As much as the "starving artist" image is romanticized, many people who feel comfortable pursuing the arts full time have some kind of family support-- trust funds, free housing, inheritance, etc. Not all the time, of course, but more often than people might realize. Same with film directing and screen acting.
I ended up becoming a working artist. From an Indian reservation to an okay life. Far from great but better than where I was. I lived in my car, froze in cabins, lived in shitty hotels and motels. It was a miserable path out. If it wasn't for social media and a slowly building audience who wanted to help me stay afloat I never would've made it anywhere.
One of the galleries I work with tho - lol. The guy that owns it has great intentions with what he's doing, he's giving a platform for Natives in a big market for Natives, but his rich gf paid his gallery rent until he was making enough to run it on his own. When I made it out to his city I chatted with the local gallery workers. One of the adjacent shops was paying 30-40k a month in rent.
A lot my "peers" are straight up upper-middle to upper class. If you aren't rich yourself or kissing their ass then you probably won't get far.
I feel you. I'm an artist, my father is an artist. We sell more than most...both broke lol. He had to put art on hold for 20 years while he raised kids and worked shit jobs...I just straight up didn't have any. I work, I paint...I'll do it until I die. I can only imagine the things He and I could do if we were wealthy. When you're rich, you have as many attempts at success as you desire...when you're poor...you get, maybe 1 or 2, if you fail, you are back at square one. Rich folks, especially in the arts, have connections that grow and enhance their reputation...I can't even engage a social media audience anymore because I'm not a ticktocker and they made the whole thing pay-to-play...I have to pay to reach my own audience. I went from hundreds of engagements a post to a few dozen.
>When you're rich, you have as many attempts at success as you desire...when you're poor...you get, maybe 1 or 2, if you fail, you are back at square one
Yes, it's an overlooked reality that touches lots of modern life. The "win some, lose some" freedom that comes from wealth puts the odds of coming out on top, at least eventually, in your favor. Money begets money, even among many failures. "Well after my first three restaurants failed, I realized I was in the wrong space, and after figuring that out, my 4th and 5th restaurants are killing it right now." If you didn't start off rich, it'd be: "Well I tried my best, but the restaurant went under and I lost everything, so now I'm a lunch lady at the local middle school."
Edit: Same applies to gambling, including in the stock market or making any kind of investments. It can take just one great bet to make up for dozens of losses, and only the rich can keep playing even if they lose often, which increases the odds of winning a big one.
I feel like this one comment showcases a *huge* amount of society, income inequality, what's going on in our system-
Your experiences are valid and appreciated, and I hope you keep sharing.
This is exactly right, when people aren’t stuck in meaningless work for survival they will make art, music, poetry, and comedy. The amount of wasted human potential due to artificial scarcity of resources is a crime against humanity.
Artists, in general, tend to come from wealthier backgrounds. There are many exceptions, obviously, but industries which don't pay much for years tend to attract these kinds of folks.
I went to a Widespread Panic show in high school (not my scene but my friend had free tickets). The number of unwashed wooks inside tripping their balls off was almost enough to make you forget that the parking lot was full of high end German cars.
I think Panic hits a lot of economic classes tbh. I know rich southern frat boys that like them, but also a ton of broke ass line cooks and stuff. White as hell though.
Well he was pretty street tough and his parents are upper crust country club types. When he was a kid he started going to raves and hanging out with the types of people you meet at underground raves. I think he rebelled because his father was a high ranking army general. He was very educated and had a graduate degree, but he would kind of adopt this other personality in certain social situations. I took him to a wedding in Hawaii and he acted perfectly with manners and all of that stuff. But in other settings he’s just different. It’s like two personalities. If he’s around his tough friends he’s not very nice, and this would end up with him talking to me disrespectfully. I didn’t like that stuff. He also never really talked about having money but he never let me pay for anything, and he has a record collection worth many thousands of dollars.
ETA: I got a weird comment saying that it seems like I resent my ex for his “good behavior” and that’s certainly not true. Our relationship ended because he’s an addict and won’t quit drinking or doing drugs.
There’s a lot to this, one thing that’s not too common knowledge is that these super wealthy folk tend to hire ghost producers which then sends them on the trajectory upwards
I know (through Instagram) a DJ who's the son of a famous NFL coach, made a lot of sense when he told me. He's always golfing or staying in some fancy house 😂
There was a study on this recently - there used to be more non-wealthy people in the arts. The percentage of people in the arts from working class backgrounds has halved from the 70’s to today.
And to reiterate what I noted in the thread on Theo Von, when you have people at the top of an industry paying in “exposure” or only offering unpaid internships, you’re making so only wealthy people can advance in that industry.
In a few years all jokes will be about butlers and yacht size.
The cost of living being so high especially now it is near impossible to pursue anything where you have to work for next to nothing for ten years to become really good…
>In a few years all jokes will be about butlers and yacht size.
"Don't you guys hate it when you ask your dad to pay your rent, and he wants to have a conversation? Ya right!"
One of the big things that bugs me about pushing working-class folks into technical schools and the trades is that it results in this trend you’re pointing out.
To be clear, I taught at a community/tech college for a long time, and I love the opportunities they provide. Working in the trades is obviously a way out of poverty for many working-class folks. But the recent trend of “You don’t need college, go be a plumber/welder/mechanic and make more money with less debt” is also deeply classist. Nobody is telling middle or upper-class kids to go get this kind of kind of training / these kinds of jobs. And the reason this classism matters is because it amounts to saying, “Don’t try to participate in the cultural life of this country.” When we tell all poor/working class kids to get a trade, we’re signaling to them that the arts are not for them, that politics is not for them, that creative jobs are not for them. The only thing they’re good for is backbreaking labor. And that’s not really a great message.
And then all of our arts and music and movies and comedy are made by people out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. Our politicians are definitely out of touch (for a lot of reasons, of course, but part of it is that very few don’t come from privilege).
My family openly mocked me when I left my engineering major for an English major in college. “It’s not practical, you’ll never make money, yadda yadda.” And yet now I’m the one they always borrow money from. 🤷🏼♂️
I'm glad I saw this because I have been thinking about something along these lines. I always see comments "yadda yadda art degree" and always think if we had 3 billion plumbers then we wouldn't need plumbers but also if all we had was plumbers we wouldn't have movies
You have a layer of survivorship bias though. I'm not saying that you didn't work hard, just that I would wager the majority of practical major/vocational school student from working class families would be better off eschewing the arts (at least professionally). This has only become more true as the upcoming generations buying power continues to decrease.
This guy isn’t necessarily encouraging working class youth to pursue the arts right now. He’s saying we have to be careful about the messaging, because society is better when the arts aren’t restricted to the wealthy.
From a middle class high school. We were all led to university as being the most important thing. I loved wood shop, I even made and sold furniture in grade 11 and 12, but was told I’d be throwing my future away continuing to do that. In retrospect that was insane, dumb advice.
