I was talking to Matt at Smarty Pants practice tonight and something he mentioned got me thinking about my blog and the stand up that I do. He talked about how, in a way, it can be nice to be a relatively unknown comedian. As an unknown, you can do the same material over and over again and people will still find it new.
It’s definitely an interesting concept. Though there are certain jokes that you want your favorite comedians to tell, for the most part you like hearing new material each time you go see them. If you saw the exact same show again and again, would you continue to put forth the effort to go see them?
To make things worse, most people don’t realize that headlining comedians do (for the most part) the exact same set every single night, at every club they go to, for an entire year (or more). Have you ever been to see the same comedian twice in one weekend? Minus some crowd interaction and sometimes the order of material, you’ll often get the same jokes with the same set ups and the same punchlines.
BUT, this is what works for stand up comedians. They have a new audience every night, why not use material that you know will work, that you have spent countless hours perfecting at local open mics?
And now we get to my dilemma. By posting the videos of the stand up I do, am I effectively limiting my audience that is eager to see me? Will I disappoint the people that come to my show if I do 100% of the set they saw on YouTube (or 90% or even 50%)?
Obviously many people realize that seeing comedy in person is 100 times better than on video, but does that make it worth it if the person could just wait a few hours (or however long it takes me) after the event to the see the video on the Internet?
If I think about this in terms of a business (which is what stand-up is, a sole-proprietorship where the product you are selling is you), then posting to YouTube and detailing my set out in my blog are potentially cannibalizing my own product.
And all of that sounds bad. But the trade off is that I can reach a much larger audience by posting my videos. They can see, with little risk involved, if they think I’m funny. That could encourage them to come out and see me live next time I perform, as they have already had a test-trial and realized they liked the product. Of course, will they still be satisfied if the next time they see me live, it’s the same material that I did on YouTube…Â and the cycle begins anew.
I guess I don’t really have an answer, I don’t know which is effectively better. Until I figure that out, I’ll keep on keeping on, posting comedy videos every now and then to share what I’ve been working on.
