The Underworld of Standup Comedy Pt. 1
This might be the closest thing to a Mafia
When you’re starting off as a new comic, performing at a big club is a dream.
Laugh Factory? The Comedy Store? I mean once I perform there, I’ve made it right?
How do you get to perform at these clubs? What happens once you perform there? How do you keep performing there?
If you didn’t already know, you’re in for a RIDE MY FRIEND.
In Today’s Email 👀 (Read Time: 4 mins)
The Underworld of Standup Comedy: Let me paint a picture
[Video] I created a new alarm clock app: I thought this would be hilarious, is it?
Comic of the week: Another brown dude absolutely killing it!
Part 1
Before I started doing comedy, anytime I was at The Comedy Store I’d be in awe of the comics who were performing. It didn’t matter if they were good, there was an aura about them.
It felt like I could be watching the next Dave Chapelle or Vir Das. I was at the most iconic comedy club in the world in the heart of Los Angeles watching comedians perform at prime time.
The host would bring the next comic out with an introduction like “You may have seen him on yada yada show on Netflix and he performs at Comedy Clubs all over the country” and boom you look at the person and start building their backstory.
Wow, they’re on Netflix AND they perform at the Comedy Store? This must be a big name in the making, he must know a lot of amazing comics and famous people, they’re probably on sets all day doing commercials maybe movies and comedy clubs all night. That’s gotta be the dream.
NOPE.
This is their story. They’re an actor and standup comic who didn’t get paid to this set, they’ve been on a single season Netflix show as a recurring character with a couple lines, they do auditions all the time but barely get anything. Their main job is as a cashier at Trader Joe’s and they make extra money editing videos on the side. They perform at the store once or twice a month if they’re lucky and it depends on how many tickets they can sell.
AND THE BEST PART??
Total cash earned from standup comedy over the past 5 years is -$17,890
That was minus 17 grand.
Why?
IT IS DIFFICULT getting stage time as a comic in LA. Think about it, every big comic you know lives in LA. Chapelle drops by every month, so does Bill Burr. Jim Jeffries, Russel Peters, Gabriel Iglesias, Kevin Hart live here. You get the point.
Comedy clubs know this. People are here to see the big names, the fact that you get to be on stage with them is a blessing and you’ll do it for free.
Not only that but the SHEER number of AMAZING comics in LA who have not yet made it is so large that clubs can cycle through these comics for months before repeating them.
They don’t need you, you need them.
They know you’ll do anything for stage time, you’ll even PAY…
It gets worse but I’ll leave that for part two.
Until then
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Comic of the Week: Sahib Cant Singh
You might remember him from his viral tiktok videos as the home depot guy. This is one of those comics that’s been on the scene for a long time and has had great success on social media but hasn’t blown up for standup comedy yet.
I’ve seen Sahib perform multiple times and spent some time with him as well. This dude absolutely CRUSHES! His joke writing, delivery, style is so different from any other brown comic I’ve seen. Definitely go down a rabbit hole of his videos cause they are hilarious.
That’s all for this week folks!
- talk soon killers!