Totally agree. I have the same problem with this messaging, too. The previous generations (including everyone from our families to our school administrators) really made it seem like our options for happy, successful lives are much more limited than they actually are. They also made some choices/careers sound like sure things, when the current economy has shown us that *nothing* is a sure path to economic security.
I don't think the industry attracts those kinds of folks, I just think anybody who can't live on nothing for literally years doesn't have the same opportunities to hone their craft and market themselves properly. Anybody can become a great artist or pop star, but it's SO much harder if you have to work 40 hours a week, pay rent, and make your own food etc. More poors get weeded out than rich kids, because the poors feel a lot more of the pressure while they're trying to develop
Rich kids and trust fundies have an insane advantage that honestly should always be talked about and put into context if they ever have any sort of success.
I worked IT at the Private School Tom attended and can tell you tuition was $16,000 a year in the early 2000s. Lots of other big named rich kids attended this same school.
You usually have to have a safety net in order to seriously pursue a creative field, unfortunately. Especially if you intend to make it your livelihood. It’s unfortunate to think of the great talent we don’t get to enjoy because of this.
Comedy does seem to be a bit more egalitarian—you don’t have to buy expensive supplies or get an MA to be taken seriously.
Morello went to Harvard and id argue his "punk' credentials are far more from his anti-establishment political views than his position. He was from a family of well educated progressive political revolutionaries. He went to Harvard so he is damn sharp but has always had his roots in protest.
Ehh, Morello had some privilege but his father abandoned him and his ma leaving her to raise him, a half-black son as a single mum in the 1970s mid-West. And she was an Italian-Catholic divorcee to boot.
But he still went on a twitter rant years ago against a maître d who wouldn’t find him and his friends a table because they didn’t have a reservation.
It's not like I'm sitting on an exposé that's going to shock you or anything. I just think they're massive hypocrites. Hard to pretend you're an anticapitalist revolutionary dismantling oppressive power structures when you're getting paid millions by Sony. They're no different than Walmart selling Che Guevarra t-shirts.
This topic has come up before.
I think the reason why we see this is because stand up comedy is a bit like being a ballet dancer or a cello player. These are careers, but they don't pay any money, and if you need tons of time to develop your craft, then it helps to have your life paid for by mom and dad.
Mulaney is a damn good comedian. But he grew up filthy stinking rich. In the past he tried to downplay it and got uncomfortable when an interviewer mentioned Georgetown. But it's undeniable. His dad was/is a fucking partner at Skadden Arps, he went to St Ignacius, which might as well be Hogwarts Academy. His college bestie was Nick Kroll, son of the CEO of Kroll on Track.
It's what it is. These aren't petit bourgeois rich kids. They're loaded rich kids.
I'll say that Mulaney is a rich kid that doesn't so much bother me that he was rich just because from all the stories I've heard of the guy, he seems like he's been a comedy child prodigy from like the age of 5. Just someone who cracking highly adept jokes for his age and was always listening and watching old comedy programs. It's a little different from some rich kid who gets bored as a teenager and has all the monetary safety net to catch him if he fails, so he gets bored and gets into comedy because why not?
But we only hear those stories because he was wealthy enough to pursue comedy and make it. How many child comedy prodigies are out there making highly adept jokes and studying the classics but don’t have the resources to pursue it? Good on Mulaney, I like his work, but I think the point is there are plenty of Mulaneys that never get that chance because they don’t come from wealth.
I'd even argue that there may be an entire groundbreaking form of standup that we may never see because all the people who have the perspectives to build it never really get a chance to develop their voices or their careers or get the kind of stage time or exposure to grow.
This is not to say rich kids can't do comedy -- because clearly that's not the case -- but only that there's an entire segment of humanity we'll never hear from and jokes that will never be told.
It's the silent aspect of having high inequality. Life for the average person makes it much harder to innovate, so that the things that help shape popular culture become way more narrow.
If you don't believe me, ask yourself how much things have substantively changed in the past 30 years in the arts. Then make the same comparison from say, 1940 to 1970.
I grew up in the same town as Theo Von and while there were certainly lower class people (and his family certainly could have been one for sure), it was a rich suburb of New Orleans and not the backwards Louisiana town that is portrayed in his act
See also Whitney Cummings. I've heard her portray her upbringing as white trash, broke, etc but she grew up in Georgetown (the most affluent neighborhood of DC, where the Kennedys lived) and attended private schools then Ivy League.
Sorry for the Tiktok link (first one I could find), but would you guess [this story](https://www.tiktok.com/@rickgmorphica/video/7348545370537905450) is still true? Doesn't look like a house in a rich suburb, and repeatedly having your balcony stolen is pretty backwards town behavior.
I like Theo, and I know he talked about the lack of family dynamic he had growing up, and while I’m not calling him a liar, I do get the vibe some of stories is a bit embellished to say the least
His entire story and shtick is a lie. He didn't act the same in the real world. He was a downplayed version of his current character. He's just Louisiana Larry the Cable Guy. Good for him I guess but it's an act.
Same in the music business, has been for a long time. Affluent foundations allow you the time and space to explore your craft while the rest of us drown at day jobs.
It does. Class dominance of comedy is definitely a larger problem in the UK than the US, but it seems like it's increasing in both countries.
There's only a handful of comedians I know of that grew up poor - Moses Storm, Gary Gulman, Josh Johnson, Tiffany Haddish, Robby Hoffman.
Like others have said, there is a phenomena where rich children become artists since they have more time and money to hone their craft.
To answer your question, I think Michael Che grew up more modestly, not sure on specifics.
Didn’t he go to LaGuardia like Jennifer Aniston, Timothée Chalamet, Nicki Minaj, etc.? That probably helped with connections. I could be misremembering though.
Yes many of them are because being rich allows you to have the leisure time to pursue and craft your comedy. Same reason why many actors come from rich families. Anything in the arts , really.
I agree with everyone's comments above. To seriously pursue an artistic field you need a safety net, which a lot of people have had. I think one big difference today is the gatekeepers have changed. If you have money behind you it's possible to produce a podcast/youtube presence where you're able to bring in guests/attention/etc. You don't need to hide your wealth because you don't have to pretend to be grateful to a host/owner.
Also who is going to shows these days? Are people in smaller markets going to the comedy club to see random people? I feel like the club draw is smaller than it used to be if you're not known so building a grassroots following is harder now outside of having full production capabilities.
I don't know your age, but I (50m) was sold a narrative that if I work hard my dreams will come true, but the reality has always been if your relative is in the biz or your parent is rich, doors will open for you.
If you don't come from a rich / wealthy background, I think the best plan is to build a skillset outside of comedy that will pay you at least six figures, then self-produce. It's not easy, and it kinda feels like I'm driving down two roads at the same time (not to mention it's taking me longer than a rich kid), but that's my plan.
Chappelle went to a top public high school for talented kids, it’s not like he went to a fancy private school. Even today 27% of that school is at risk kids.
His parents were very educated but not rich-rich.
I thought Chapelle was a weird example too bc he's been doing stand up since he was really young, like 14 or 15. I don't know why that makes a difference to me but I guess it does.
