The State of Comedy

can you imagine if I actually titled something this?

Obviously, the world has a lot of extremely important and dire things happening. Issues much more serious than whatever demise has befallen the comedy community. And I admit that talking about comedy in a serious manner is one of the more embarrassing things a grown adult could ever do. Yet, here I am!

With this week’s news that the Just For Laughs comedy festival is cancelled (and out of money) a lot of folks took to social media to make jokes, reminisce and theorize about what the fuck is happening with stand-up. Because we keep being told stand-up has never been bigger but if that’s the case why are so many stand-ups, comedy business and endeavors failing?

For those that don’t know, JFL (as it was known) was the biggest comedy festival in the world. It had massive theater shows and galas featuring household names but one of its more important shows was the New Faces, which was a showcase of new talent. New Faces importance and power had ebbed and flowed over the last few years but it was traditionally a great way to get seen by representatives, networks, casting directors, etc.

For example, when I did New Faces in 2015 (remember 2015? what a time!) it helped me get managers, agents, a writing job and a late night set. All things that were VERY exciting to me at the time and important to what became the foundation of my lil career. And all things that in 9 years, seemingly, don’t matter anymore!

New Faces used to be a benchmark of climbing the comedian ladder, along with, late night sets, Comedy Central Half Hours, selling TV shows or getting cast on TV shows. But that system is now gone. There is no longer a traditional path to success. And like most things, that’s good and bad.

The upside is that gatekeepers have gotten a whole lot less powerful. So if you are outside of LA or any major comedy scene you can still make your mark via social media without needing the approval of the biz! This opens up the community to people without industry connections, money, etc. If you’ve built up a giant podcast, congrats! Get yourself on the road and get your money honey!

Some of the downsides are, what kind of feels like, chaos!? I guess gatekeepers manned the gates and now the gates are blown to pieces. If a young comedian came to ask me for advice (which they wouldn’t bc I have less followers than every famous french bulldog) I’d usually tell them: get onstage as much as you can, find your point of view, make friends and be easy to work with. And now I’d tell them: don’t listen to me, I’m an old bitch.

I’ve never seen so many people leaving LA or comedy, in general. People that are very talented and hardworking throwing their hands in the air and saying “I’d be happier not chasing whatever the fuck this is.” Because right now, we’re living in a clip based economy. Stand-up is consumed in bitesized pieces on Instagram and TikTok. The most surefire way to get booked at clubs is to have a large social media following. And I ask bookers all the time “what happens when the people aren’t funny?” and the sad truth is, it doesn’t matter. Fans come out to see someone that is famous to them and they do not care if they are good or bad. They just want to see them. Which is good for that individual comedian but doesn’t translate into repeat customers for the venue or into the fan becoming a broader comedy fan bc they didn’t see comedy. They saw a person they like, not do comedy.

And listen, I get this. I want to go see Countess Luann not bc I love cabaret but bc I know Countess Luann will sing off-key and I’ll have 5 martinis and scream “Jovani” with strangers. So we’re all guilty of indulging in this model at some point in our lives. But what comes after clips? Because something will come after clips. And what comes after podcasts? Because something will come after podcasts.

More people than ever are filming hour-long stand-up specials when we know our attention span is shorter than it’s ever been. I’ll turn on a dear friend’s special and get 12 minutes in and realize I’ve been scrolling my phone for 5 minutes. And I love comedy so much I leave my house at night to do it!

Also, the advice to put your clips online and just see what happens doesn’t take into account that “being online” is a very different experience for people. For some, being online is pure hell. I filmed a Don’t Tell set 4 months after giving birth, while I was still breastfeeding and the majority of the comments were about how bad I looked or what I did wrong during my pregnancy (weird bc I looked hot and am perfect!). And that’s nothing compared to what other women, minorities or non-binary folks go through.

I don’t know what the answer is to any of this. I guess I’d love to encourage people to see live comedy because it’s still better than any clip you’ll consume on your phone. This isn’t a solution-based space for me. I’m more of a complainer. But maybe there is no solution and I should build a fake comedy club in my garage and then film myself doing jokes to no one and then add laughs and upload that to tiktok (this is a real thing people have done). But I guess I’d rather not do that?

I hope I don’t sound like a bitter old hag because there have certainly been people who have gotten successful from social media who are very talented and deserve a Spanish-style 4-bedroom, 5-bathroom home in the Hollywood Hills. But most of those people were good at stand-up and then just happened to get good at social media.

But maybe I’ll just name this substack bitter old hag.