Here’s this week’s semi-rambling look at things I’ve been thinking about, stuff comics should know about, and more food for thought for comedians. You can read previous versions of this column here.

You Can Learn A Lot From Jonah Peretti

Jonah Peretti is a really smart dude. Besides being comedian Chelsea Peretti’s brother, he’s been involved in some of the web’s biggest content success stories including the rise of Huffington Post and most recently with Buzzfeed. He recently gave a talk at something called the Changing Media Summit in which he breaks down what he sees happening on the web and how/why some things spread and others don’t.

It’s about a 30 minute talk, but well worth your time to watch it.

Comedians As Other Comedians – A New Trend?

For whatever reason it seems like lately I’ve seen a bunch of comedians doing stuff online featuring themselves parodying other comedians. For example, as a promotional stunt for the upcoming Marc Maron show on IFC, they put out a web series dubbed Maron In Space which features James Adomian’s excellent Marc Maron impression. Here’s a sample episode:

Maron also inspired another solid parody from the sketch group Family Sandwich, which you can see here.

And Maron’s not the only one inspiring other comedians to flex their parody muscles. New York comedian JL Cauvin recently scored himself a viral hit with this video in which he portrays Louis CK. Check it out below and read up on what’s happened for JL since he launched the video.

The Real Economics Of Kickstarter

I see more and more comics trying to use Kickstarter to raise money for their various projects and while it’s great that they’re trying to find creative ways to fund their stuff and I applaud the effort, I often wonder to what degree some of them understand the actual economics of how Kickstarter works. In case you don’t, here’s a quick crash course.

First, you’re pretty much only going to have a successful Kickstarter campaign if you’ve got an established fanbase or group of people to tap into in the first place. It’s really more of a tool to manage fundraising as opposed to a magical source of funding. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get people who don’t really know about you or care about what you’re doing to contribute to your project, but 99% of the time it’s not going to be total strangers backing what you do.

Aside from that, it’s also important to realize that there are significant fees attached to the money you raise through Kickstarter. The service takes a 5% fee on any money raised and then another 3%-5% goes to Amazon payments which processes the money. So basically, 10% of whatever you raise will go to fees.

Plus, most likely you’ll have to provide rewards for people that are contributing to your campaign and while you completely control that part of the equation and what you offer, in most cases those awards will have some hard costs associated with them as well.

So, I’m not saying that Kickstarter isn’t a great thing because it really can be an amazing tool – but if you’re considering giving it a try you should make sure you’ve taken into account that you might not actually get as much money as you think you’re going to raise through it at the end of the day. Just something to think about…

The 365 Comedians Project

Dan Dion, a photographer who’s made quite a name for himself taking portraits of thousands of comedians over the years, has launched a really cool project where he’s posting a portrait a day through his various social media platforms. You can follow along here, but here’s a few recent ones so you can get a sense of his work.

Please subscribe and rate this podcast on iTunes!

On the “no solutions” episode of the podcast, Josh Spector, Jordan Cooper, Chelcie Rice and Josh Homer welcome road veteran Dale Jones onto the show to discuss the state of the comedy club business from a comic’s perspective, how clubs can shift with the changing landscape to have more sustainability, why it all can be fruitless without data showing what’s working and what’s not, and if audiences simply don’t trust the “comedy club experience” anymore.

In addition, we talk about the broadening definition of a what a comedy show is, how clubs in middle America can embrace tactics being utilized in Los Angeles and New York by understanding, embracing and being active in their local communities and thinking of themselves more as content companies than performance venues.

Links from this episode:

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre

5 Signs A Comedy Club Is Struggling [Ward Anderson]

The Stand

Cringe Humor

Bar Rescue Episode 310 – Meat Sauna [Spike TV]

The Creek And The Cave

Laughing Skull Lounge

Chucklefck

The Laugh Factory YouTube Channel

Participate with the community in our Connected Comedy Facebook group or post your questions, suggestions or topics to cover in the future on our Facebook page. We always welcome your comments!

Every comedian I speak to wants to know how to get more followers on social media, but hardly any ever ask a more important question – who they should follow.