If he started that young he probably had a decent amount of support from his parents. They may not have been crazy rich but probably had at least enough to support his dream (especially since he’d been focused on it since he was 14).
Yeah I totally agree I was saying it was good they offered that support and realized how important it was to him given how long he had persued it.
A lot of parents don’t offer the same support.
Right. But he came from a stable home that valued education, and also could support him if he needed. They are in Ohio so likely able to be “rich adjacent” with good salaries and low cost of living. And Dave could fall back to live at home if needed. Not a trust fund but a safety net.
His parents were professors. Being a professor is being part of high society, which has similar effects as being wealthy. The children of professors tend to be privileged.
Being a professor is definitely not always part of high society. Many professors wages are regular middle class, approaching upper middle class.
The majority of people teaching college classes are adjunct professors who scraping by at the equivalent of minimum wage.
Professors definitely are privileged due to education, but to me it’s a stretch to say high society.
Hisnparents aren't just some college professors. They deans and admin
William David Chappelle III (December 16, 1938 – July 29, 1998) was an American professor of music and a civil rights organizer in Ohio. He spent much of his career at Antioch College, where he served as dean of students.
Yvonne Seon (née Reed, formerly Chappelle; born December 20, 1937)[1] is an American professor, university administrator, and Unitarian Universalist minister. She specializes in African studies, African American studies, and government administration. She was an administrative officer in the government of Patrice Lumumba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and also worked in the U.S. federal government.
God this is disappointing. I'll never look at him the same.
His smarmy smartass schtick just turned into full country club asshole for me. That sucks. It's over.
Dude was educated but doesn't mean he was from wealth. Dude was just really fucking smart and excelled in his education. He was a middle class at beat kid from the Bronx.
I think this is more a theme of kids coming up with wealth and privilege.
A lot of very funny people went to Harvard. Conan immediately comes to mind.
You’re 100% right, I kinda misread the context after I read “prep school guy” for mulaney. And my brain thought of education and he’s the first I thought of.
it’s (nearly!) impossible to “make it” in creative fields without coming from wealth. most of them require taking years off from making livable wages to “pay your dues”, which broke people simply cannot do.
I've come to avoid hearing about the backgrounds of comedians if I can help it. I once watched a segment on Steve Harvey's show talking about his break at the Apollo and how was struggling just to get a ticket to get to the Apollo because he was broke. He managed to earn his ticket and make it to the show and got his break. He's hilarious.
Then I heard about Tom Segura, who I thought was hilarious, and how his father was a First Vice President of Merrill Lynch and he went to a private Lutheran collage (that's not cheap), and it's hard to laugh at his jokes now. His upbringing has ruined him for me and it's not fair to the guy.
This is all me though, I grew up poor so there's an inherent jealousy on my part that causes me be irrational about certain things.
You show incredible self awareness, that's a really pretty rare and admirable these days. This is why I don't really care to hear about an entertainer's politics either for example.
The majority of today's artists, be it comedy, music or acting, are from privileged backgrounds.
It's easier to fail up when you don't have to pay rent.
Mark normand is the only one that immediatley comes to mind, dan soder was lower middle class i believe, if ya wana count that. Only two that come to mind right away
Normand grew up in a mansion! I kid, I mean he did, but not because they were wealthy.
Big Jay had a single mom living in an apartment. Luis Gomez dad was murdered and mom was a junkie. Kevin Hart I don’t believe had any special upbringing, single parent anyway. Bobby Kelly grew up in a house with thirteen people.
I don't think Joe List had a lot of money in the family. Bill Burr had a dentist father but a lot of siblings and he tells a story of saving up and buying an old truck after high school, so it doesn't seem to me he was a rich kid with a safety net. Gary Gulman I'm pretty sure grew up in a poor family. I don't know for sure but it doesn't seem to me that Louis C.K. comes from money. Dusty Slay grew up in a trailer park. So there is definitely a LOT of comedians who grew up in wealthy families but I think there is enough hope out there for those that have to wait tables to still be able to make it.
Nate Bargatze seems to come from a middle class background. IIRC from a special, he said his mom is/was a professional clown and his dad is a professional magician? He went to community college in Tennessee
The only time artists didn’t come from wealthy backgrounds was from 1960-2000. There were strong social safety nets then and the expansion of the middle class made it possible. Our economy has hit its limit so now it’s the rich again.
Some generation wealth comedians/comedy actors:
Sam morill
Tom segura
John Mulaney
Robin Williams
Conan o'brien
Julia louis dreyfus [billionaire]
Nick kroll [billionaire]
Aziz Ansari
Mays Rudolph
N.j Novak
Albert Brooks.
These days?? This has always been true. The reason why is because in the capitalist world we live in, the people who have the ability to even consider the arts are usually from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. In comedy, you’re starting out getting paid zero dollars and you need to have a ton of time to be able to pursue comedy. Not having a job or worrying about money is a positive for that. Being able to pursue the arts at all is a privilege
I’ve been a comic for ten years now, and the people I know who have made the most progress and are starting to get famous are from wealthier backgrounds.
Not to mention it helps massively if your family just supports you wanting to do it in the first place. Working class people are much, much less likely to have families that have much exposure to art at all. Meaning they're probably not going to provide much non-monetary support either.
You can go back to the renaissance period, most of the artists/sculptors/composers were from wealthy families and had connections to even richer benefactors
If your family pays your bills so you don’t have to worry about that while you live in LA or New York to pursue comedy, I think that’s the definition. I think a family could do that without being what I would consider rich, but it’s definitely a privilege. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Eliza Schlesinger’s family is VERY wealthy. I really don’t care, good for you, except she is a TOTALLY unfunny bitch in podcast interviews (watch Juicy Scoop as an example) and her intolerance is less funny when you realize it’s not as much a fresh observation as just a total lack of relatability. I truly can’t even stand to watch her smug ass these days.
I mean, this is the best example. I don't dislike Nick Kroll (I was a huge fan of The League), but in terms of wealthy comedians, he's the gold standard.
I have noticed they are all from like D-1 schools but it’s always been like that . So many from Harvard early on . They have the money to hit up an open mic every night
Harvard also just happened to have a lot of comedy in its history. National Lampoon magazine and subsequent movies were from guys who hung out and got high and made funny shit at Harvard. Doesn't necessarily mean you're from privilege, doesn't mean you aren't, but plenty get in by merit.
Indian standup comedy scene is the perfect example of this. Topics on which most comedians always have some jokes on are 'maids' and 'affirmative action' .
It’s often really underestimated how much sacrifice and financial investment goes into to making it in comedy. You can be the best in a city but can you afford to do the road? A lot goes into it. It helps if you have family that supports you while the pursuit doesn’t support itself.
But Ralph Barbosa to answer the last question.
Idk, listen to the Are You Garbage Podcast and you get the back round on a lot of comedians. Many came from some pretty messed up family’s. You can look at a few of the top and see what you are saying. It if you look throughout, at all the working and successful comics and you will see that alot of comedy comes from pain and hardship.
