice please let me know.

I really appreciate it!

-Arbel

I checked out Arbel’s work and came up with the following 5 Free Tips for him:

TIP #1: Pay Attention To Video Titles

If you’re looking to get more views of your videos, one simple thing you can do is title them in a way that will attract some views from people searching YouTube for similar stuff. For example, the videos on your channel are titled things like “Arbel on Celebrities,” and “Arbel on Coca Cola.” But it’s doubtful that anybody’s searching YouTube for “Arbel on…” anything because not many people know you yet.

I’d suggest instead titling the videos to include relevant words that people do search for. For example, your “Arbel on Celebrities” video includes a bit about the singer Pitbull who lots of people search for and those people will be most likely to “get” your joke. So titling your video something like “How Pitbull Records His Songs” might get you some extra views because it will show up as a related video when people are watching other Pitbull videos and the more interesting title might catch their eye and get you some easy clicks.

One more quick note about this. I would still include your name in the title, but you can put it after the headline. So the Pitbull video title would be, “How Pitbull Records His Songs – Arbel Kodesh.” I’d put your name after a hypen at the end of all of your videos because that will help them show up as related.

TIP #2: Start A Blog

You mentioned wanting to get your name out to more people and I’d highly recommend starting a blog of some sort. Whether you’re writing funny stuff on the blog, or even just sharing funny videos or links to interesting things you find, having a blog is a very easy way to give people a reason to start connecting with you. Making videos takes time and effort, but blogging can be much quicker and it starts to give people a reason to check out your site every day. They get in the habit of that, which comes in handy when you do have a new video or show you want to promote.

One more quick note about blogging: In general, I’d recommend posting stuff that will be of value to other people. Having a blog and just promoting your own stuff all the time is rarely compelling to readers so it’s much more effective if you’re sharing stuff that has real entertainment value to them. If you establish yourself as a source for funny or interesting content, people will definitely come back to see more.

TIP #3: Contribute To Other Sites

One of the most common traps I see comics fall into is that the content they create winds up only being seen by the same people that already follow them and as a result they’re never really adding new fans or growing their audience. One of the best ways to break out of this is to contribute to other sites or channels.

Don’t be afraid to do a guest post or video for somebody else and think of it as a way to introduce yourself to a new audience. And of course, the bigger the site, the more new fans you may be able to attract.

TIP #4: Post Things On Facebook That People Will Share

It’s great that you’ve got a Facebook fan page and it’s nice to see you’ve already got some good interaction on it. Just like with blogging, you can grow your Facbeook page by sharing valuable or entertaining content that people are going to want to share with their friends. All too often people think that the only stuff they should post on their Facebook page is their own creations and that’s just not true.

There’s nothing wrong with sharing a hilarious cat video that you’ve found online even if it has nothing specifically to do with you. As long as it’s entertaining, what will happen is your Facebook followers will share it with their friends and when they do those friends will see it as being shared “via Arbel Kodesh” which introduces you to a whole new audience.

Your goal on Facebook should be to post as much “shareable” content as possible, because the more people share what you post, the more people are introduced to your page, and the more people are likely to then follow you themselves.

TIP #5: Subscribe and Comment On Other YouTube Channels

YouTube is definitely a community and if you want to get more people subscribing and commenting on your videos, then you need to make yourself a part of that community. Right now, you’re not subscribed to any YouTube channels and I doubt that you comment on many videos. But think about this: Every time you comment on a video or subscribe to somebody’s channel, a link to your channel gets on their radar. It’s really free promotion for your channel.

In general, you’ll find that the more you become a part of the YouTube community, the more attention that community will pay to your own creations.

I hope this helps Arbel, and if anybody else would like to get 5 Free Tips, please let me know.

5 Tips For Stand Up Comedian Alex Kummert

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One of the things I’m excited to be doing here on Connected Comedy is providing specific advice for comedians, bloggers, and video creators about how they can get more attention for their creations. That’s why I’m introducing a new feature on the site called 5 Free Tips where I will offer some free advice specifically tailored to one person’s content.