The answer to that question varies depending on who you are and what your goals are, but the underlying principle that who you follow is more important than who follows you is something I believe is universally true – especially if you’re a newer comedian.

Here’s a few reasons why…

You Can Control Who You Follow

You’re always better served to focus on the things you can control than the things you can’t when it comes to your career and this is a perfect example of that. No matter what you do, you’re never ultimately going to be able to control how many people choose to follow you or who those people are.

Sure, there are things you can do to get more followers, but it’s always going to be out of your control.

However, you can 100% control who you choose to follow and the benefit you get from those choices. So, what are some of those benefits? Well…

You Can Learn From Who You Follow

As I mentioned in a tweet the other day, Twitter is only as good as the people you follow on it. If you follow people with relevant expertise, opportunities, and knowledge to share then Twitter can be an incredibly powerful tool for you to learn from.

It really can become a valuable asset in your career development…if you’re following people and publications that have valuable information to offer.

Most people that think Twitter sucks or that it’s just people cracking dumb jokes and sharing photos of their food only think that because they’re following the wrong people. It’s not Twitter’s fault – it’s your own, because you get to choose who you follow. Choose right and Twitter can be a great asset.

You Can Develop Important Relationships

In addition to the ability to learn from people you follow on social media, it also provides you with an incredible opportunity to develop relationships and connections to people who can help your career in a variety of ways.

You might not be able to get a comedy club booker on the phone easily, but there’s a much better chance that you can interact with that booker (or the club) on social media and start to get on their radar that way. The same is true for other comics, journalists, fans, agents, managers, bloggers, and just about anybody else you think could potentially help you in your career down the road.

Now, I’m not suggesting you start spamming people with promotional tweets or bugging them about booking you via Twitter, but rather have genuine interactions with these people. Over time, you can start to develop a relationship with them and get on their radar.

This is another example of why who you follow is more important than who’s following you – because you’ll get more benefit from one solid relationship developed on Twitter than you will from getting 100 random people to follow you.

An Email Subscriber Is Better Than A Follower Anyway

Another reason your time is better spent finding great people to follow as opposed to chasing new followers is because at the end of the day you should be trying to get people to “follow” you by joining your email list instead of just following you on social media anyways.

While most comics obsess about follower counts, they completely ignore a major fact – most of your social media followers never see the stuff you post anyway. It’s fool’s gold.

Between Facebook’s algorithms and the flood of tweets that crowd most people’s Twitter feeds, very few of the followers you’re hoping to get will actually see your posts. By comparison, your email subscribers are MUCH more likely see the emails that you send them. That’s why I talk all the time about how to get people to join your email list.

That Leaves One More Big Question…

So, if I’ve convinced you that who you follow is more important than who follows you, that leads to an inevitable next question – who exactly should you follow?

I’ll answer that in a future post, but in the meantime I’d love to hear in the comments below who you have found very helpful to follow on social media?

Please subscribe and rate this podcast on iTunes!

On the “don’t be an asshole” episode of the podcast, Josh Spector, Jordan Cooper, and Chelcie Rice welcome Ryan Budds to the show to talk about his move to Los Angeles from Chicago, building relationships and being a jack of all trades in an industry town, why production assistant jobs shouldn’t be “underneath” you and the power of simply just asking people for things you would like to do.

In addition, we continue to discuss Josh Spector’s recent trend of “trolling” questions towards comedians, why lamenting that there’s not enough club work isn’t a solution, how comics have been ingrained to think of the crowd as someone else’s audience, and the difference in mindset between doing work-for-hire and pursuing a career.

Links from this episode:

CC Podcast Episode 18: When Do You Stop Paying Your Dues?

You Know What Comics Really Hate? The Audience. [Connected Comedy]

5 Ways To Build A Closer Connection To Your Fans [Connected Comedy]

Read This Before You Decide To Sell Your Comedy Album [Connected Comedy]

Comics Have Too Many One-Night Stands [Connected Comedy]

Participate with the community in our Connected Comedy Facebook group or post your questions, suggestions or topics to cover in the future on our Facebook page. We always welcome your comments!

