So, here's my response to the notion that I'm not a real comedian:
"If you are a couple weeks or even a few years into developing your brand of comedy and choosing not to establish an internet presence, it's not that you aren't a comedian: you're simply attaching yourself to a dying breed. It's 2011, I do things in a different way, mostly because I can't afford a time machine to bring me back to 1988. Besides, I look terrible in a blazer and blue jeans while lamenting about the taste of airline food."
I put that part in quotes and italicized, because I'm hoping that's the part that sticks. I hope it will be written on a post-it note, stuck to a dashboard to be read at stop lights as the driver rides to host an open mic gig. Maybe it's printed on an ink-jet printer, then taped to the monitor that sits in the bedroom that is still kept at Mom and Dad's house. If not, then let it stick to the fridge, in an apartment that's being paid for by Mom and Dad, to live a dream while the trust fund is spent. I can't afford to do things that way. My parent's, a postman and a barber, raised four boys with whatever was left over after paying the bills. My goals are dependent of my own time, money and my most valuable asset: the drive to succeed.
Comedy isn't dead, it's evolved and has a new distribution method.
Moved out of the dark clubs and onto the internet. It's a magical place where a comedian can prove to millions that they too, may be a not-ready-for-prime-time player; without ever hoping for or wanting Lorne Michael's to offer an audition. Our society lives on their computers, that's gigantic audience having access to a comedians performance. No real cover charge, a drink minimum or worse of all, the insistence from a promoter that they bring five of their friends to pay said cover. Instead, the internet has given comedians a place to let the audience find them. By creating higher produced content, it may entice an audience to catch a stand up comedy performance. Online content should be the catalyst for an audience to catch a comic in a dark club, not two-for-one drink specials or .25 cent wings.
Eight years ago, the music business was flipped on its ass, then its head, then back on it's ass with digital downloads, legal or through other means. In the advent of YouTube and sites like Funny or Die, Break, and College Humor the industry of comedy has forever been altered. The changed music and comedy industries have found themselves in a polygamist marriage to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The two industries are no longer dependent on the clubs, deals with cable television or having an album released by a major label. Nope. Comedians who are savvy enough can do this themselves, not unlike independent musicians have with their content.
Club owners, cable TV and record labels favor artists with an established audience vs. the artist that requires a costly A&R department to create one for them. Contemporaries like Jon Lajoie, Bo Burnham and duo, Rhett and Link made a name for themselves, by themselves, before being approached by a hollywood hand. There's a reason for much of this, but in the eyes of an agent, the performer already established a built-in audience.
With comedy, a portion of the act is finding a voice, but just as important is finding the audience who believes the performer's voice. Online content will help shape a comedian's voice while giving the audience the means to be find their new favorite comic. I learned the importance of establishing an audience long before I attempted my first 5 minute set of stand up Comedy. For six years, I was a front man for a punk band, playing guitar, singing and commanding an audiences attention.
While I toured in a beaten up Chevy Sport van with my band, I gained a mass amount of coveted "stage time", something shady promoters have convinced open-mic comedians of as a form of payment. Before digital downloads my band was distributing CD's to any chain that would take us on as vendor. I manage my brand of stand up and internet comedy with the very same DIY values while appreciating the art form, just as I did with music. I feel this ensures that the audience not only believes me on stage, but believes IN me when I'm not on stage.
My brand of comedy isn't "not real", it's simply distributed using the most convenient and current means. In doing so, it doesn't make it "fake", it means its been born into a different decade and I refuse to be a retro act.
--- Nick Lavallee
http://www.theotherdude.com
http://www.facebook.com/nicklavalleecomedy
A sincere thank you for all of the support you've given me through this first half of 2011. I'm going to be asking for your help on a major project in just a couple of weeks. Here's some links to what we've accomplished together, which gives a great sense of what's to come over the next six months:
January
"I'm a Chubby Version of Joshua Jackson" on Funny or Die
http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/55ue
March
"Paul's Laserdisc Collection" on YouTube
http://youtu.be/aw2J7yV0Sm0
April
"April Fool's Day with Mom" on Facebook
http://tinyurl.com/aprilfoolmom
May
"Hangin' Out, Song Request and Family Dinner" Stand Up Clip on YouTube
http://youtu.be/JFlVc3lx1AY
June
"Paul and Phil are Friends" Featuring MC LARS on Funny or Die
http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/5so6
"From Brian to Katy Perry" on YouTube
http://youtu.be/B4_ui-XDRco
MC LARS and I did a song called "Paul and Phil Are Friends" on his "Indie Rocket Science" mixtape which he's distributing on Warped Tour all summer long!
You can download it for free here. Also features MC CHRIS, KRS-ONE, Grieves, Sage Francis, MC Frontalot, Weerd Science and so many more!
I feel that I can do something similar with comedy what my friend, MC LARS, has accomplished in music with the new means of distribution. His music, like many other independent artists, has been an inspiration of what's possible in 2011.
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