EP 432: Lynn Harris of GOLD Comedy

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Welcome to Episode 432 of The Clean Comedy Podcast! This week JD talks to Lynn Harris of GOLD Comedy. Lynn is the Founder and CEO of GOLD Comedy. 

GOLD Comedy is the comedy school, professional network, and content studio where women + non-binary folks grow their comedy careers and creative side hustles, build powerful communities, and make funny stuff. Through our classes, celebrity speaker series, digital shorts teams, mics, shows, and more, our members build skills, rack up laurels, and nail their showbiz goals. 

Come see Zane and I in Wisconsin and Minnesota! You can see all the tour dates at ZaneLamprey.com

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-clean-comedy-podcast-w-jd-creviston--4825680/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, real quick. If you're a clean comedian or trying
to be one, you've got to get on my Clean
Comedian pro Tips newsletter. Every week I send out one
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and build your clean comedy career without selling out or
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and click the link Join up, sign up. It's free,
So stop guessing, start growing, go out there, be clean,

(00:21):
get some green. Hey, everybody, welcome to Clean Comedy Podcast.
It's Jad and I'm back. I'm off the road for
a little bit. I'll be back on the road on Friday.
I'll be in Denver or Colorado, all of Colorado, and
so just get excited to see me on the road.
If you want to see where I'm gonna be at,
go to Zane Lamprey dot com. That's who I'm touring with.
He's awesome, he's a lot of fun. He he's just

(00:44):
a great guy and very excited. But today my guest
is Miss Lynn Harris. She is from Gold Comedy. She's
gonna talk all about it. It's a very female based
comedy comedy and you guys know how much I love
supporting female comedians. It's like one of my big things.
Shout out to Sam be At Santa Barbara, who does
a lot of great stuff for female comedians. So I'm

(01:04):
all about this and I'm very excited to have her here. Lynn,
Thank you so much for joining us. Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Thanks thanks for having me. Really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Well, I'm glad you reached out. I have been kind
of I don't want to say lurking because that sounds creepy,
but I've been kind of like going to your site
before and just reading stuff and I know it's again
more female based, but there's so much information there that's
great for all comedians that I'm glad that I found
your your resource. So kind of give us your origin

(01:33):
story for comedy if you would, sure.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
And you know, by the way, what you're saying makes
a lot of sense in terms of why we exist.
Comedy is hard for everybody. Great comedy is hard for
the straightest whitest dude. Right, Comedy is hard for everybody.
We also know that it's still harder for people who

(01:57):
are the straightest, whitest dude, and that matters. That matters
because women are people. That matters because comedy is a job,
and it also matters because like we're missing an opportunity
to make comedy better. Right, the more voices in space
is the better. That doesn't mean less of one type,
It just means more of the others, right and so,

(02:21):
and that's why also I think when you go to
our so we exist to primarily support women and non
binary creators and what we also call other others in
succeeding in their comedy careers and their creative side hustles.
That's what we do. We're a comedy school, we're a
professional network or a content studio. We help you get

(02:41):
your stuff out there. Some of it's like out there
being distributed on ass channels and whatnot. Like it's really working.
People are getting their pilots made. It really works, but
like we don't. First of all, you know your gender
is what you tell me? It is like I don't,
I can't, I don't know who's like you want to

(03:01):
join great, come join us. If you want our vibe,
you're welcome, and if you want to be part of
creating our vibe, you are welcome. And basically what we
promise is not a particular like column or type of
gender we promise no bro vibe, and there are a
lot of people who are looking for no bro vibe
in comedy. And that's really what holds a lot of

(03:23):
people back. Either they kind of get tired of comedy
or they take themselves out of some comedy spaces. And
that's what we try. That's how we try to help succeed,
how people succeed. And the last thing I'll say is,
you know, a lot when I first started, a lot
of people ask me. And I also experimented with teaching
teenagers comedy. The same thing people would say, like, how

(03:43):
do you teach you? They're funny already, so like they
taught me, but plus I mostly don't understand what they're saying.
But anyway, people would ask me, but how do you
teach women comedy? And I would say, we teach comedy,
So like that's why we do our website. You know