Here’s this week’s semi-rambling look at things I’ve been thinking about, stuff comics should know about, and more food for thought for comedians.

How To Easily Create Your Own Tosh.O Style Show

I happened to check out this Laughspin video playlist the other day and it made me realize that it would actually be pretty simple for comedians to create their own Tosh.0 style series on YouTube where they would highlight and joke about various videos on YouTube, without really needing to have any major editing skills.

Basically, you could shoot wraparound segments where you introduce and joke about whatever clips you want to include and then combine them in a playlist along with the actual clips.

YouTube playlists are really easy to set up, are embeddable, and one video flows right into the next one so it would probably work pretty seamlessly.

The Laughspin playlist which you can see below is a decent example, although the only original content they include is just an intro as opposed to wraparounds between each video.

Would You Have The Guts To Do What Jay Hollingsworth Is Doing?

Seattle-based comedian Jay Hollingsworth recently launched JokeAWeek.com and I highly recommend you check it out.

Basically, Jay’s chronicling the process as he develops a new hour of material – sharing footage of himself trying out and developing a new bit each week through a series of videos. Besides being interesting, I have a hunch that many other comedians will find it really helpful to see how he works at his material and how it evolves.

Here’s Jay’s explanation of what he’s doing:

And here’s a look at Jay’s first Joke of the Week.

Ari Shaffir’s Tips For New Comedians

Speaking of comedians sharing their expertise, I recently came across a fantastic audio recording of comedian Ari Shaffir answering questions and giving advice to younger comedians at the Comedy Store.

I don’t know all the backstory on this, but I believe Ari just did it because it was the kind of thing he wished a veteran comic had done for him back in the day, but whatever the reason it’s a great source of info for comics who have questions about how the business actually works and want honest answers from somebody who’s living it.

You Should Pay Attention To What Lee Camp’s Doing

Lee Camp is a comedian out of New York who has been hustling his ass off the past couple years and building a strong following thanks in part to a video series he created called Moment of Clarity.

After doing about 220 episodes of the show, Lee has recently expanded to a much more elaborately produced show and recently launched a Kickstarter to fund more episodes at this level.

He’s already raised more than $14,000 from 300+ backers and is halfway to meeting his goal.

Here’s what he’s doing, why, and how he’s successfully pitching it to supporters. There’s a lot you can learn from what Lee’s done over the past couple years.

The Economics Of Producing Comedy Shows

Here’s a great piece in Chicago Grid that features several different producers of different kinds of comedy shows in Chicago revealing exactly how they make money (or in some cases, don’t make money) when it comes to putting on comedy shows.

The Comic Behind @DadBoner

Mike Burns is a comedian in Los Angeles who secretly started the popular @DadBoner Twitter account a couple years ago. Vice recently produced a short documentary about him, comedy, and the rise of that Twitter account and it’s a pretty interesting watch. Also, a great example of what can happen if you actually put some time into trying something…even if you initially do so anonymously.

More Stuff I’ve Been Thinking About

If you enjoyed this post, check out some of what else I’ve been thinking about in recent weeks.

One of the most common questions I get from comedians is some version of “How do I sell my comedy album?”

My answer is usually to reply with another question for you – are you sure that it’s in your best interest to sell your album as opposed to giving it away for free in exchange for an email address or some other form of connection to a potential fan?

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with trying to sell your album and make some money from it, the reason I ask this question is because there are several shifts in the comedy business in recent years that have made selling albums increasingly difficult and at the same time there’s a growing importance in building your email list and connection to fans.

In most cases, especially if you’re a comic who doesn’t have a large pre-existing fanbase, you’ll be better served in the long run by giving away the album for free than you will by selling it. Here’s a few things worth thinking about before you decide what’s the best path for you.