If you’d like me to give you 5 Free Tips, just shoot me an email and tell me about yourself.

The first beneficiary of my 5 Free Tips is aspiring stand up comedian Alex Kummert, who sent me the following email:

I’m a 17 year old high school senior from Washington State. I’ve been doing Stand-Up Comedy for about 3 years now. My material is on a couple websites (Rooftop Comedy, Punchline Magazine) and I was lucky enough to win an online contest.

Despite this, I still think I could do more. I’m not sure what that entails, but I’m sure you would give me a better idea.

Here is some of my recorded material (please let me know what you think!)

More from Alex:

Neighborhood Block Party

High School Open Mic Night

I checked out Alex’s work and came up with the following 5 Free Tips for him:

TIP #1: Have A Goal

The first tip I would give you is that you should think about what your goal is and why you’re posting these videos online. Is it to get views and exposure for yourself? Is it to try to build a following and gain subscribers? Is it to try to get bookings on stand up shows? Is it just as a calling card for people who you want to show your act to?

Most likely your answer is a combination of all of the above, but I think it’s worth thinking about which of these things is your #1 goal because it will impact whatever strategy you take with the stuff you put online. I’m guessing that since you’re a relatively new stand up comedian, that your main goal is to try to start to get some attention for yourself and hopefully have a few people start to become fans of the funny stuff you create. I’ll assume that’s the case for these next tips.

TIP #2: Use Your Name

This is a common mistake that I see lots of stand up comedians make online – they seem to hide from their name. As a stand up, you want people to get to know your name so you should be using it as your account name on everything you do if possible.

Your YouTube channel shouldn’t be “AKummert,” it should be “AlexKummert.” And your Twitter account shouldn’t be @Kummert_442, it should be @AlexKummert. It’s a little thing, but that consistency can really help people find you, connect with you, and remember you. While you’re at it, you should go buy AlexKummert.com – even if you don’t use it, you’re going to want to own it at some point so that you can.

TIP #3: You’re 17. Use That.

All successful comedy is about voice and usually the more unique the voice, the better the comedy. In your case, what makes you stand out from a million other comedians is probably that you’re 17-years-old. I’m not suggesting that you turn yourself into some kind of gimmick, but you might want to think about ways you can play off your age online to attract an audience.

For example, I’m sure there’s a lot of other 17-year-olds who are interested in performing stand up even if they’re not actually doing it. They’d probably be interested in reading a blog or seeing videos with you talking about your experiences, more so than they would an older, more established comedian.

Your age, combined with a blog or video series about those experiences, also has the extra benefit of giving you an interesting story that could get you some attention elsewhere. No newspaper or local TV station cares about the fact that you’re doing stand up comedy, BUT… I bet a lot of media would be interested in a story about a 17-year-old stand up comedian who has a following of other kids that want to be stand up comedians. With a little clever positioning, you go from just another guy in the crowd to the “leader” of the crowd.

TIP #4: Turn A Stand Up Joke Into A Video Blog

This is another opportunity that I see lots of stand up comedians ignore. Just because you do a joke in your stand up act, that doesn’t mean that the joke can’t be done in other ways. Stand up works ok on YouTube, but a lot of times the same joke told in a different way – acted out as a sketch or just said as a video blog rant – can play much better. I’d suggest looking at some of the jokes in your act that work well and shooting some simple videos of you telling them as video blogs.

This also allows you to title the bits specifically and market them to an audience that’s predisposed to enjoy them. A full stand up set is much more difficult to get attention for because it’s about a lot of unrelated topics.

For example, you could tape yourself telling an extended version of your Mario Kart joke, post it as a standalone video titled something like “How Mario Kart Stopped Me From Getting A Driver’s License,” and then post the video on video game message boards or fan sites where people will be likely to get the references.

Here’s an example of a Mario Bros. video blog to get you in the mood:

TIP #5: Decide What One Action You Want People To Take

This ties into whatever your overall goal winds up being, but you should have one consistent action that you want people to take and promote that action across everything you do online. For example, if the #1 thing you want people to do is subscribe to your YouTube channel then that should be the URL featured on your Twitter page and not your Rooftop Comedy URL which is what’s there now.

