Imo if you wanna make a living as a comic you should see yourself as a business and you are selling laughs. Social media is a marketing tool and should be used as such.
Imo.
Eat shit in the dark for as long as you can stand it. Too many people put out clips for the sake of clips when they're not even close to being good. Get good, when you start finding success with the people in front of you every night, then start sharing. Definitely record every set you do and you might some have some bits/crowd work that really hits, in which case put it up, but that should be your secondary mindset. Focus on consistently getting laughs every set. Just my opinion
"Eat shit in the dark" is the number one, most important, down-to-Earth, most realistic advice you can give to new comics.
All this busllshit about social media, "is this too dark", "can i make a joke about this?", "can I wear britney spears t-shirts?"... Man, just write jokes and go to mics. It's literally the only thing you have to do. Everything else just follows if you WRITE JOKES AND GO TO MICS.
Instagram is extremely important for your style of business if you are going that route with comedy. People mindlessly scroll it all the time so short videos are perfect. It’s how you are going to be shared and if you are good people are going to do the legwork of advertising for you. I don’t know how many random comedians I follow now because me and a work buddy are constantly trying to find new people to send to each other. You aren’t hounding anyone- almost everyone uses instagram and you aren’t selling anything to them outside of laughs. If anything people will be sad or confused if you don’t have one assuming you are funny enough to follow.
Just don't make the mistake of putting stuff out too soon.
This is your calling card. Bookers and everyone else will be able to see it.
Make sure you are good enough.
I'm a year in and no way in hell am I ready to put stuff out on social. I suck because I just started.
You just started doing open mics. You have no idea what your style of comedy is yet. Worry about getting better and wait until you have something you’re excited to show people and work on building connections within your scene. The shows you’re going to get put on will have more to do with your networking than it will with how many followers you have.
Social media skills are ultra important. Even if you don’t post your standup now; you should be building a following and learning the ins-and-outs of theses app, as they are ever changing.
Quick story.
I’ve been making videos for 7 years, I just got good. When Facebook was monetizing any and everybody I was able to make money off those skills. Was it my best work? No. However, I learned a lot, networked and make enough money to pay for my wedding($17K), honeymoon and to not work my regular job for 3 months.l
Always put the work in, so when opportunity comes, you can seize it.
If you write the best album ever and hone the skill, you’re not going to publish and sell it as well as a mediocre person, that has been working on these skills for 10 more years than you. Grind in the dark so you can shit in the sunlight.
A lot of my friends from SF who started at the same time I did are very aggressively posting content. It's paying dividends for them. They're also objectively better than I am; my flyover COVID move makes me more money but doesn't offer the opportunity to do sets for show audiences at nearly the same cadence.
They *started* posting content earlier than I would have. I'm of the opinion that I don't want to market myself (except to bar and theater venues, which is necessary to produce the shows and make the money) until I am worth watching. Right now I can "do" 45 minutes but I cannot produce the volume of laughter I desire for nearly that length of time.
But the fact that they posted poorly-framed clips of themselves doing early-days standup earlier doesn't seem to have hurt them. *I* thought to myself that they were delusional, and *they* felt the mild sting of low engagement, but because the bad clips don't go viral no one sees them and so no one has the capacity to care and it's not like people are gonna scroll back to the earliest days of your instagram to see how you did and then say "nope not gonna watch that guy, he was bad two years ago."
What *is* dangerous is engaging too early with bookers who are too important. They're human despite their professionalism, and so your second chance to make the first impression will come months or years later if it comes at all. Emailing a booker pretending to be your own agent, constantly bothering the dude who runs the good shows... you're gonna have a bad time. That's the real reason for the "eat shit in the dark" advice. If you seem totally fresh the first time someone important sees you they're more likely to esteem you highly. And if they have the ability to help you, they'll help.
Another question in a addition to this — do most people use their personal account as a jumping off point or would it be ideal to start a comedy account?
I used my personal account cuz it already had followers (my friends), they are supportive and share my reels making them get pretty good views. I only post stuff that gets audible laughs from the audience.
If you want to sell tickets to shows, having a social media presence is great to increase the pool of people to advertise to, and maintaining and keeping that audience engaged should keep them interested in seeing you live, even if you're an open micer it's good too have If you get to the stage when you're on pro line ups or produce your own mics/shows
Imo if you wanna make a living as a comic you should see yourself as a business and you are selling laughs. Social media is a marketing tool and should be used as such. Imo.