Your Album Is Competing Against The Greatest Standup Performances Of All Time – Which Are FREE

Thanks to YouTube and assorted file-sharing networks and streaming services, pretty much every comedy performance ever recorded (on audio or video) is now available to anybody who wants to listen to it with the click of a button…and for free. This means your album is competing for attention against everybody from George Carlin, to Chris Rock, to Louis CK. That’s a tough enough battle to win without even putting up the barrier of asking people to pay to hear what you have to say, let alone when you’re asking people to pay for the privilege of listening to you instead of some of the greatest comics to ever do it.

[Please note that I'm not defending piracy of other people's content, but rather just pointing out the reality that pretty much everything is out there and available for free if people want to find it.]

Your Album Is Competing Against Thousands Of Comedy Podcasts Which Are FREE

As if it’s not enough that just about every comedy album is available online for free, there’s also the issue of the comedy podcast boom which is providing another huge batch of competition for fans’ attention. If somebody has an hour free and wants to listen to a comic make them laugh, they can choose to buy your album or listen to pretty much any other comedian in the world’s podcast which is likely available for free (with few exceptions).

There’s A Generation Of Fans That Are Used To Getting Content For FREE

You can debate whether or not it’s a good thing, but the fact remains that an entire generation of media consumers has come of age in a world in which virtually all content they consume is available for free. Simply put, they haven’t been conditioned to pay for albums and therefore in order to get them to pay for yours you’re betting that you can overcome a much broader cultural norm that goes way beyond the quality of your material. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get people to buy your album, but it certainly makes for a more uphill battle.

If The Music Industry Has Failed At Selling Albums, Do You Really Think You Will Succeed?

There’s obviously a difference between the comedy and music industries, but just take a look at what’s happened to music over the past few years. Despite all the resources and power of the record labels, album sales have fallen off the cliff and are essentially a dead art form at this point. For the most part, musicians have given up on chasing album sales (because they’ve had to) and have started to realize they have to find other ways to make money such as through their live performances. That’s also why you see so many up and coming musicians giving away their music at this point in order to build a fanbase because they realize that’s more important than selling a couple albums.

It’s Cheaper Than Ever To Record An Album

On the positive side, technology has made it cheaper than ever to actually record an album which is great and provides another reason why it’s ok to release your album for free. Because you should be able to record and distribute an album for a lot less money than it used to take, it shouldn’t be as necessary to sell your album in order to recoup your initial investment.

You Don’t Have To Sell Your Album To Monetize Your Fans

Just because you decide to give away your album for free, that doesn’t mean that you can’t still make money from it. You can encourage fans to make a donation if they enjoyed the album, or you can offer some bonus tracks they can buy if they enjoyed the album, or you can hopefully eventually sell them tickets to come see you live (assuming you’ve captured their email or a connection to them in exchange for the free album).

Ultimately there’s nothing wrong with trying to sell your album, but obviously I personally believe that in most cases you’d be better served by giving it away. If you need a little more convincing, here’s a post I wrote last year about 5 Reasons Why You Should Give Away Your Comedy Album Instead Of Selling It that you might find interesting.

Here’s this week’s semi-rambling look at things I’ve been thinking about, stuff comics should know about, and more food for thought for comedians.

Comedians Have Too Many One-Night Stands

As much as I’d love to talk about the sordid details of comedians’ sex lives here, that’s not actually what I’m referencing in the headline above. Rather, lately I’ve been thinking about the idea that comics have too many one-night stands with the audiences that see them perform.

Way too many comics are having way too many one-night stands with their audience – they do their set, the crowd enjoys it (hopefully), and there’s never another interaction between them after that. It’s one and done…and it’s meaningless.

One-night stands might be great when it comes to getting laid, but from a career standpoint? Not so much.

Louis CK on Howard Stern

Louis CK paid another visit to Howard Stern last week and it’s another interview well worth listening to. He talks about a variety of stuff ranging from his comedy, to his career decisions, to the reasons he’s taking a break from his hit TV show when it’s at its peak.

You can watch/listen to the first part of the interview below, and click through to hear the rest at the end of the video.

