Warning for plug below my main comment :) Not trying to piggyback this post, but share my experiences doing something in the same area.
We've been doing something similar to support comics who lost some or all of their paying gigs; but using the alternate model of free-to-watch, donations-welcomed. We're also still working through the best format; some performers work great in a "vacuum" (and/or create new styles for the medium). Interaction through the chat is also fun, but as mentioned, not suited for real time.
We've also got some other ideas to increase the interaction being tinkered with. We've been able to really help some folks, whether through monetary means or just to give them a place to perform they wouldn't otherwise have. (Honestly, the most feedback we get from performers is how thankful they were to just get to perform again, a feeling of normalcy, such as we have these days.)
Second warning, plug below :) This is completely a labor of love, so feel free to drop by, or not. Even if you just watch clips and have suggestions, we'd appreciate it. All proceeds go directly to the performers, this not a business venture in anyway. Up/downvote away, no hard feelings!
I love stand-up and this is a great idea. One feature that I'd love is to have 1-2 embedded "highlight" clips on each performer's ticket page. Otherwise it's hard to know what kind of comedy they do.
I actually just attended a remote standup comedy show last Friday. Its tough for the comedian but it can work if:
1. The audience is encouraged to turn on video (so the comedian and others can see them) Unmuted if possible (but most wont its like giving everyone in the audience a live mic)
2. For those not willing, encourage them to use chat. Emoji, me-too, reactions
3. The comedian should keep bringing the audience in. Read off chat, talk about people with cameras on, etc
4. Dont just use your regular material, lean into the current situation, use the audience and tech.
Agreed. It's most fun when someone explores something that they couldn't normally pull off on stage. We've had spouses, pets, elaborate visual aids. I look forward to being surprised each time.
My brother's a professional comedian, and he's been doing shows from home now. That said, he's not performing his regular sets, both because they can be recorded, and because the interaction with the crowds is no longer the same. However, he's doing more streaming improv now, where the crowd can give input through chat. It's working pretty well for him, but also isn't bringing in much money yet.
I haven't been to a comedy club in 15 years but in my opinion a large part of the fun is actually being at the club. (And the over priced, 2 drink minimums)
I do applaud these performers trying to find a alternative in these trying times.
From what I've seen of comedians, they don't appreciate someone talking throughout their set. It is distracting, and it is also insulting to them. (They are paid to perform, and they want to perform.)
With that said, some handle it with grace, and some not.
"Talking throughout their set" is just rude, that's not even heckling, which I don't support/appreciate, but is considered "part of the experience" by some. "Crowd work" however is a very normal part of lots of stand up acts. I could imagine comedians wanting some way to do that in a digital setting and I suspect that's what is being referred to here.
If anyone haven't seen it done or don't know what I'm talking about Todd Barry has a whole special where it's all he does - appropriately titled "Crowd Work"! :-)
This is cool. I might try one, even at the $10 price point. Although, that's the price of one drink at a real comedy club, so it is kind of a bargain. I would love to see something like this on Oculus.
Let's be honest, this isn't even close to stand-up. If there isn't a live crowd, it's not stand-up. You need that feedback and the regular drilling to find your voice. Stand-up comedians find their "voice" by doing the same set, same jokes as often as they can get up on stage. If you're serious about this as a career, you're getting up on stage multiple times a day if you can figure out a way to do it. You're constantly working and re-working your set to a different crowd.
There's no way you're going to get high-end comedians on this platform, which means you're going to get people who are relatively new. Doug Stanhope (greatest comedian alive today IMHO) said that you don't want to be putting videos of your earliest crap performances on the web. You also don't want to be putting video of your best jokes on the internet because you get more exposure for people stealing them with little return.
Stand-up comedians have already had an alternative for getting up on stage for a long time. It's called podcasting, and many of the greatest comedians do podcasts.
No SHOW HN is complete without the comment with unconstructive criticism. You can feel officialy launched OP!