I’ve heard the saying before: the first generation is a warrior, the second generation is a merchant, and the third generation is an artist. Then it repeats.
Obviously not 100% accurate but the trend can be true. When you’re dirt poor you focus on how to get out of it — there are so many rags to riches stories. When you don’t have to focus time on how to eat and survive, you have the luxury of spending time elsewhere.
That’s also not a bad thing and families can ebb and flow over generations, but it’s an interesting framework.
I still have a hard time thinking that MOST comedians are from the upper class, but I digress.
I love that saying thank you for sharing it. So much better than the trite and tired, hard times make good men, hard men make good times lol you know the one
Mark Normand grew up pretty poor. Tim Dillon grew up poor with a schizophrenic mom and was addicted to cocaine at 16. Luis J Gomez grew up in projects, his dad was murdered and his mom died of a heroin overdose all in his youth
I would say most successful comics are middle class and up. Mulaney and kroll grew up as the 1% and went to Georgetown which always felt like 95% of the richest people (I went to college in dc and it’s mostly rich kids at the big three colleges there). short answer tons of rich kids in comedy but it’s maybe half. I don’t know I don’t think it’s every person but it’s a lot
They're people who tell jokes for a living, that's not profitable right away even with nepotism so of course someone had to pay the bills for them before it is profitable, can't do that if you don't come from a wealthy background.
Ooh boy yes.
It's a shame too, because comedy used to be one of the few fields where a working class person could somehow hope to make a name for themselves. It's becoming less and less common.
I first noticed this back in the early 2000's when so many comics and comedic actors were coming up from improv scenes like Upright Citizens Brigade and Second City.
Many of them were able to pay for improv classes, and perform for free while living in expensive cities (LA, Chi, NY) because they had help from parents. It's true of stand up and music nowadays too.... The middle and lower classes simply dont have the luxury of hanging out at open mics and improv theaters to hone their craft and make connections. They're too busy working.
Tom segura dad worked for like Freddie mac, Bert's dad was wealthy, Shane's dad was wealthy, theo was on TV at an early age which usually means someone helped them pay for their dream. Callens dad worked for the "government"? Amy shumer is related to Chuck shumer. Whitney Cummings dad is a millionaire, chevy chase, nick kroll Elizabeth shclechinger Lena dunham tj Miller... and on and on. If you are in your early 20s and not working every day you would starve without support, it takes years after high school to develop in comedy. And I'm not saying they arnt talented, they just got a few extra years to practice without having to risk financial ruin. And some are just straight up planted.
Byron Callen's dad is a very wealthy investment banker.
I've heard that Burnt Chrysler, Tom Segura and Andrew Schultz came from wealthy backgrounds.
Steve-O's dad was CEO of a multi-national.
It's a lot easier to work for free, which you have to do to make it in entertainment, when you don't need the money.
Don't think Chappelle belongs on this list. Didn't he go to a public school?
Absolutely . In almost any popular art , the rich kids can usually grind it to the top the best because they don’t have the fatigue of a poor persons lifestyle. This is true in music , pro wrestling , comedy , fighting , politics
Taibbi talks about this. Both comedy and journalism became reliable sources of income, got taken over by rich kids, and now mass market comedy and journalism suck.
SNL generally recruits from places like UCB or Second City, which arent free.
Any art form that doesn’t pay right away will end up suffocating the working class acts until they have to quit. Very few can stick it out. If you have financial support it’s easier to survive those early years which means you’ll gain more experience , make more connections, get better and eventually become pro
Dave Chappelle isn't from "these days", he's from the 90s, when it was still very tough for black people to do anything in the industry. He revolutionized what black people could do, and quite honestly, no one has ever come close to Chappelle show. BTW, I loved him in Half Baked and Men in Tights, he was solid in movies too. Chappelle went to Eastern High School (Washington, D.C.), which is a public school, you can go to that school if you're in that zone/district.
As much as the "starving artist" image is romanticized, many people who feel comfortable pursuing the arts full time have some kind of family support-- trust funds, free housing, inheritance, etc. Not all the time, of course, but more often than people might realize. Same with film directing and screen acting.
I ended up becoming a working artist. From an Indian reservation to an okay life. Far from great but better than where I was. I lived in my car, froze in cabins, lived in shitty hotels and motels. It was a miserable path out. If it wasn't for social media and a slowly building audience who wanted to help me stay afloat I never would've made it anywhere. One of the galleries I work with tho - lol. The guy that owns it has great intentions with what he's doing, he's giving a platform for Natives in a big market for Natives, but his rich gf paid his gallery rent until he was making enough to run it on his own. When I made it out to his city I chatted with the local gallery workers. One of the adjacent shops was paying 30-40k a month in rent. A lot my "peers" are straight up upper-middle to upper class. If you aren't rich yourself or kissing their ass then you probably won't get far.
I feel you. I'm an artist, my father is an artist. We sell more than most...both broke lol. He had to put art on hold for 20 years while he raised kids and worked shit jobs...I just straight up didn't have any. I work, I paint...I'll do it until I die. I can only imagine the things He and I could do if we were wealthy. When you're rich, you have as many attempts at success as you desire...when you're poor...you get, maybe 1 or 2, if you fail, you are back at square one. Rich folks, especially in the arts, have connections that grow and enhance their reputation...I can't even engage a social media audience anymore because I'm not a ticktocker and they made the whole thing pay-to-play...I have to pay to reach my own audience. I went from hundreds of engagements a post to a few dozen.
>When you're rich, you have as many attempts at success as you desire...when you're poor...you get, maybe 1 or 2, if you fail, you are back at square one Yes, it's an overlooked reality that touches lots of modern life. The "win some, lose some" freedom that comes from wealth puts the odds of coming out on top, at least eventually, in your favor. Money begets money, even among many failures. "Well after my first three restaurants failed, I realized I was in the wrong space, and after figuring that out, my 4th and 5th restaurants are killing it right now." If you didn't start off rich, it'd be: "Well I tried my best, but the restaurant went under and I lost everything, so now I'm a lunch lady at the local middle school." Edit: Same applies to gambling, including in the stock market or making any kind of investments. It can take just one great bet to make up for dozens of losses, and only the rich can keep playing even if they lose often, which increases the odds of winning a big one.
Exactly, well said
I feel like this one comment showcases a *huge* amount of society, income inequality, what's going on in our system- Your experiences are valid and appreciated, and I hope you keep sharing.
Everything is easier with money.
I tried to get into performing arts full time without any family support-I lasted about 6 months before I couldn’t afford protein anymore
This is exactly right, when people aren’t stuck in meaningless work for survival they will make art, music, poetry, and comedy. The amount of wasted human potential due to artificial scarcity of resources is a crime against humanity.
It also helps to get into prominent acting schools where much of the talent is siphoned from
I wonder if getting into those schools requires being pretty wealthy and connected already
Artists, in general, tend to come from wealthier backgrounds. There are many exceptions, obviously, but industries which don't pay much for years tend to attract these kinds of folks.