Bert Kreischer’s Advice For Newer Comedians

Bert Kreischer recently had Chris Gore on an episode of his Bertcast podcast and about halfway through the interview (around the 30-minute mark) it turned into Bert offering some comedy career tips to Chris. Bert’s got a lot of great advice to share and I highly recommend checking it out below – especially if you’re a newer comedian trying to figure out how to get out on the road, how to develop an hour-long set, and other things you need to learn to take your act to the next level.

WeWantShows.com

I recently came across this site which is designed to help indie bands connect with each other to trade show opportunities. It looks like a pretty new site and not sure if they’d allow comedian participation or not, but it’s an interesting concept and the kind of thing that likely could help a lot of comedians if a comedy version of it existed.

Casting Directors On Twitter

If you’re interested in landing acting gigs and don’t yet have an agent to send you out on auditions, one of the things you might want to do is start trying to follow and connect with various casting directors and casting agencies on Twitter. I’m not suggesting you start spamming them looking for work, but it’s probably worth following some of them and trying to start developing a genuine relationship with them.

Toward that end, I recently came across this list of Twitter lists featuring casting directors/agencies that might be a good place to start finding some.

Most Comics Seem More Interested In Getting Booked Than Getting Better

I get all kinds of questions from Connected Comedy readers about a wide variety of topics, but one of the things I’ve realized recently that I think is interesting is that by far the most common question I get asked is some variation of “How do I get booked?”

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that question and it’s certainly an important part of the business, but I think it’s telling that way more comics ask me that than ask, “How do I get better?” or “How do I get more fans?”

The bottom line is most comedians are still focused on the issue of getting a booker – or some other industry gatekeeper – to give them permission to have a career as opposed to focusing their efforts on figuring out how to build one for themselves. It also reflects an assumption by many comics that they are good enough to deserve to get more bookings and/or that there’s some kind of “trick” to getting booked.

I mentioned this on Facebook and it’s spurring some interesting discussion which you can check out here.

Gonzo Fame

There’s a new site called Gonzo Fame that’s featuring interviews with comedians such as Doug Stanhope and Ralphie May sharing their thoughts about comedy. There’s not a lot up there yet, but it looks promising and might be worth checking out.

More Stuff I Was Thinking About

If you enjoyed this post, check out some of what else I’ve been thinking about in recent weeks.

Please subscribe and rate this podcast on iTunes!

On the “pay what you want” episode of the podcast, Josh Spector, Jordan Cooper, Chelcie Rice and Josh Homer discuss the backlash towards the recent Connected Comedy post posing a concept where the audience decides a comedian’s pay, whether or not this would be good for comics, question if a crowd can even judge good comedy in the first place, and if the negativity highlights how much comics actually hate club audiences.

In addition, we continue on the topic on a broader level and into the psyche of stand-up comics. Are we relying too heavily on the security of the live comedy infrastructure? What do we do when the club “circuit” goes away? Does the industry truly want us or really just want our audience?

Links from this episode:

The Most Annoying Thing Comics Do And More Stuff I’m Thinking About This Week [Connected Comedy]

Chirpify – The Social Commerce & Payments Platform

You Know What Comics Really Hate? The Audience. [Connected Comedy]

6 Lessons You Can Learn From The Success Of “Jackass” [Connected Comedy]

The New Movie Stars: How Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain and Ryan Gosling Are Redefining Stardom [The Wrap]

Comedy Living Room: It’s Comedy…in a Living Room [LA Weekly]

Participate with the community in our Connected Comedy Facebook group or post your questions, suggestions or topics to cover in the future on our Facebook page. We always welcome your comments!

Do you spend more time trying to attract new fans or improving your connection with existing ones?

If you’re like most comedians, you probably spend so much time chasing new fans that you may overlook the importance of stengthening the bond you have with your existing fans. That can be a big mistake because the more your existing fans care about you and feel invested in what you do, the easier it will actually be to attract new fans because you’ll have a base on which to grow and that can help spread the word about you.

One of the best ways to improve your connection to your fans is to have one-on-one interactions with them – the more they feel like they personally know you, the more they’ll care about you as opposed to just being another person who may be following you on social media but who may not think you even notice.