In my opinion the project is nice and good on you for launching it!
Oh, you beat me to it. I was interviewing a far too senior engineer at lunch in Union Square and asked him what the funniest HN thread of all time was. He immediately knew it was the Houston/Dropbox one.
Some dude in the thread was like "it would be a trivial task to stitch together storage from five Gmail accounts and outdo your so called product".
All this may be historically true. But entertainment has been evolving since the birth of the internet, and some entertainers will evolve with it. Yes, this is a poor substitute for conventional stage stand-up. But surely the core of a talented "funny person" can be adapted to this new format.
There's an interesting phenomenon with late night hosts doing their monologues from home. They're really bad at it (at least they were for the first couple of weeks). They're writing the same type of material they wrote in their televised audience shows; same type of language, same topics, same timing. It was really awkward. A common critique was, "My 16 year old daughter does better youtube than _______" (e.g., Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers). So maybe this is the dawn of of a new era, and the big TV stars will either adapt or fade away.
Love this comment and totally agree. If a service such as this takes off, it will look much different years from now. I'm just criticizing the early ugly attempts. You're right.
While it might be a poor substitute for a live audience, live audiences aren't happening right now in most places, so what's wrong with trying to figure out the best possible substitute? Isn't it still better than nothing? A podcast is a completely different format where performers get zero live feedback by design--with this there's at least an attempt to approximate it.
A substitute to stand-up comedy isn't stand-up comedy. Call it something else. Don't do the same thing and expect that it will work.
Post this service in the stand-up subs in Reddit and to see the responses from actual comedians. IMO the person who built this service doesn't "get" stand-up and therefore the idea won't work.
What might work? A real substitute which isn't stand-up. I don't know what that is or I might build it myself. But there's a lot of ways to create with a comic mind.
Also, show me a stand-up comedian who is doing this? If it were a thing, then the majors would already be doing it. Even major comedy specials on HBO are done in front of a large audience. And they aren't repeated. It's like a movie, they work on these shows for months and then it's a one shot deal.
Your feedback is valid and you may be right. In fact, you probably are right--most new things fail to get traction, and I don't dispute that live standup is going to be very tough to approximate virtually. But if you've ever tried to build a product for others before, you know that what users end up liking and using often seems inexplicable and is almost impossible to guess before you start putting iterations of an idea in front of them. There are probably some possible versions of this product that do work, even though most don't.
"Post this service in the stand-up subs in Reddit and to see the responses from actual comedians. IMO the person who built this service doesn't "get" stand-up and therefore the idea won't work."
Posting it on Reddit for feedback is a great idea. But the important thing isn't whether the people there love it or pan it, it's what can be learned from their feedback.
"What might work? A real substitute which isn't stand-up. I don't know what that is or I might build it myself. But there's a lot of ways to create with a comic mind."
Getting something imperfect out there for people to use and give feedback on is a much better way to find out what does or doesn't work than guessing at it in your head.
"Also, show me a stand-up comedian who is doing this? If it were a thing, then the majors would already be doing it."
Come on, you can make this argument against anything new. New platforms don't get famous people on them right away; they have to first get traction with early adopters. The way to tell whether this could be a thing is to look at growth among early adopters, not big names.
My argument boils down to "don't call it stand-up." And I think this basic argument still jives with your counters.
What's the title? "Live Stand-Up Comedy from Home"
What's the domain name? comedyfromhome.com
If years ago you were to call this "TikTok" and the idea is that people would do funny videos from home, I would be all for it.
Come up with a name and a marketing angle which isn't trying to tell me that this is stand-up comedy, but from home. Make it a bit more open-ended. Give me some room to work within your platform. Don't box me in by telling everyone this is "stand up comedy, but from home." IMO, the service would be crippling me. People don't understand how much effort is involved in coming up with even a 5 minute solid set. That's the launching point of a career.