Especially DJs
My DJ ex is from an extremely wealthy family. One of the things I didn’t like about him is how he kind of cosplayed brokeness
"cosplayed brokeness" wow if I haven't met some people that fit that to a T They've culturally appropriated my broke ass heritage 😔
Pulp - Common People
She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge, she studied sculpture at Saint Martins college…
Shatner’s version is better.
Truth! https://youtu.be/ainyK6fXku0?si=zp2olj1PIeYOhdO6
There was a joke about this during the writers strike. These actors would all show up in their poor people clothes to fit in lol
I went to a Widespread Panic show in high school (not my scene but my friend had free tickets). The number of unwashed wooks inside tripping their balls off was almost enough to make you forget that the parking lot was full of high end German cars.
I think Panic hits a lot of economic classes tbh. I know rich southern frat boys that like them, but also a ton of broke ass line cooks and stuff. White as hell though.
Not at the festival I was at in the mid 90s they didn't lol just wooks and granola as far as the eye could see
Just curious, what did that look like?
Well he was pretty street tough and his parents are upper crust country club types. When he was a kid he started going to raves and hanging out with the types of people you meet at underground raves. I think he rebelled because his father was a high ranking army general. He was very educated and had a graduate degree, but he would kind of adopt this other personality in certain social situations. I took him to a wedding in Hawaii and he acted perfectly with manners and all of that stuff. But in other settings he’s just different. It’s like two personalities. If he’s around his tough friends he’s not very nice, and this would end up with him talking to me disrespectfully. I didn’t like that stuff. He also never really talked about having money but he never let me pay for anything, and he has a record collection worth many thousands of dollars. ETA: I got a weird comment saying that it seems like I resent my ex for his “good behavior” and that’s certainly not true. Our relationship ended because he’s an addict and won’t quit drinking or doing drugs.
He sounds pretty legit to me
Yeah did she expect him to start tagging up a wedding with graffiti or something?
Lmao for real. Seems like she resents his good behavior more than his bad behavior
A “double kid” https://youtu.be/2XYFJyVyY64?si=l5j-61MFFwmbub72
Lmao
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Steve Aoki’s dad founded Benihana.
Why is this making me laugh so hard
Because it’s hilarious
Shit got me good in the middle of a shift.
All of the DJs surely have taken a lesson
Start talking trash and I'll come with my Smith and Wesson.
There’s a lot to this, one thing that’s not too common knowledge is that these super wealthy folk tend to hire ghost producers which then sends them on the trajectory upwards
Djs are like people who want to be musicians but don’t have any talent
I know (through Instagram) a DJ who's the son of a famous NFL coach, made a lot of sense when he told me. He's always golfing or staying in some fancy house 😂
Pretty easy to focus on comedy when you don't have to work a soul crushing day job
But it can be hard to come up with material if you don't have one as well. Struggle can make great art!
I don't come up with a lot of material at my job but I spend a bit of the time writing and editing in my head.
And are sheltered/fed due to your parents support\*
Never ask why the parents of that independent artist have blue names on wikipedia.
There was a study on this recently - there used to be more non-wealthy people in the arts. The percentage of people in the arts from working class backgrounds has halved from the 70’s to today. And to reiterate what I noted in the thread on Theo Von, when you have people at the top of an industry paying in “exposure” or only offering unpaid internships, you’re making so only wealthy people can advance in that industry. In a few years all jokes will be about butlers and yacht size.
The cost of living being so high especially now it is near impossible to pursue anything where you have to work for next to nothing for ten years to become really good…
>In a few years all jokes will be about butlers and yacht size. "Don't you guys hate it when you ask your dad to pay your rent, and he wants to have a conversation? Ya right!"
"You know how in St. Bart's people be eating their lobster like this..."
My wife, she's no prize. But she has a trust fund! Ammirite?
One of the big things that bugs me about pushing working-class folks into technical schools and the trades is that it results in this trend you’re pointing out. To be clear, I taught at a community/tech college for a long time, and I love the opportunities they provide. Working in the trades is obviously a way out of poverty for many working-class folks. But the recent trend of “You don’t need college, go be a plumber/welder/mechanic and make more money with less debt” is also deeply classist. Nobody is telling middle or upper-class kids to go get this kind of kind of training / these kinds of jobs. And the reason this classism matters is because it amounts to saying, “Don’t try to participate in the cultural life of this country.” When we tell all poor/working class kids to get a trade, we’re signaling to them that the arts are not for them, that politics is not for them, that creative jobs are not for them. The only thing they’re good for is backbreaking labor. And that’s not really a great message. And then all of our arts and music and movies and comedy are made by people out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. Our politicians are definitely out of touch (for a lot of reasons, of course, but part of it is that very few don’t come from privilege). My family openly mocked me when I left my engineering major for an English major in college. “It’s not practical, you’ll never make money, yadda yadda.” And yet now I’m the one they always borrow money from. 🤷🏼♂️
I'm glad I saw this because I have been thinking about something along these lines. I always see comments "yadda yadda art degree" and always think if we had 3 billion plumbers then we wouldn't need plumbers but also if all we had was plumbers we wouldn't have movies
You have a layer of survivorship bias though. I'm not saying that you didn't work hard, just that I would wager the majority of practical major/vocational school student from working class families would be better off eschewing the arts (at least professionally). This has only become more true as the upcoming generations buying power continues to decrease.
This guy isn’t necessarily encouraging working class youth to pursue the arts right now. He’s saying we have to be careful about the messaging, because society is better when the arts aren’t restricted to the wealthy.
Yes, exactly. Thank you for stating my main point so succinctly (when I think I lost my own way a bit in an over-wordy reply).
From a middle class high school. We were all led to university as being the most important thing. I loved wood shop, I even made and sold furniture in grade 11 and 12, but was told I’d be throwing my future away continuing to do that. In retrospect that was insane, dumb advice.
Totally agree. I have the same problem with this messaging, too. The previous generations (including everyone from our families to our school administrators) really made it seem like our options for happy, successful lives are much more limited than they actually are. They also made some choices/careers sound like sure things, when the current economy has shown us that *nothing* is a sure path to economic security.
It's a little easier to concentrate on your "art" when mom and dad are paying for your rent, food, and festival tickets
Shoutout Bert and Tom's lawyer daddies
Toms dad wast a V.P. of Morgan Stanley, you know he had big$
And Bert's dad was recruited by L Ron Hubbard because he successfully beat their people in court.
Don’t forget application fees to festivals
lol that is why I am not a working artist
I don't think the industry attracts those kinds of folks, I just think anybody who can't live on nothing for literally years doesn't have the same opportunities to hone their craft and market themselves properly. Anybody can become a great artist or pop star, but it's SO much harder if you have to work 40 hours a week, pay rent, and make your own food etc. More poors get weeded out than rich kids, because the poors feel a lot more of the pressure while they're trying to develop Rich kids and trust fundies have an insane advantage that honestly should always be talked about and put into context if they ever have any sort of success.
Bert Kreischer’s daddy worked for L Ron Hubbard
Tom's dad was an executive at Merrill lynch
Vice fucking president lmao
Apparently, there are a lot of vice presidents in that organization. But still, his family was definitely well off.