(04:05):
you're not and you're not going to be like, you know,
sketch comedy for ladies, how to break into how to
get an NBC internship for ladies, Like it's the same,
right we're just trying to give, you know, just trying
to be more helpful to more people. For whom it's
the hartist.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, no, I like that. I think that that is
exactly how it should be. Is that giving more space,
giving more places for all kinds of voices is important
in comedy, and I love that you do that. The
thing that I really loved on your page was the
why comedy like thing that you wrote, and the big
one that you kept putting is comedy as power. And
I think that's such a great thing to put out

(04:44):
into the world, that comedy is power. It's so influential.
It changes people life. I've seen where I'm doing a
show and you could see that person in the front
row that has their arms crossed and it's just not vibing,
and then you make them laugh and you see that
that change, that that powerful change in them, and then
they come up after the show and say, thank you
so much. I needed that. I had this kind of

(05:06):
day or this thing happened to me, or you know,
I got dragged here or whatever. It is. Comedy is
so powerful. We forget that. I think sometimes we as
comedians go, oh, I'm the show, I'm putting on the show,
it's about me whatever. But really, comedy is about changing
the audience for the better, leaving them with an experience
that is powerful and strong and different and unique. So

(05:30):
it's good. So let's let's get your origin story. How
did you get started in comedy because I love that,
that's my favorite thing.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Well, I get started in comedy by, you know, the
boring version is, I got started in comedy by, you know,
deciding that I wanted to. I just I always knew
when I wanted to do stand up, and I took
a comedy class in Boston. Here I am. But before that,
I was like not the only funny one, you know

(06:00):
about the funny one in the high school musical, like
not that, not the angenou, but the wacky redhead, like
it was just always my lane, right and same in
college and where I was in an a cappella group.
I wasn't the best singer, but I wrote all the
sketches that we did in between, you know, that kind
of thing. So, but then before that, the thing that

(06:20):
kind of was just lit, the original pilot light was
that made me and also that really made me think,
even in my kind of numbskull fifteen year old way,
was I was at a and I was already like,
you know, the funny one in high school or not
then a funny one in high school because I went

(06:41):
to and I had a great time in high school,
but I went to a really preppy high school, you know,
small and preppy, and uh, you know, it was.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Easy to.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Feel like this was not actually true, but it was
easy to feel like all the girls were tall and
black and could just burst into lacrosse, you know, the
way that I would like burst into Gilbert and Sullivan. Right.
And so I wasn't like, I wasn't like not, I
wasn't like tormented. But I had to find a different lane.

(07:16):
And so my lane was my lane was not lacrosse.
I was a good ice stater being from Boston, but I,
you know, that was my lane. And so in high school. Uh,
And it didn't hurt that I went to an all
girls school because I could see when we did stuff

(07:37):
with our brothers school, which I called Bonehead Academy, I
could see that like girls would get quiet, like we'd
sort of turn into you know, we we sort of
unless we were like in this in doing theater, like
you know, we'd be like boisterous and loud and obnoxious
in school, right, And then we'd go to a dance

(07:58):
and we'd be like, Hi, Crockett, you know, and so
there was just something funny going on that I couldn't
put my finger on. Anyway, I'm giving you way too
much context. The point is tenth grade. I go to
like the event of the year, the Jewish youth group
event of the year, which was and I'm gonna shout

(08:19):
it out because I think it still is and I'm
sure it's still awesome Winter Wonderland in Manchester, New Hampshire,
at their Jewish youth group, and it was the event
of the year and we'd all go up skiing for
the day, we'd sleep over at their synagogue. It was
so fun. And so that year, when I was already

(08:39):
kind of building my brand as like funny, it was
like the nighttime and everyone was like, you know, whatever
was going on the entertainment, you know, in the evening,
and a bunch of dudes, one of whom may or
may not have been Adam Sandler show notes it was

