Crowd Work, Roasts, And Social Media |
I’ve been doing standup for over 30 years and am fortunate enough to make a living at it. Some months are better than others, but I remember the moment when I finally felt like I had “made it” so to speak. It wasn’t any appearance I had on TV or any string of high paying jobs, but when I was asked a simple question by someone in NY at a Friday night gathering after a dinner. I had just quit my day job as a 2nd grade teaching assistant and this guy simply asked what I did for a living. When I told him I was a comic he followed up with, “That’s all you do? No other job?” I stopped for a second and took in what I was about to reply.“Yeah, that’s it. That’s all I do.” “Wow that’s great!” was his response. From that point on, the rest is gravy. I often have to remind myself of that when I’m frustrated career wise. I get to do what I want to do for a living and a lot of guys I know don’t. As tough as it is, I at least like my job.
All jobs can change over time and in standup its no different. With the emergence of streaming, Instagram, social media and many other modern ways technology has effected things, in the world of comedy, like any other profession, there are positives and negatives.
It’s much easier to reach an audience nowadays so comics that may have otherwise not had a chance to showcase themselves, don’t have to answer to a gatekeeper, whether that be a booker at a club, or some executive somewhere telling them when they are allowed on stage or time to perform. Make a video, put it up on Instagram, and if it takes off, it can provide you with a career. A good thing? For many yes, but as a whole is that good for comedy? There is always some balance and obviously newer comics who have been raised in the more modern world are simply conditioned to assume that without social media, you have no chance to advance. “Instacomics” as they are often called, didn’t slug it out over a period of years in tough clubs and can achieve a level of success without having to go through it. A good thing? Again, maybe, but often there is no substitute for experience. The problem is that often today, experience and the ability to crush an audience with great material can take a back seat to how many followers someone may have on Instagram. As someone who books a tour in Israel, or even in just talking about other comics and being asked about them for other shows, “How many followers do they have?” is often what comes up first. How about, “Are they funny?” I’d honestly be less insulted with that.
With social media now dominating many mediums especially in the comedy scene, it can certainly enhance the careers of many comics who already had a lot of experience before, and were great performers when it all showed up, but it also influences newer comics who are just starting out, or who have only been doing it for a short time.
While I obviously haven’t experienced the comedy scene in every city in the US, many I have seen have been influenced by two trends that have dominated the comedy world, and I’m not sure they have been positive. Roasts and crowd work. While shows like the celebrity roasts on Comedy Central, Roast Battles, Kill Tony, etc. have garnered a lot of attention, is that what you should be trying to emulate if you’re a comic, especially one starting out?
Many comics I know don’t have an abrasive bone in their body and have said they feel genuinely uncomfortable when it comes to roasts. This need to participate in roast battles because “everyone else is doing them” and that’s what’s popular, is a pressure they feel now which didn’t exist just a few years ago. It should also be noted that many of the best people you see doing roasts have acts with great jokes and don’t have to do them. People like Jeff Ross, who grew up in the Friars Club scene in NY and associated with comics like Alan King, Jerry Lewis and many other legends, can go on stage and kill without doing anything having to do with roasts. Why? He has jokes and an act. Nikki Glazer doesn’t need to say a single disparaging word about any celebrity, tour the world doing standup and knock it out of the park on any given night. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with both and seen them do it. I opened for Nikki in Tel Aviv and like any other other great comic, she went on stage, killed with great jokes and that was that. While the two biggest celebrities in that world can destroy an audience doing roasts, they have a foundation of the most important thing needed before doing any of that, actual material.
Crowd work is another trend that has taken off since social media came to dominate the scene, and is actually far more damaging to comics starting out than roasts. Whether you like roasts or not, you actually still have to write material. Crowd work requires no such discipline. I’ll be the first to admit it, writing jokes is hard, tedious, and often a very boring process. You learn by failing, adjusting, and hoping you can find stage time in what will often be some awful open mic. Do you need to practice talking to someone in the crowd? No.