There are infinite ways you can improve your connection to your fans, but here’s a few specific things you might want to try that are easy ways to facilitate individual interactions, and in turn a closer relationship to your fans.

1. Message New Facebook Fans

When somebody “Likes” your Facebook page, it gives you an opportunity to have an easy one-on-one interaction with them. I’d recommend messaging them through Facebook (not posting on their walls, but privately messaging them) and just saying thanks. You can ask how they heard about you, encourage them to contact you at any time, or just generally introduce yourself and say thanks.

Don’t spam them with promotional stuff about your next show or newest video, but rather just show them you appreciate their interest in what you do. It’s an easy way to show that you care and it sets the table for a better relationship as you move forward. In the early days of my Connected Comedy Facebook page I did this all the time and it was really effective at helping build a true community of fans.

2. Greet New Email Subscribers With A Conversation Starter

Just like a new Facebook fan creates an opportunity for interaction, so too does a new email subscriber. Besides sending an email thanking people for joining your email list once they do, you can also incorporate something into that email that’s designed to get a response.

Again, this shouldn’t be a promotional plug but rather some kind of question or something that will give the subscriber a reason to reply to your email and engage in a conversation with you. For example, I recently added a line to my initial email to new subscribers that says, “What are you struggling with the most right now in your comedy career? Reply to this email to let me know and I’ll be happy to help.”

This gets a lot of responses and instantly gets me into a conversation with new subscribers – I learn about them and they learn about me, and we get a little stronger connection to each other.

3. Comment and Interact On Your Fans’ Creations

Your fans may not be comedians, but these days everybody is a creator. Your fans are all probably sharing comments, links, photos, and other stuff through their Facebook or Twitter accounts or other social media outlets. When was the last time you Liked, shared, or commented on those creations?

This is a really easy way to start developing a better relationship with fans because (just like you do with your stuff), they will love the attention and will appreciate that you care enough to engage with what they’re doing. The more your fans feel like their relationship is a two-way relationship instead of just a one-way relationship, the more they’ll support you.

4. Take Advantage Of People You Meet At Your Shows

One of the best opportunities to further connect with fans is when you get to meet them in person after a show. If somebody comes up to you after a show to say they liked you, the obvious thing to do is to thank them and have a nice chat with them. Some comics will also go  the extra step to get them to join their email list or some other form of connection. But that’s typically where it stops, which is a shame because there’s more opportunity there to be had.

You can look at those interactions as launchpads to start conversations that continue beyond when you say goodbye for the night. For example, you could have a particular piece of content or page on your website that you only send to people who come talk to you at shows that you promise to send them. Or, you could offer a free copy of your album only to people who talk to you at shows and give them the download link. Again, there’s infinite things you can try, but the idea is to think about how you can take that one moment and expand it into something bigger and ongoing.

5. Reward Fans Whenever You Can

No matter what you’re doing, you should always be looking for ways to give your fans a little special treatment. Maybe that means they can skip the line at your show, maybe it means they get to be mentioned in your videos, maybe that means they get early access to new content or merch, maybe it means you reference their name in a joke, maybe it means you buy them a drink or randomly send a fan a gift each week.

The point is that you want to find ways to showcase and reward the people that are your true fans versus the people who might be just casually interested in you. This will serve a couple purposes – it will make your true fans feel appreciated and more connected to you, and it will also make the more casual fans want to become bigger fans because they’ll want to get that special treatment as well.

It’s Your Turn…

I’d love to hear some of the things you’ve done to strengthen your connection to fans – please post them in the comments…

Here’s this week’s semi-rambling look at things I’ve been thinking about, stuff comics should know about, and more food for thought for comedians.

Comedian John Roy’s Entirely Free Comedy Class – On Tumblr

For the past several weeks comedian John Roy has been rolling out what he’s dubbed his “Entirely Free Comedy Class” on his blog. I highly recommend you check it out – he’s posted six lengthy posts worth of the class so far, and you can start with the first one here.