(09:00):
it was Autam Sailar, But my lawyer is saying, just say,
may Or not like borrowed a bunch of girls' nightgowns
and got like, I don't know, like oranges or grapefruits
or canalopes or something, and you can imagine where those went.
And they performed kind of a sloppy, impromptu drag sketch

(09:23):
where they just basically got on stage and went redressed ladies,
you know, which was probably pretty funny at the time,
not as not as advanced or hilarious as drag is now,
but we'll give it to them. It was probably pretty
funny in nineteen eighty four. And while I watched it

(09:45):
was completely floppy. They hadn't done it, wasn't prepared. They
were just like nightgowns, grapefruits. We got this and I
remember thinking, as sort of one of the ringleader, goofballs, Okay,
what are the girls gonna do? Like, what's our retur alliation?
And just as soon after that, even as a fifteen

(10:05):
year old Numskull, I was like, do you know what
we can't Not that the girls aren't actually as funny,
and not that we couldn't have come up with something brilliant,
but I knew, even though the thought wasn't fully formed,
that it would have taken us a week and we
would have had to have a writer's room, you know,

(10:26):
and good lighting. You know, to come up with something
that would get an equally like celebrity response the way
that did. I don't mean celebrity because it was out
of saidlor. I just mean like people went walk. You know,
there's no way people would have been like, oh, what

(10:47):
are the girls doing? And it wasn't about our skill.
It's a way that it was about And I felt
this the way women are received and perceived as or
not right. And I remember being annoyed with myself for
not doing anything. I remember, even though I knew wouldn't

(11:08):
have worked. I remember just like grinding that act for
so long. It didn't really come up in high school
fer a day because it was like we did either
single text comedy things or partnered with our brother school
and I was always always got a funny role. It
didn't matter. But then but it stuck with me. And
then at right after college, I was like, where is

(11:31):
the next stand up class?

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Nice? And so then you went to do stand up?
And then how did you get into starting gold comedy?
How did you get to this point of building this
space because you know, it's it's a space that I mean,
there are great funny female comedians right like I was
talked to my daughter, because I have two daughters, so
that's why I'm think about it. But I talked to
my dogs about this, and we talked about Joan Rivers

(11:55):
last night, and we you know Roseanne when she was
one of the you know, the Heyday startup comedians Ellen
she got started. You know. Now there's Leanne Morgan and uh,
Liza and like just just so many like great comedians. Yeah,
there's so many where you're like, when people say women
are funny, I go have you? Are you missed? Do
you not?

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Have you?

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Just go on Netflix? I promise you they're there.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
I just don't even give that the time. That to
me is just like random three words of like refrigerator
poetry that you just stuck together. Right. It's like it's
like just saying like, you know, grapefruit chair tsunamis like
it doesn't like uh, it's it's not even like I

(12:39):
don't even care to argue for for just to be
kind of like the guy that everyone in that argues men,
you know, like do you know what I mean? And
it's just uninteresting to me. And you know, of course women,
every woman that has done any stand up will relate
to this. We always get the one like I been
big what they're.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
Funny, but you're terrific, you know, and you're like face
you know, but like it's but but I understand, so,
but I do understand where it comes from in the
sense that.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
The weirdly even though we think of comedy as like
the art of the underdog and we're all here to
like punch up and like poke holes in power and
be like like you know, and and like I'm just
I'm just working shut out. I'm like, you know, I'm
not outsider. But like it's but men still defined created

(13:39):
and they did a good job created the structure, the roles,
the styles, the and more lately the gatekeeping, you know.
And so if you have been raised to watch only
dudes be funny, and I don't think all dudes have
one kind of comedy and all women have another kind
of comedy. Way too simple, But like if you've been

(14:02):
raised and seen only dudes do comedy, then you know
seeing a woman is you know, uh, it can just
be surprising and it takes people a minute. So like
I do have some Yiddish word roughmanness for that kind
of like a little empathy for that kind of but
that doesn't. But like adjusting to a new experience, there's