If you have a blog or website that features all of your creations, then you should be asking people to go there from Twitter and YouTube and whatever else you create. If you want them to join an email list so you can give them a heads up about your activities, then ask them to on everything you do.

There’s no right or wrong one thing you want people to do, but I would recommend coming up with one main action that you want people to take and figuring out ways to encourage them to do so.

Hope this helps Alex, and if anybody else would like to get 5 Free Tips, please let me know.

4 Ways To Get Comedy Club Audiences To Remember Your Name

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The other day I had a conversation with a woman who said she goes to comedy clubs once or twice a year. She mentioned that she had been to the Comedy Store recently and that she had a great time.

But when I asked her who she saw, she replied, “I don’t know. It was a bunch of guys and I don’t remember any of their names.”

Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, that’s the reaction most comedy club audiences have after shows. They usually like the comedians they saw (at decent clubs at least), but have no idea who those comics were or any intention of planning to go see them again…even though they liked their act!

To me, this has always been a huge missed opportunity. Comedians (and comedy clubs for that matter) do a terrible job of implanting comedians’ names in the minds of crowds who enjoy their acts. That’s part of why it’s so difficult for most comedians to build a following.

Obviously, there’s no “rules” for making sure that the next person who likes your act will remember your name, but here’s a few ideas I have that might help.

Work Your Name Into Your Act

Although stand up comedy audiences  rarely remember comedians’ names, they usually remember some of their bits. When people leave a club and are talking about who they liked, you usually hear something like, “The guy that talked about dating lesbians,” or “The woman that told that airplane joke.”

This creates an opportunity if you can work your name into a bit that’s funny enough for them to remember.

A good example of this is comedian Michael Kosta, who repeatedly mentions his own name and hands out business cards with his name on them from the stage as a running gag throughout his act (see below video). It’s a simple little trick and I have no idea if it’s calculated move or not on his part, but I guarantee you that more people remember his name than the average comedian.

Give Crowds A Reason To Look You Up After The Show

I’ve never really seen any comedians do this, but I bet it would work. What if you created some kind of additional content tied to one of your jokes that people would want to look up online the day after your show? This would obviously be joke-specific, but here’s one hypothetical example.

Comedian J Chris Newberg* has a song called Drunk Girl which he performs in his act (see below). He also has a slideshow video he made for the song featuring pics of all kinds of wasted girls. So here’s an idea…

Why not buy a domain like DrunkGirlSong.com and have it redirect either to his YouTube page for the video or to his personal website? Then, after he performs the song on stage he could mention that they can see the video or download a free mp3 of the song at DrunkGirlSong.com. If they like the song, they’ll probably go check out the easy-to-remember domain and subscribe to his YouTube channel.

Email The Crowd The Next Day

If your crowd is having trouble remembering your name the day after a show, maybe you can remember theirs? If the club you’re performing at will allow it, why not put your own comment cards on the tables and ask people to give you their email, Twitter, or Facebook account info. Collect the cards after the show and then you’ll be able to reach out to them personally the day after the show, thank them for coming out, and introduce them to the rest of your comedic exploits. It takes a little work, but I bet you they’ll remember your name after you send them a thanks for coming.

Let Your Audience Participate Via Twitter

I’m sure you’ve seen Jimmy Fallon and other late night TV hosts using Twitter hashtags to allow their audiences to participate in their shows. Well, you could probably do something similar on a smaller scale in your comedy club act. For example, come up with a funny idea for a hashtag and ask people in the crowd to take a moment and send a tweet with that hashtag.

What do you get out of it? Well, anybody that participates is somebody who was in the audience for your show and you can go back the next day and tweet a thanks to them. Now, they’ll connect your name with your act.

These are just a couple random ideas of how you can better get your name out there. What else would you suggest?

*In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve worked with Newberg in the past and have helped him get more than 7 million video views online.