Here’s his explanation of why he’s doing it:

“Lots of people in every major city are charging money to take a standup comedy class. While I know comedians who have benefited from such classes, the majority consensus among fellow comedians are that these are of dubious value and, even if they help with some fundamentals or with building courage and comfort on stage, neither replace the time you will have to spend in open mics nor are worth the hundreds of dollars they normally cost.

The fact remains that there is no homework in standup comedy. You may practice your jokes at home until they are very polished, but you will not know how funny they are or the proper way to time your delivery of these jokes until they encounter a live audience and you see how people who expect to laugh react to them. So, I am now teaching a comedy class. On tumblr. For free.”

How To Get Sponsors For Your Podcast

Way back in December 2011, the Earwolf podcast network posted an episode in which they interviewed David Kahn, who at the time was helping monetize and attract advertisers to Kevin Smith’s Smodcast podcast network.

In the episode, Kahn talks about how he approaches advertisers, how he sees the podcast world evolving, and the general opportunities and challenges facing podcasters from a business perspective.

Even though it’s more than a year old, it’s still very relevant and worth a listen if you have any interest in monetizing your podcast – or for that matter, any content you create online.

Meet The New TV – It’s Like The Old TV, Only Totally Different

I don’t want to say I told you so, but remember that post I wrote a couple weeks ago about why every comedian should pay attention to the new Twitter TV ratings? Well, Wired recently published a much deeper dive on the subject and breaks down the rise of “social TV” (an admittedly obnoxious term) and explains why “The Nielsen Family Is Dead.”

It’s worth a read if you have any interest in TV or ever being featured on one. And if you’re a comedian, I’m sure you have that interest.

Media Hacks

Several years ago I saw Mitch Joel speak at the Montreal Comedy Festival and he gave a great talk that in some ways inspired what Connected Comedy would ultimately become. Mitch has an excellent marketing podcast called Six Pixels of Separation which I highly recommend, and a recent episode might be a good one for you to check out since it actually touched on comedy a little bit.

In his Media Hacks episode, Mitch is joined by several other leading marketing/social media experts for a great discussion including a bit of talk about Funny or Die, its initial struggles and recent success.

Video Podcast Network

Have you checked out the Video Podcast Network on YouTube yet? It features video versions (some animated, some not) of several popular comedy podcasts including the Adam Carolla show and the Earwolf network. It’s also an example of the development of something I wrote about way back in 2011 when I shared the 5 Reasons Your Podcast Should Include Video.

On a side note – yes, I know the irony that I wrote that piece and yet I don’t include video as part of our Connected Comedy podcast but stay tuned…that may be coming soon.

Would You Want To Read Comics’ Reviews Of Other Comics?

There’s a new online publication called The Talkhouse that features reviews of new music albums, written by other musicians. It’s a pretty interesting site that got me wondering how much of a disaster a site would be featuring comedians reviewing each other’s albums?

Get Your Marketing Nerd On With Marketing Experiments

My newest obsession (because I’m a marketing geek) is the Marketing Experiments blog, and in particular the series of videos the site produces where they review and reveal the results of various tests they run to determine things like what email subject lines work best, how best to get people to subscribe to things or purchase things, and assorted other geeky marketing conversion topics.

This is certainly not going to be for everybody, but that doesn’t mean it’s not helpful. For an example, check out this video in which they discuss the 5 easiest changes to make to your web pages to increase conversions:

“If You Get Offended By It, It’s Not For You”

I came across a Kickstarter recently that I thought many of you might want to support – it’s for a documentary called That’s Not Funny that will be “An exploration of controversial topics in comedy and an examination of recent incidents involving comedians who have crossed the line.”

You can watch the trailer below, or go here to donate to the Kickstarter to help make it happen.

Want More Stuff Like This?

If you’ve enjoyed this post, you might want to also check out The Most Annoying Thing Comics Do And More Stuff That Was On My Mind Last Week.

And Now, One More Question For You…

I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me and say they’d like to hear more success stories from comics who have tried different things in the marketing/business side of their career. So, if you’ve got anything you’ve done that you found successful and you’d like to share it with me and my readers, please shoot me an email and let me know. Thanks!