(14:25):
a there's a big difference between adjusting to a new
experience and women aren't funny. So but that's why I
just kind of I'm just like, whatever, Just go see
some comedy, expand your horizons. And then after you've seen
all those people that you've mentioned, and you've seen Naomic
Paragon and you've seen Cameron Esposito, it's like, then, then

(14:51):
come back to me and write me a five paragraph
essay on why women are funny, and I'll tell you
what I think't aren't funny? You know, But like when
I was growing up, I didn't think about it. I mean,
there's so many right, It's like because now people say
to me things like, but but isn't it fixed now?
Like there's amy and there's amy, you know, Okay, But

(15:14):
like when I was a kid, I was raised on.
My parents had the good taste to raise me on.
You know, I'm aging myself now, but you know, for
those of you who just listening, please know that I
look fabulous, but I was raised on you know, mash
laugh in Carol Burnett, all the variety shows like Donny

(15:36):
Marie and The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, and like The
Brady Bunch itself was also hilarious under ucc estimated as
being hilarious, just like it was a joke factory. But
like it didn't occur to when I was watching Carol
Burnett and Goldie Hawn and Ruth Buzzy and even like
Miss Piggy, I didn't think of them as female comics. Yeah,

(16:02):
they were just funny, and we've never not had them,
you know. It's just that they and I think still
had to work twice. It's hard to be half as famous,
you know, and get paid half as much and could
only fit into certain types at least for a while,
you know. So, but we're still trying to we're still
trying to ast off that whole thing. I can't believe

(16:24):
it in twenty twenty five, but we here we.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Are, Yeah for sure. So So with gold what what
is the how do you get started with that? What
was the kind of creation and designed for that? Because
it seems like, you know, you have put a lot
of thought into it, at least it looks like it
to me.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
I don't know, Yeah, it's I Yes, indeed, it started
two things converged two not very different things converged. One
was just as a performer. I didn't mostly stand up,
but a lot of I also really love storytelling, you know,

(17:02):
you know, comic storytelling and hosting. I did a lot
of hosting that kind of thing. I really liked just
being on stage and telling jokes. It started to it
started to get to where many women do this, But
it started to get to where like I past ten really,
or I had little kids or whatever. It was where

(17:23):
I was just like, this doesn't fit my lifestyle, and
my goal was doing stand up was to do stand up,
So I wasn't like, so I'd give up my dreams
of being in a writer's room in Hollywood. Like it
was okay, you know, but what was happening, what had
always been happening, was that the through line of my
career actually had been had never not included comedy, even

(17:47):
if I wasn't a performer. So so as I was
a journalist for twenty five years, again I look amazing.
But I was a journalist for twenty five years, and
my brand really became being able to communicate tricky, not
funny issues with an appropriate kind of kind of humor

(18:12):
that would help people kind of at least open their
ears in a way that they might not before, whether
it was about like abortion or like things that people
didn't you know, to find a way that didn't undermine
the seriousness of the issue, but that could actually open
some more hearts and minds. And I also created co

(18:35):
created a character named Breakup Girl that was one of
the first Internet success stories that actually used She was
a superhero who is a superhero who helped people with
romantic emergencies. And we were very huge success cult following
Blah blah blah. But one of our big and my partner,
my creative partner, straight Dude, and we didn't say it

(18:58):
that much, but far of our mission was to normalize
men and women talking about relationships at the same time.
And so we use comedy to do that because it's
dumb just to have women being like men, you know, Like,
why don't we create spaces where men and women and
others can talk about how they could make relationships better,

(19:18):
you know. So, and then last thing I went I
began working for I did a lot of creative and
communications as the VP for a really kind of different
human rights organization called Breakthrough that used pop culture and
comedy to make human rights issues relevant and actionable. So

(19:40):
I got to help create like animations that got shown
at NASCAR races, like funny animations that got you to
think about violence against women in an accessible way. And
so it was always like, how can comedy do the
do a thing? You know that? And so finally I thought, well,
you know, I'm too tired those shows that don't tell

(20:03):
Mama that used to start at ten, But like, how
can I actually how can I flug the zone? Cameron
Esposito talked about this also years ago in an article
that really inspired me, just like more, how can we
just get more of us? Because everyone knows what it's
like to be the only woman on the lineup or

(20:23):
women do who? Then, you know, dudes on that lineup
have eight minutes to prove they're funny. The woman has
eight minutes to prove that women are funny. So what
if we just got so many women and other others
into comedy that we became uninteresting? You know?

