10 Ways to Make Your Comedy Career Sound Good…

One of the harsh realities of the comedy business is that it is tough to make a living.  As one comedy club booker on the road told me “it’s a buyer’s market” for comedy talent so unless you are a) a local or grandfathered-in favorite, b) have management extorting spots for you, by using their more prominent clients as leverage with clubs or c) are independently and/or unlimitedly wealthy or have a measure of fame, the road is no longer a really viable existence for a working comedian (look no further than the unregulated comedy club management business to see what a marketplace does to workers without any regulation or fair standards – workers get paid the same or less than 20 years ago).  As a NYC resident there are many clubs around and I can get a guest spot at almost all of them (guest spot generally means unpaid).  Guest spots are sort of like being a dumb slut of comedy – you have value and are respected for things you can do at night, but not enough for clubs to acknowledge your connection publicly.  So just being funny and working hard are not enough to make a living and focus full time on comedy without belonging to one of the aforementioned categories.  Of course producing things like podcasts and high quality videos, necessary ways of expanding your comedy portfolio to gain more notice, also take money.  Sometimes people say you need to spend money to make money.  My comedy saying is you need to have money to make money.  So that means it is time to dust off the real resume and update it.

The first problem when you have been doing comedy full time for 4 1/2 years (and over ten years overall – it is a nighttime business so the only things I was missing out on for the first 6 years was road work) is that you have a gap in your resume of real employment.  Now with my last full time source of income being a sizeable law firm in New York City the gap may look to subsequent employers like I was caught up in some sort of corporate fraud, or given my size, perhaps a violent incident.

“So, what have you been doing since 2009.”

“Getting my soul raped.”

“Oh, prison?”

“”No. comedy.”

Now I understand my situation may not be unique in the comedy world, though it may not be commonplace either.  So I have been working to figure out how to help comedians adjust their resume to make their full time comedy experiences appear more enticing to regular employers. So here are my ways of bolstering your resume comedians:

1) Run a weekly podcast for only a few listeners = “have successfully sound engineered audio programming for over a dozen clients”

2) E-mail bookers without responses = “routinely corresponded with and advised corporate leaders on ways they could improve their businesses”

3) Travelling on Greyhound and Southwest to gigs because the gigs pay little money = “spearheaded green energy initiatives to reduce greenhouse emissions in public transit”

4) Producing YouTube videos = “Coordinated with Google to produce on-line content”

5) Embarrassing or offensive tweets = “engaged in social media outreach on controversial and hot button media topics”

6) Guest spots at clubs = “engaged in volunteer work and community service with local businesses”

7) Sleeping with club waitresses = “organized and scheduled events for food service industries”

8 ) Selling hacky t-shirts after shows = “successfully created and sold artistic designs to market”

9) Running a bar show/Barking = “coordinated social events for numerous small businesses and engaged in community outreach for those events”

10) Out of money from comedy = “currently seeking new and challenging opportunities to utilize my skills A/K/A great around the water cooler”

For more opinions, comedy and bridge burning check out the Righteous Prick Podcast on Podomatic, iTunes and NOW on STICHER. New Every Tuesday!