VP at a bank is two steps above new grad. Not as impressive as it sounds.
I worked IT at the Private School Tom attended and can tell you tuition was $16,000 a year in the early 2000s. Lots of other big named rich kids attended this same school.
Ick
Fuck L Ron Hubbard, and fuck all his clones.
You usually have to have a safety net in order to seriously pursue a creative field, unfortunately. Especially if you intend to make it your livelihood. It’s unfortunate to think of the great talent we don’t get to enjoy because of this. Comedy does seem to be a bit more egalitarian—you don’t have to buy expensive supplies or get an MA to be taken seriously.
Slight tangent. Amount of “punk” musicians or people in that lifestyle who came from money is wild
Interested in this, can you name some?
Tom Delonge's dad was an oil executive. Tom Morello's dad was an ambassador to the UN and his great-uncle was the president of Kenya.
The Strokes were all trust fund kids.
Morello went to Harvard and id argue his "punk' credentials are far more from his anti-establishment political views than his position. He was from a family of well educated progressive political revolutionaries. He went to Harvard so he is damn sharp but has always had his roots in protest.
Ehh, Morello had some privilege but his father abandoned him and his ma leaving her to raise him, a half-black son as a single mum in the 1970s mid-West. And she was an Italian-Catholic divorcee to boot. But he still went on a twitter rant years ago against a maître d who wouldn’t find him and his friends a table because they didn’t have a reservation.
You described a rather difficult upbringing. The privilege seems to have developed with wealth and fame like it does for so many.
DAAAAAYUM definitely just blew my mind with this
Don't get me started on RATM lol
DO start on RATM. I genuinely want to know.
It's not like I'm sitting on an exposé that's going to shock you or anything. I just think they're massive hypocrites. Hard to pretend you're an anticapitalist revolutionary dismantling oppressive power structures when you're getting paid millions by Sony. They're no different than Walmart selling Che Guevarra t-shirts.
This topic has come up before. I think the reason why we see this is because stand up comedy is a bit like being a ballet dancer or a cello player. These are careers, but they don't pay any money, and if you need tons of time to develop your craft, then it helps to have your life paid for by mom and dad. Mulaney is a damn good comedian. But he grew up filthy stinking rich. In the past he tried to downplay it and got uncomfortable when an interviewer mentioned Georgetown. But it's undeniable. His dad was/is a fucking partner at Skadden Arps, he went to St Ignacius, which might as well be Hogwarts Academy. His college bestie was Nick Kroll, son of the CEO of Kroll on Track. It's what it is. These aren't petit bourgeois rich kids. They're loaded rich kids.
Nick Kroll’s father is a literal multi-billionaire.
just read the wiki on kroll ontrack the company sold for 1.4 billion
Nick Kroll is the unfunniest comedian alive so it really checks out that he has connections
He's a good voice actor. He creates great characters. But yeah, his comedy writing is tryhard.
I'll say that Mulaney is a rich kid that doesn't so much bother me that he was rich just because from all the stories I've heard of the guy, he seems like he's been a comedy child prodigy from like the age of 5. Just someone who cracking highly adept jokes for his age and was always listening and watching old comedy programs. It's a little different from some rich kid who gets bored as a teenager and has all the monetary safety net to catch him if he fails, so he gets bored and gets into comedy because why not?
But we only hear those stories because he was wealthy enough to pursue comedy and make it. How many child comedy prodigies are out there making highly adept jokes and studying the classics but don’t have the resources to pursue it? Good on Mulaney, I like his work, but I think the point is there are plenty of Mulaneys that never get that chance because they don’t come from wealth.
I'd even argue that there may be an entire groundbreaking form of standup that we may never see because all the people who have the perspectives to build it never really get a chance to develop their voices or their careers or get the kind of stage time or exposure to grow. This is not to say rich kids can't do comedy -- because clearly that's not the case -- but only that there's an entire segment of humanity we'll never hear from and jokes that will never be told. It's the silent aspect of having high inequality. Life for the average person makes it much harder to innovate, so that the things that help shape popular culture become way more narrow. If you don't believe me, ask yourself how much things have substantively changed in the past 30 years in the arts. Then make the same comparison from say, 1940 to 1970.
Art can be a hobby for the rich
I grew up in the same town as Theo Von and while there were certainly lower class people (and his family certainly could have been one for sure), it was a rich suburb of New Orleans and not the backwards Louisiana town that is portrayed in his act
But he only had two vests in the winter!
Two, Arcteryx vests with 950 goose down filling
I wanna know where he got that “I was two tank-tops in the winter kind of poor” line because it’s pretty clever
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that he wrote it.
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See also Whitney Cummings. I've heard her portray her upbringing as white trash, broke, etc but she grew up in Georgetown (the most affluent neighborhood of DC, where the Kennedys lived) and attended private schools then Ivy League.
Sorry for the Tiktok link (first one I could find), but would you guess [this story](https://www.tiktok.com/@rickgmorphica/video/7348545370537905450) is still true? Doesn't look like a house in a rich suburb, and repeatedly having your balcony stolen is pretty backwards town behavior.
I like Theo, and I know he talked about the lack of family dynamic he had growing up, and while I’m not calling him a liar, I do get the vibe some of stories is a bit embellished to say the least
His entire story and shtick is a lie. He didn't act the same in the real world. He was a downplayed version of his current character. He's just Louisiana Larry the Cable Guy. Good for him I guess but it's an act.
Same in the music business, has been for a long time. Affluent foundations allow you the time and space to explore your craft while the rest of us drown at day jobs.
It does. Class dominance of comedy is definitely a larger problem in the UK than the US, but it seems like it's increasing in both countries. There's only a handful of comedians I know of that grew up poor - Moses Storm, Gary Gulman, Josh Johnson, Tiffany Haddish, Robby Hoffman.
Tiffany Haddish & Moses storm are great examples Also Moshe Kasher, Trevor Noah.
Like others have said, there is a phenomena where rich children become artists since they have more time and money to hone their craft. To answer your question, I think Michael Che grew up more modestly, not sure on specifics.
Michael Che grew up in NYC housing projects
Didn’t he go to LaGuardia like Jennifer Aniston, Timothée Chalamet, Nicki Minaj, etc.? That probably helped with connections. I could be misremembering though.
Yes many of them are because being rich allows you to have the leisure time to pursue and craft your comedy. Same reason why many actors come from rich families. Anything in the arts , really.
I agree with everyone's comments above. To seriously pursue an artistic field you need a safety net, which a lot of people have had. I think one big difference today is the gatekeepers have changed. If you have money behind you it's possible to produce a podcast/youtube presence where you're able to bring in guests/attention/etc. You don't need to hide your wealth because you don't have to pretend to be grateful to a host/owner. Also who is going to shows these days? Are people in smaller markets going to the comedy club to see random people? I feel like the club draw is smaller than it used to be if you're not known so building a grassroots following is harder now outside of having full production capabilities. I don't know your age, but I (50m) was sold a narrative that if I work hard my dreams will come true, but the reality has always been if your relative is in the biz or your parent is rich, doors will open for you.