Speaker 1 (20:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (20:40):
And so, and it really matters, you said this earlier.
It really matters who gets to tell the joke, who's
got the mic, because that person has power and they
don't necessarily have to change someone's mind in order to
have power. They just have to get people's attention. When
you make people laugh, you make people listen. So what
if we just like help people succeed so that we

(21:02):
flood the zone, put more voices out there to the comedy,
so that we're not comics and female comics, or comics
and comics of color, or you know what, if we
were all just comics.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
That's that's exactly right, that's the way. That's exactly what
they always say, like, we're comedians, and I hate I
hate that I have to say female comedians, like it
makes me feel like, oh, come on, man, or comedian
Like I'm like, come on, just comedians.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
I was at I was at my parade in my hometown. Yeah,
I mean, you can say female comics if you're if
you actually mean that, like if you're talking, if you
are talking specifically, but not just like when you feel
like you have to identify a comic as female because
she is.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, but so funny.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
I grew up in the same hometown as Rachel Dratch
and outside Boston, and this past weekend was the two
hundred and fiftieth celebration of the First Battle of Lexington.
So like Rachel was home doing stuff and it was
like super fun and she was in the parade, and
so she drives by in her you know, she's like,

(22:07):
you know, doing the Princess wave from her car, and
the sign on the car says and we're like, yeah,
right job. And I'm reading this line on her car
and it says Rachel Dretch LHS Class of nineteen eighty four, actor, host,
comedian and.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah, I know, I hate I hate that. That's a phrase.
I'm like, just comedian. It's just comedian for everybody, Like,
there's not they shouldn't. Yeah, what's not? So because I
always say I'll do this. I'll go, oh, let me,
let me show you this guy, this great comedian. And
then I show and they go, oh, it's a female.
I'm like, oh, it's a comedian. It doesn't. It doesn't.
I don't know why you care about gender. It doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
At that point, Bill Bird be like, I want to
introduce you this male comic.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah yeah, yeah, right.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
For someone else. I wish I remember who said this.
But they're like, do you call your doctor a doctress?

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yes, it's call your attorney?

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Are at you?

Speaker 1 (23:02):
That's a good. That's a good point. That is a
good point. It should should just spa comedian end of story.
So what are some of the things that Gold Comedy
offers that people can take advantage of? Where can they
go find out this stuff? What is the what is
the kind? Is there a pathway for someone who's saying like, oh,
I want to start comedy and I don't know where
to start? Is there a pathway here at Gold? Yes,

(23:23):
I'm so.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Glad you asked. I have many concrete and actionable answers
to those questions. So first of all, you can find
us at Goldcomedy dot com or at Gold Comedy on Instagram,
and so you know again, overall, we're a comedy school
and a professional network and a content studio where women

(23:44):
and don non binary creators amp up their careers wherever
they're starting from, whether they're new or you know, really
accomplished but want even more or maybe want to add
something to their portfolio, and and where we really just
figure out what do you need to succeed? So we

(24:06):
offer classes in all the basics, stand up, sketch, improv, storytelling,
web series. We also have offer classes and production because
we really want to make it possible for women and
other creators to make uh, digital commed, digital sketches, digital comedy,

(24:27):
that and also web series. And if you show up
and you're like, I'm an accomplished writer or I'm an
accomplished producer, but I need to know how to do
quality sound, you know we can help you with that.
We have someone who is in our very fancy and
very successful class that teaches you how to develop an

(24:50):
industry standard pitch for your project, because that is a bottleneck.
There are so many people who are outside the comedy
norm who have amazing stories to tell in various forms,
but you get tripped up on what makes a good pitch.
And so our class, which is led by Ryan Cunningham,