When I was coming up, it was sort of a running joke in the back of the room. If a comic went on stage and started talking to the crowd, we would whisper to each other, “Out of material” and quietly laugh. Sometimes the comic on stage would even know it and play to us, fully aware of what he was doing. It was the equivalent of a comic finishing what he had prepared, still having time left and then going, “So…what else is going on?!” It was a signal they were out of material, or at least done with what they wanted to do that night.
If a guy was funny at the water cooler at work, you would often hear people say, “Jack is so funny! He should do standup!” Really? Being funny in a conversation is not the same as constructing material. Often when comics were regaled after shows with audience members saying they had a funny friend at work and maybe he or she should try standup, it was often met with a polite conversation (at least I tried when I’d hear it) that standup is a bit of a different discipline and more writing based, etc. “Yeah, I guess you’re right” is usually how those conversations ended. If a person is really serious about standup, he or she would make an effort and get up on stage, find an open mic, fail, keep trying, get better, start to get laughs and over time realize he or she was meant to do this more seriously.
Now you don’t need to do any of that. Jack at the water cooler can just walk on stage and start talking to someone in the front row and pull it off. Honestly, any comic, especially those with years of experience can handle crowd work and usually do a pretty good job. Some guys are obviously better than others, and honestly there is nothing wrong with engaging the audience, but why has it become such a phenomenon recently? It’s not like crowd work didn’t exist in years past. Roasts became popular decades ago when Dean Martin had them. So what’s changed? Why have both things exploded on social media? The answer may lie in social media itself.
We’ve become more distant as people and if we can see something personable, ironically even if it’s on social media, it’s appealing. Between Covid separating us from friends and family, and screens keeping people from even making eye contact when they are often standing right next to one another, images of people actually engaging with one another, even if it’s harsh like in a roast, is comforting. People aren’t talking face to face anymore, socializing like they should be, and generally not engaging in what was thousands of years of normal human behavior. So even as much as I may not like it as a comic, (and I don’t. I often find it hard to watch any crowd work online at all, even if it’s comics I like) at least it’s people engaging with one another so it’s a societal win.
Comics also will post crowd work because they don’t want to burn their acts online, and that’s completely understandable. I do find it sad though that very often a comic will get attention for everything but having a great joke. Any random video on Youtube may be titled, “Comic destroys heckler!” or “Comic owns drunk in crowd!” or whatever else may grab attention. I often think, wouldn’t it be better if the video got a millions of views because “Comic has great joke!” but alas, that often isn’t enough. Of course there are the viral clips with great material and that is always nice to see, I just wish there was more of it.
I might sound like the old guy waving his hand saying “get off my lawn” but every now and then, sometimes the old stuff is still a little better. Why are the Dean Martin Roasts still great today? They were all friends. They socialized with one another and it was a more personal experience even for the viewer. Why are comics like Ian Bagg, and Bob Zany for example so great at crowd work today? Because they have great material as their foundation.
I have a tremendous respect for guys like Anthony Jeselnik who simply refuses to do crowd work. He knows it’s a harder process. He has to fill the time with written material, and while very difficult, he takes pride in doing so. Again, there is nothing wrong with crowd work, but I just think it should always take a back seat to jokes. It used to because we engaged more with each other and didn’t need a comedian to do it for us.
There was a study done years ago about children who were bullied in playgrounds and it showed they would rather return to the company of the bully rather than be ignored. Human contact is that important. The old saying goes that the opposite of love is not hate, but apathy.
As an experiment I recently asked some people, “What’s the name of that band with the great guitar player? You know the one I mean?” They didn’t, because there is no answer. It doesn’t exist. How many bands are there now? If a kid is a great musician he’ll put his talents up online instead of finding some friends to play with. Less human contact, less great music. Social media stunting growth isn’t just related to comedy.
I’m hoping that things will change and slowly maybe they are. Comics are now poking fun at crowd work, and ironically you can of course see them doing it on social media, but at least it’s being acknowledged. So, here’s to the newer comic who is willing to slug it out in clubs in person, hang out with friends afterwards talking about comedy, and won’t jump onto a phone as soon as he or she is finished. Here’s to the comic who won’t engage in crowd work until he or she has enough time not to have to, and here’s to audience that comes to the shows and gives us that opportunity to interact with you. It means a lot. I’d write more, but I have to go upload a video on Instagram.