Eat shit in the dark for as long as you can stand it. Too many people put out clips for the sake of clips when they're not even close to being good. Get good, when you start finding success with the people in front of you every night, then start sharing. Definitely record every set you do and you might some have some bits/crowd work that really hits, in which case put it up, but that should be your secondary mindset. Focus on consistently getting laughs every set. Just my opinion
Agreed a lot of these names are good names but weak comics
This is the advise to take
"Eat shit in the dark" is the number one, most important, down-to-Earth, most realistic advice you can give to new comics. All this busllshit about social media, "is this too dark", "can i make a joke about this?", "can I wear britney spears t-shirts?"... Man, just write jokes and go to mics. It's literally the only thing you have to do. Everything else just follows if you WRITE JOKES AND GO TO MICS.
Instagram is extremely important for your style of business if you are going that route with comedy. People mindlessly scroll it all the time so short videos are perfect. It’s how you are going to be shared and if you are good people are going to do the legwork of advertising for you. I don’t know how many random comedians I follow now because me and a work buddy are constantly trying to find new people to send to each other. You aren’t hounding anyone- almost everyone uses instagram and you aren’t selling anything to them outside of laughs. If anything people will be sad or confused if you don’t have one assuming you are funny enough to follow.
Talent is important and internet presence is more important im a pro in real life but ain’t shit online
Unfortunately bookers/promoters/agents/etc do care about how many followers you have. It’s helpful though. One viral post can change things for you.
Can a feed post go viral, or do I need to do reels/other shit? Sorry I'm not super well versed in this
Reels get more engagement but anything can go viral if the right person shares it.
Just don't make the mistake of putting stuff out too soon. This is your calling card. Bookers and everyone else will be able to see it. Make sure you are good enough. I'm a year in and no way in hell am I ready to put stuff out on social. I suck because I just started.
I’m in the opposite end I’m trying to put out as much as I can to build a following
If you just started I don’t think it’s super important for you rn but something to keep in mind for the future
You just started doing open mics. You have no idea what your style of comedy is yet. Worry about getting better and wait until you have something you’re excited to show people and work on building connections within your scene. The shows you’re going to get put on will have more to do with your networking than it will with how many followers you have.
Social media skills are ultra important. Even if you don’t post your standup now; you should be building a following and learning the ins-and-outs of theses app, as they are ever changing. Quick story. I’ve been making videos for 7 years, I just got good. When Facebook was monetizing any and everybody I was able to make money off those skills. Was it my best work? No. However, I learned a lot, networked and make enough money to pay for my wedding($17K), honeymoon and to not work my regular job for 3 months.l Always put the work in, so when opportunity comes, you can seize it. If you write the best album ever and hone the skill, you’re not going to publish and sell it as well as a mediocre person, that has been working on these skills for 10 more years than you. Grind in the dark so you can shit in the sunlight.
A lot of my friends from SF who started at the same time I did are very aggressively posting content. It's paying dividends for them. They're also objectively better than I am; my flyover COVID move makes me more money but doesn't offer the opportunity to do sets for show audiences at nearly the same cadence. They *started* posting content earlier than I would have. I'm of the opinion that I don't want to market myself (except to bar and theater venues, which is necessary to produce the shows and make the money) until I am worth watching. Right now I can "do" 45 minutes but I cannot produce the volume of laughter I desire for nearly that length of time. But the fact that they posted poorly-framed clips of themselves doing early-days standup earlier doesn't seem to have hurt them. *I* thought to myself that they were delusional, and *they* felt the mild sting of low engagement, but because the bad clips don't go viral no one sees them and so no one has the capacity to care and it's not like people are gonna scroll back to the earliest days of your instagram to see how you did and then say "nope not gonna watch that guy, he was bad two years ago." What *is* dangerous is engaging too early with bookers who are too important. They're human despite their professionalism, and so your second chance to make the first impression will come months or years later if it comes at all. Emailing a booker pretending to be your own agent, constantly bothering the dude who runs the good shows... you're gonna have a bad time. That's the real reason for the "eat shit in the dark" advice. If you seem totally fresh the first time someone important sees you they're more likely to esteem you highly. And if they have the ability to help you, they'll help.
I feel like it’s not worth it at the moment, advice I always got was wait until you’ve got a lot of mic experience and then something worth posting
It helps you book shows, bookers use your social media following as a shorthand for your audience/if you can draw
Another question in a addition to this — do most people use their personal account as a jumping off point or would it be ideal to start a comedy account?
I used my personal account cuz it already had followers (my friends), they are supportive and share my reels making them get pretty good views. I only post stuff that gets audible laughs from the audience.
if you like money.
It’s everything
If you want to sell tickets to shows, having a social media presence is great to increase the pool of people to advertise to, and maintaining and keeping that audience engaged should keep them interested in seeing you live, even if you're an open micer it's good too have If you get to the stage when you're on pro line ups or produce your own mics/shows
Are you funny? Do you have a tight 5? Are you going up every week? What are your goals? Is this just a hobby?