Comedian Income

Comedy has been good to us. We still live in our car, mind you, but over the years we've been able to make some improvements. It's now a two story Chevy colonial, with a pool.

I'm always amused when I get a brand new, would be comic who wants to start making money immediately. It just doesn't work that way. A new comedian's pay is in the form of valuable stage time. No one gets paid until they can consistently make strangers laugh on any given night. Until that happens, what is the comedian's value to the venue? Nothing.

People come to see the headliner. So, unless you're willing to bring friends and family to the show, you probably won't get much stage time. There is a movement in certain comedy circles who are opposed to having to bring people to see their set. These are comedians, in my opinion, who fail to understand the business end of comedy.

There is a sense of entitlement out there, where comics think that because they hold a microphone, they're automatically entitled to stage time. They are spoiled here in Utah. I started in Hollywood, where comedians who had performed for years were still having a difficult time getting on stage. That's the way it goes there.

If you didn't bring people, you were lucky to get on stage at 1 in the morning, in front of half a dozen drunks, and you didn't dare complain. That was at the laugh factory, a major club. The idea is that the club owner/manager wants you to care about the business, not just performing.

There are also those who feel like they're being censored if the club won't allow cursing on stage. They are so selfish that they don't get the fact that a venue's bread and butter customer base doesn't like profanity or explicit sex jokes. I once had a customer tell me, after a show, "You know, I've never seen anyone walk out on a clean joke". That has always stuck with me.

If comics don't want to be limited in any way, there are rooms where they can say whatever they want to. They just won't go anywhere in the business. If they go to Hollywood, Chicago or New York and try that material for an audition, they will never get on the regular stage, because the bigger clubs are very particular about who influences their product.

To each his/her own. You get back what you put in. If you give the club what they need, and you're funny, you'll get stage time. If not, good luck performing in front of people who can do nothing for your career.

See you tomorrow.

My books: Amazon.com
Facebook: Jerry Mabbott
Twitter: @jmabbott
Blog: jmabbott.blogspot.com