I am in the middle of a media blitz promoting my brand new stand up album “Too Big To Fail” which was released today at 12:01 am – how dramatic!  And by media blitz I mean a Facebook invite, an e-newsletter, and some tweets.  The biggest decision for me was to make it free to download for the month of April.  I did this for several reasons.  One, Louis CK charged $5 for his last special and I’ll be damned if he is going to get the “nice to his fans” credit over me.  The main reason is that I have sort of given up.  I am literally doing everything I can to build a brand, to get my name out, to share as much comedic content as I can and nothing seems to have broken through.

For example – my YouTube videos.  Most are really good, well-written and have a strong production value.  None has gone “viral.” My Tax Masters spoof is the closest at around 19,000 views, but other videos have just not blown up. I have no idea how to make that happen (www.YouTube.com/JLCauvin if you want some laughs).

My blog and podcast are small successes (the blog more so) and I am hoping an opportunity to share my comedy blogs with the Huffington Post will yield more traffic, etc. but I still don’t know the logistics of doing this or if the opportunity is still open (a few days before my website went down for 6 weeks I was asked to share my comedy writings with the Huffington Post – great timing by me to have my site down).

For the first time in five years it appears that I will have fewer bookings than the previous year.  For anyone not in the comedy business allow me to explain what that means: my career is now going backwards – at least as far as the traditional comedy trajectory is concerned.

So that brings us to the ironically titled “Too Big To Fail.” When I was organizing and writing my material for the CD I wanted one of the themes of the CD to be a snapshot of a struggling comedian before he either quits or makes it big.  So the idea of Too Big To Fail, even though it is not explicitly stated on the album, is that I am at the point where something has to hit to make me big or I am going to have to figure out how to live a life without comedy as my future (or at least the driving force of my future).  So I thought, what the hell? If I have nothing to lose, why not just make the CD free for everyone?  I have already gotten some great feedback so maybe it will work.  Work for what do you ask? I have no idea. I don’t know what my goals as a comedian in 2012 should even be.  The path to success that I want to exist seems to not exist anymore. So maybe some guy or gal will hear this CD and forward it to someone who will forward it to someone, etc.

But now that I have the blog back, the podcast humming along and the CD out I feel like I have given it my best shot.  So now it is time to look for a day job.  If you are so inclined to listen to a free comedy CD (and forward it along to friends and colleagues) here is the link:

https://jlcauvin.com/?page_id=3807

I have done all I can to put my material out there so I guess now I need your help in getting more ears listening to it.  I am writing to all 8 of you that read this.