If you're going to put the effort into writing a book, you're going to put in the effort to find the right publishing path. Anything else would be a major risk to the success of that effort.
This is not the platform you're looking for. </jedi mind trick>
Again, fair enough, but you are just one person with a strong opinion. Are you sure that your feelings about the word "standup" can be generalized to comedy fans as a whole? Maybe others will see it differently. It doesn't need to get 100% of live comedy fans to be a success.
> If there isn't a live crowd, it's not stand-up. You need that feedback and the regular drilling to find your voice.
From the FAQ:
> Can I turn on my video and microphone? Yes! You are encouraged to share your laughter (giggles, chuckles, and full-on uncontrollable laughter are all welcome). Please remember to minimize any background noise, don't heckle the performer, and no funny business.
> you don't want to be putting videos of your earliest crap performances on the web. You also don't want to be putting video of your best jokes on the internet because you get more exposure for people stealing them with little return.
> Stand-up comedians have already had an alternative for getting up on stage for a long time. It's called podcasting
I'm not seeing the crucial distinction between putting up video of yourself doing jokes, and putting up audio of yourself doing jokes. The value isn't coming from the visual part of the video.
There's an art to stand-up which is different from podcasting. Just like there's a difference between being a live vocalist and podcasting.
Look at Bill Burr's podcasts for example, they are far different from his stand-up. Part of a stand-up career is to travel the country and perform the same jokes to every crowd. They aren't exactly the same because you iterate on them every time. Once you have told the same joke X times, then it becomes robust like a method in a program which have gone multiple rewrites and bug fixes. That's a process of not only battle testing jokes, but of finding your voice (finding your voice is more for starting comics.)
You're not going to tell the same jokes repeatedly on a podcast. The medium doesn't suit stand-up. Podcast's are more like improv than stand-up. Stand-up comics are more like solo musical acts where you write your material once and then tour with that same material. That act wouldn't work so well otherwise.
Yes, radio plays the same popular music over and over. Yes, I'll listen to the same song over and over. Movies? Not so much. After watching a movie, rarely do I want to watch it again right away. Somewhat more commonly I'll watch it again after months or years. Most of the time, I don't ever feel the desire to watch that movie. Music can be enjoyed like a movie or it can be background noise. Comedy for me is more like a movie.
A podcast is a prerecorded album. These are common in standup. I have comedy tapes and comedy CDs; a podcast is not different in any way. If you ripped a CD and concatenated all the tracks, you'd have a "podcast".
I hate to be the complainer for the Show HN projects, but all I can see is white screen regardless of what browser I use. Why can't websites fail gracefully?
edit: It worked on browser with no extensions installed so I guess one of the extension in other browsers broke it. I like the idea since it seems timely. People do need real entertainment now and it might fit that niche nicely.
Goodstuff, thanks for sharing! Humor and laughter are very important elements to life. I do Love the choice of stock photography and the premise here, but unsure about the pricing I see there ($10?). probably some room for pricing model experimentation and innovation. Godspeed!
We've been doing something similar to support comics who lost some or all of their paying gigs; but using the alternate model of free-to-watch, donations-welcomed. We're also still working through the best format; some performers work great in a "vacuum" (and/or create new styles for the medium). Interaction through the chat is also fun, but as mentioned, not suited for real time.
We've also got some other ideas to increase the interaction being tinkered with. We've been able to really help some folks, whether through monetary means or just to give them a place to perform they wouldn't otherwise have. (Honestly, the most feedback we get from performers is how thankful they were to just get to perform again, a feeling of normalcy, such as we have these days.)
Second warning, plug below :) This is completely a labor of love, so feel free to drop by, or not. Even if you just watch clips and have suggestions, we'd appreciate it. All proceeds go directly to the performers, this not a business venture in anyway. Up/downvote away, no hard feelings!
https://twitch.tv/comedywham (or isolationcomedyshow.com will redirect there)