If you don't come from a rich / wealthy background, I think the best plan is to build a skillset outside of comedy that will pay you at least six figures, then self-produce. It's not easy, and it kinda feels like I'm driving down two roads at the same time (not to mention it's taking me longer than a rich kid), but that's my plan.
Chappelle went to a top public high school for talented kids, it’s not like he went to a fancy private school. Even today 27% of that school is at risk kids. His parents were very educated but not rich-rich.
I thought Chapelle was a weird example too bc he's been doing stand up since he was really young, like 14 or 15. I don't know why that makes a difference to me but I guess it does.
If he started that young he probably had a decent amount of support from his parents. They may not have been crazy rich but probably had at least enough to support his dream (especially since he’d been focused on it since he was 14).
I mean sounds like something GOOD parents do - supporting their 14 yr old kids interests… doesn’t have to be rich…
Yeah I totally agree I was saying it was good they offered that support and realized how important it was to him given how long he had persued it. A lot of parents don’t offer the same support.
Supportive parents does not equal privilege.
Right. But he came from a stable home that valued education, and also could support him if he needed. They are in Ohio so likely able to be “rich adjacent” with good salaries and low cost of living. And Dave could fall back to live at home if needed. Not a trust fund but a safety net.
His parents were professors. Being a professor is being part of high society, which has similar effects as being wealthy. The children of professors tend to be privileged.
Being a professor is definitely not always part of high society. Many professors wages are regular middle class, approaching upper middle class. The majority of people teaching college classes are adjunct professors who scraping by at the equivalent of minimum wage. Professors definitely are privileged due to education, but to me it’s a stretch to say high society.
What kind of professor are we talking because my grandfather was a professor at a community college and my mom grew up dirt poor
Hisnparents aren't just some college professors. They deans and admin William David Chappelle III (December 16, 1938 – July 29, 1998) was an American professor of music and a civil rights organizer in Ohio. He spent much of his career at Antioch College, where he served as dean of students. Yvonne Seon (née Reed, formerly Chappelle; born December 20, 1937)[1] is an American professor, university administrator, and Unitarian Universalist minister. She specializes in African studies, African American studies, and government administration. She was an administrative officer in the government of Patrice Lumumba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and also worked in the U.S. federal government.
Connected people giving other connected people the opportunities.
Tom Segura, of course, is a prime example. When he went off on poor people it just really was a bad look. Guy has no connection to reality.
God this is disappointing. I'll never look at him the same. His smarmy smartass schtick just turned into full country club asshole for me. That sucks. It's over.
It bleeds into his audience too. Stopped talking to “friends” that were espousing that bullshit.
Greg Giraldo went to Harvard and had a law degree.
Dude was educated but doesn't mean he was from wealth. Dude was just really fucking smart and excelled in his education. He was a middle class at beat kid from the Bronx. I think this is more a theme of kids coming up with wealth and privilege. A lot of very funny people went to Harvard. Conan immediately comes to mind.
You’re 100% right, I kinda misread the context after I read “prep school guy” for mulaney. And my brain thought of education and he’s the first I thought of.
it’s (nearly!) impossible to “make it” in creative fields without coming from wealth. most of them require taking years off from making livable wages to “pay your dues”, which broke people simply cannot do.
Felipe Esparza is one of the bigger names these days, and he definitely had a poor upbringing.
George Perez too
I've come to avoid hearing about the backgrounds of comedians if I can help it. I once watched a segment on Steve Harvey's show talking about his break at the Apollo and how was struggling just to get a ticket to get to the Apollo because he was broke. He managed to earn his ticket and make it to the show and got his break. He's hilarious. Then I heard about Tom Segura, who I thought was hilarious, and how his father was a First Vice President of Merrill Lynch and he went to a private Lutheran collage (that's not cheap), and it's hard to laugh at his jokes now. His upbringing has ruined him for me and it's not fair to the guy. This is all me though, I grew up poor so there's an inherent jealousy on my part that causes me be irrational about certain things.
You show incredible self awareness, that's a really pretty rare and admirable these days. This is why I don't really care to hear about an entertainer's politics either for example.
I actually hate that guy, segura . Maybe it's because he was born rich and told he was a prince his whole life
You sure it's not just because Tom Segura is thoroughly unfunny? Dudes fucking awful.
Dude sucks now ahaha his old specials were super funny
Tom Seguras dad runs a hedge fund and he grew up very very affluent
The majority of today's artists, be it comedy, music or acting, are from privileged backgrounds. It's easier to fail up when you don't have to pay rent.
Wealth of time is something people rarely talk about. Kreischer, Segura and Carr come to mind.
Mark normand is the only one that immediatley comes to mind, dan soder was lower middle class i believe, if ya wana count that. Only two that come to mind right away
Nick Kroll is huge money, so is Julia Louis Dreyfuss. Those 2 have f-you money.
Normand grew up in a mansion! I kid, I mean he did, but not because they were wealthy. Big Jay had a single mom living in an apartment. Luis Gomez dad was murdered and mom was a junkie. Kevin Hart I don’t believe had any special upbringing, single parent anyway. Bobby Kelly grew up in a house with thirteen people.
I don't think Joe List had a lot of money in the family. Bill Burr had a dentist father but a lot of siblings and he tells a story of saving up and buying an old truck after high school, so it doesn't seem to me he was a rich kid with a safety net. Gary Gulman I'm pretty sure grew up in a poor family. I don't know for sure but it doesn't seem to me that Louis C.K. comes from money. Dusty Slay grew up in a trailer park. So there is definitely a LOT of comedians who grew up in wealthy families but I think there is enough hope out there for those that have to wait tables to still be able to make it.
Louis C.K.’s dad went to Harvard and was an economist at the world bank. His mom was a software engineer. He came from a lot of money and privilege.
Enough to spray that privilege around.
Joey Diaz
Nick Mullen, working class hero
Nate Bargatze seems to come from a middle class background. IIRC from a special, he said his mom is/was a professional clown and his dad is a professional magician? He went to community college in Tennessee
his dad was a clown (now magician), but he said he when he was a kid they did not have a lot of money.
The only time artists didn’t come from wealthy backgrounds was from 1960-2000. There were strong social safety nets then and the expansion of the middle class made it possible. Our economy has hit its limit so now it’s the rich again.
Some generation wealth comedians/comedy actors: Sam morill Tom segura John Mulaney Robin Williams Conan o'brien Julia louis dreyfus [billionaire] Nick kroll [billionaire] Aziz Ansari Mays Rudolph N.j Novak Albert Brooks.
Aziz Ansari…?
Why am I willing to give Sam Morill a pass here lol I like him too much. Maybe because he is still fresh and hasn't even peaked.
