On Underselling & Overdelivering
The Gratitude List #28
On Sunday morning, I made the following post on Threads:
I watched as a handful of likes and replies rolled in from comic friends, then did a little engagement to stoke the coals of the algorithm and went on with my day. Prepped for some upcoming shows. Did some chores. Saw a movie. Frustrated my wife while she very kindly helped me un-fuck my budget because she understands our new budgeting app better than I do. Big day.
Yesterday afternoon, I popped open Threads and discovered that the post had gained some traction.1 Some people agreed, but more than a handful thought I was wrong. The general tenor of the detractors:
Comedy is about attracting an audience, bozo, get with the program!
Um, excuse me, how many views does YOUR comedy have?
What about [INSERT FAMOUS COMIC HERE WHO ALSO HAS A LARGE SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWING]!?
I think this is a PERSONAL ATTACK on anyone who does well online, you should be ashamed to have this opinion!
I had a lot of fun going back and forth with the reply guys, but not nearly as much fun as I had on Saturday night, at a show with a combative audience, where I watched this exact thing happen.
The host introduced the comic in question – a local comic who I have heard of but never seen perform before – by saying “his reels and clips have millions of views online!” Mr. Millions Of Views took the stage, then proceeded to have one of the hardest bombs I’ve witnessed all year.
One thing I must clarify: the room was hostile. Before Mr. Millions Of Views even took the stage, the host was having a tough set, and, to pour salt in the wound, there were some nasty hecklers. One got kicked out near the beginning of Mr. Millions Of Views’ set, and he tried his best to deal with the other ones. But it was clear that he simply hadn’t been in the shit enough to know what to do here. His jokes weren’t landing, and neither was his crowd work. One of the hecklers asked if Mr. Millions Of Views was a racist, then doubled down and actually called him a racist when he ignored the question. Apparently I missed a moment where an audience member that he tried to roast said something that got the biggest laugh of the entire set.2 He left the stage, walking about 1/3 of the audience, then left the show shortly after.
Would I have handled this better? Probably. I’ve been at this almost 15 years, and have been a working professional for close to a decade. I learned, trial-by-fire style, how to handle myself in rooms like this. I’ve dealt with hostile, aggressive audiences all over the world. I’ve turned out hecklers to the point where their entire party applauded me while their idiot friend sulked at the table. Part of really coming into your own as a standup means, as the Comedy Store legend Argus Hamilton puts it, bombing until you’re bombproof. These days I feel pretty bombproof. That doesn’t mean I’ll never bomb again, though that’d be nice. It means I know how to stay in the pocket, not get rattled, and actually have fun when things are rough. But, really, that’s not the point I’m here to make.
I’m here because I feel compelled to say this: introducing yourself as someone who gets millions of views is a bad idea. Asking someone to introduce you that way is a worse idea. As savvy folks like David Zucker will gladly point out, views are a bad metric. I’ve seen plenty of comedy clips featuring great jokes or outstanding riffing with maybe a couple hundred views, and I’ve seen some utter dogshit with literal millions. Just because you’ve been witnessed doesn’t mean you’re worth witnessing.
Unless you’re in front of an audience of people who all are paying to see you specifically,3 your job is to get the crowd on your side. “Millions of views” is not an automatic vote of confidence. If you have anything close to a credit, use that instead. Roles in TV shows or movies, clubs you’re passed at, people you’ve opened for, the podcast you host. Keep it simple. Undersell, even. You do yourself and the crowd a favor by leaving room to overdeliver. I don’t even usually ask hosts to use Roast Battle as a credit because I don’t want audiences to automatically think I’m going to go full roast mode.
Quick story: when I was a door guy at Comedy Store, I helped run a show in the Belly Room that always had one big headliner and three or four other comics. Because we were at the Store, we wound up frequently getting big name drop-ins who we would re-book to do the show as the headliner another time. One of those comics was Ron White.
I was hosting when Ron dropped in, and I foolishly didn’t ask for his intro. Instead, I gave him something that was too gush-y and enthusiastic; a cringeworthy level of praise that he spent the first few minutes of his set roasting me for. I was so embarrassed at coming off that green, I couldn’t even stay in the room. I had gone full fanboy, even after hearing through the grapevine from various other seasoned pros that merely bringing a comic to the stage as “hilarious” was immediately putting them on the back foot, making the less forgiving parts of the audience go “oh yeah, buddy? Prove it.” I shook it off as a mistake best made once.
My co-producer booked him for a proper set a couple months later. I was hosting again. This time, I knew better. Before bringing him to the stage, I asked in the green room: “is there anything you’d like me to say?” He said no, I said sure thing. Then, when it came time for his set, I brought him to the stage like this: “Ladies and gentlemen, a man who needs no introduction. Ron White.” The crowd, all there to see him, went crazy. He smiled, shook my hand, and said “perfect.” Then he took the stage and fucking delivered.
Comedy is hard; there are things you can do to make it a little less hard. Starting your set on the right foot is one of them. Do yourself a favor, not a disservice.
THINGS I’M GLAD I SAW LAST WEEK
Here are five comedy videos that I think deserve millions of views.
BRENT WEINBACH’S IMPRESSION OF A MAN WHO DOES NOT USE PHRASES CORRECTLY
From his full special “Popular Culture” out now on YouTube.
ROAST BATTLE NEW YORK: IRINA CHELIDZE VS. JUSTIN CUPO
Full battle out now on the RBL NYC YouTube (featuring yours truly as a judge).
WILLIE SIMON’S KANYE JOKE
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Willie’s a beast on stage, go watch him wherever you can.
THIS PLACE IS HUGE: “KATTGPT”
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Pure, beautiful, layered silliness.
EHSAN AHMAD’S TRUMP ASSASSINATION JOKE
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Layers upon layers of great writing from my former door guy brother.
A BRIEF DISPATCH FROM RECOVERYLAND
It’s good to be back in LA and hitting my regular meetings again. If you’re in recovery, reading this, and would like any recommendations, feel free to reach out privately – happy to share my favorites.
WHAT ABOUT ME?
This week, you can find me:
doing shows in Los Angeles - full show calendar is here
getting ready to host WRONG! at the KAWmedy Festival in Murrietta on the 21st at 7:30 PM and at the Comedy Store on the 26th at 8 PM, get your tickets!
Until next time, friends. Thanks for reading, I’m glad you’re here.
I almost wrote “went micro-viral” here but it sounded so lame I relegated that turn of phrase to a footnote. Same goes for “did some numbers.” You know what else is a number? 7. 5. 0. You know, the amount of likes I normally get on my garbage Threads/Twitter posts!
I’m still kicking myself for leaving the room and missing this.
which is one of the hardest things to pull off in the entertainment industry