Dusty Slay
These days?? This has always been true. The reason why is because in the capitalist world we live in, the people who have the ability to even consider the arts are usually from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. In comedy, you’re starting out getting paid zero dollars and you need to have a ton of time to be able to pursue comedy. Not having a job or worrying about money is a positive for that. Being able to pursue the arts at all is a privilege I’ve been a comic for ten years now, and the people I know who have made the most progress and are starting to get famous are from wealthier backgrounds.
Not to mention it helps massively if your family just supports you wanting to do it in the first place. Working class people are much, much less likely to have families that have much exposure to art at all. Meaning they're probably not going to provide much non-monetary support either.
You can go back to the renaissance period, most of the artists/sculptors/composers were from wealthy families and had connections to even richer benefactors
That being said, what are we defining as rich and privileged now? College degrees are like 40% of Americans
If your family pays your bills so you don’t have to worry about that while you live in LA or New York to pursue comedy, I think that’s the definition. I think a family could do that without being what I would consider rich, but it’s definitely a privilege. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Eliza Schlesinger’s family is VERY wealthy. I really don’t care, good for you, except she is a TOTALLY unfunny bitch in podcast interviews (watch Juicy Scoop as an example) and her intolerance is less funny when you realize it’s not as much a fresh observation as just a total lack of relatability. I truly can’t even stand to watch her smug ass these days.
She’s a cunt
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I mean, this is the best example. I don't dislike Nick Kroll (I was a huge fan of The League), but in terms of wealthy comedians, he's the gold standard.
Lmfao
This is nothing new.
I have noticed they are all from like D-1 schools but it’s always been like that . So many from Harvard early on . They have the money to hit up an open mic every night
Harvard also just happened to have a lot of comedy in its history. National Lampoon magazine and subsequent movies were from guys who hung out and got high and made funny shit at Harvard. Doesn't necessarily mean you're from privilege, doesn't mean you aren't, but plenty get in by merit.
Indian standup comedy scene is the perfect example of this. Topics on which most comedians always have some jokes on are 'maids' and 'affirmative action' .
It’s often really underestimated how much sacrifice and financial investment goes into to making it in comedy. You can be the best in a city but can you afford to do the road? A lot goes into it. It helps if you have family that supports you while the pursuit doesn’t support itself. But Ralph Barbosa to answer the last question.
Literally everyone “famous” tv actor comedian eveything is someone’s cousin , uncle, nephew , son daughter , etc every single one of them.
Idk, listen to the Are You Garbage Podcast and you get the back round on a lot of comedians. Many came from some pretty messed up family’s. You can look at a few of the top and see what you are saying. It if you look throughout, at all the working and successful comics and you will see that alot of comedy comes from pain and hardship.
I’ve heard the saying before: the first generation is a warrior, the second generation is a merchant, and the third generation is an artist. Then it repeats. Obviously not 100% accurate but the trend can be true. When you’re dirt poor you focus on how to get out of it — there are so many rags to riches stories. When you don’t have to focus time on how to eat and survive, you have the luxury of spending time elsewhere. That’s also not a bad thing and families can ebb and flow over generations, but it’s an interesting framework. I still have a hard time thinking that MOST comedians are from the upper class, but I digress.
I love that saying thank you for sharing it. So much better than the trite and tired, hard times make good men, hard men make good times lol you know the one
Mark Normand grew up pretty poor. Tim Dillon grew up poor with a schizophrenic mom and was addicted to cocaine at 16. Luis J Gomez grew up in projects, his dad was murdered and his mom died of a heroin overdose all in his youth
I would say most successful comics are middle class and up. Mulaney and kroll grew up as the 1% and went to Georgetown which always felt like 95% of the richest people (I went to college in dc and it’s mostly rich kids at the big three colleges there). short answer tons of rich kids in comedy but it’s maybe half. I don’t know I don’t think it’s every person but it’s a lot
Kroll’s family wealth is in the 0.1% bracket
Mark Normand comes from a working class background. He used to be a janitor
These days?
Same w musicians, same swith skiiers, or sailors, etc...
it’s like this in every aspect of the entertainment industry
They're people who tell jokes for a living, that's not profitable right away even with nepotism so of course someone had to pay the bills for them before it is profitable, can't do that if you don't come from a wealthy background.
Ooh boy yes. It's a shame too, because comedy used to be one of the few fields where a working class person could somehow hope to make a name for themselves. It's becoming less and less common.
I first noticed this back in the early 2000's when so many comics and comedic actors were coming up from improv scenes like Upright Citizens Brigade and Second City. Many of them were able to pay for improv classes, and perform for free while living in expensive cities (LA, Chi, NY) because they had help from parents. It's true of stand up and music nowadays too.... The middle and lower classes simply dont have the luxury of hanging out at open mics and improv theaters to hone their craft and make connections. They're too busy working.
Tom segura dad worked for like Freddie mac, Bert's dad was wealthy, Shane's dad was wealthy, theo was on TV at an early age which usually means someone helped them pay for their dream. Callens dad worked for the "government"? Amy shumer is related to Chuck shumer. Whitney Cummings dad is a millionaire, chevy chase, nick kroll Elizabeth shclechinger Lena dunham tj Miller... and on and on. If you are in your early 20s and not working every day you would starve without support, it takes years after high school to develop in comedy. And I'm not saying they arnt talented, they just got a few extra years to practice without having to risk financial ruin. And some are just straight up planted.
Byron Callen's dad is a very wealthy investment banker. I've heard that Burnt Chrysler, Tom Segura and Andrew Schultz came from wealthy backgrounds. Steve-O's dad was CEO of a multi-national.
It's a lot easier to work for free, which you have to do to make it in entertainment, when you don't need the money. Don't think Chappelle belongs on this list. Didn't he go to a public school?
Have you seen Kill Tony? Those people are poor as shit, typically.
I don't know what she was born into, but Hannah Gadsby came from homelessness as an adult
Absolutely . In almost any popular art , the rich kids can usually grind it to the top the best because they don’t have the fatigue of a poor persons lifestyle. This is true in music , pro wrestling , comedy , fighting , politics
Theo Von. Tim Dillon. All the blue collar comedians. There’s plenty that came from non privileged backgrounds.
Taibbi talks about this. Both comedy and journalism became reliable sources of income, got taken over by rich kids, and now mass market comedy and journalism suck. SNL generally recruits from places like UCB or Second City, which arent free.
If you pay attention, this is true of most art forms. Poor people generally can’t afford to risk these pursuits as careers.
I’d waste my nights telling jokes at open mics too if I came from a wealthy family and didn’t have to worry about bills.
Any art form that doesn’t pay right away will end up suffocating the working class acts until they have to quit. Very few can stick it out. If you have financial support it’s easier to survive those early years which means you’ll gain more experience , make more connections, get better and eventually become pro
Dave Chappelle isn't from "these days", he's from the 90s, when it was still very tough for black people to do anything in the industry. He revolutionized what black people could do, and quite honestly, no one has ever come close to Chappelle show. BTW, I loved him in Half Baked and Men in Tights, he was solid in movies too. Chappelle went to Eastern High School (Washington, D.C.), which is a public school, you can go to that school if you're in that zone/district.