(25:10):
Road City Search Party, Emmy's pavitis, no big deal. She
teaches you even if you don't come from inside comedy,
she teaches you how to turn that turn your idea
into a quality, ready for industry pitch. So, for example,
we have a medical doctor in that class who is

(25:33):
on the media all the time, so she's very you know,
she's already very media savvy and media friendly, but she
wants to she's pitching an idea for a TV show
and the instructor's suggestion was that she also take our
stand up boot Camp class so she gets more accustomed
to kind of just joke structure, telling jokes off the cups,

(25:54):
setting up jokes, you know, in that hosting role. So
because we operate as a community, in other words, you
pay by the year, not by the class in most cases,
then what we're really able to provide is kind of
the whole comedy package that you need for your particular
track and your particular goals.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
That's awesome and that what is so now that I
saw those because you have a lot of amazing classes
storytelling boot camp, human writing boot camp, which I think
is amazing that a lot of people don't offer that
web series boot camp. That's another thing that you're not
going to see a lot polishing your show for Fringe,
which is amazing as well. Like I have friends that
have gone over there. It's like one of my goals
at some point to go do that. And then yeah,

(26:38):
the pitch and the boot in the stand up boot
camp and stuff. And so I looked at it. You're
only charging four hundred and ninety nine dollars for this.
This is amazing. That's that's a that's a steal. That's
they're robbing you. People are robbing you if they sign
up for.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
This, Well, we ranse the price. We very feel very
comfortable raising the price every year because also because we
generate hundreds and more hours of on demand content every year,
we still wanna our premium classes are more expensive our
like our pitching classes. Nine is nine p fifty. It
also comes with access to gold. So we just we're

(27:13):
walking a fine line. Like I know, we're kind of
underpriced at the moment if you kind of think about
it by day or by class. And just to warn everybody,
we will keep raising the price. So if you want
to if you want to join now, because we grandfather you, like,
we don't raise your like you lock in at your
subscription price. So some people are still locked in at
two ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Wow. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
But but but then they bring us value too, you know,
like they bring us to success stories. They bring us
We have people going to Series Fast this week with
their web series. We have people we have our webs
Another web series is dropping on Fox Soul, which is
Fox's Fast channel. You know, so like we invest in
you as much as you invest in us, and it

(27:55):
all works out, But yeah, we will raise the rice
every year, if not more often. So it's always a
good time to join because it's going to go up.
But we always should have walked the line between. I mean,
we're a business, so we like we need the money

(28:15):
to deliver the quality content and make and and really
do all the personal stuff we do because we also
do really but spoke like one of our sketch teams
needed to talk to a librarian, and I was like,
one of our members is a librarian. Let me put
you in touch. And that's part of the labor that
we do. But uh, but we also want to make

(28:36):
it not terrifying. For we know comics don't have a
ton of money, so we also want to figure out
how to always be in that sweet spot between being
representing the value that we offer but also not being inaccessible.
So one of the ways we do that is we
offer payment plans for almost everything, and we also offer

(28:57):
limited scholarships, and we also give people the opportunity Basically,
we give you money if you if you bring people
in because we value your we value your time and
your friends. So so that's another twenty bucks right there.
So but yeah, it will keep it will keep going up.

(29:17):
I'm glad you said that, because, like literally the number
for ninety nine ninety nine can be scary, and we
know that, but so we just spend a lot of
time kind of explaining or asking our members to explain
exactly how much you get for that.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
I was gonna say that. I mean, that's the thing
is like for the for the ones that you get
that are that are including a subscription, the web series,
the humor writing, the storytelling, and the stand up right,
those are all included. If you paid for those classes
like that separately anywhere else, you're looking at a minimum
of five hundred dollars at a minimum, but you're probably
you're probably gonna pay more. Especially web series or humor writing,
those things are niche and very There's not a lot

(29:56):
of people that teach that or even do that. Stand
up right that one is more common, right because we
live in a stand up world, and storytelling obviously another
niche one. So it's gonna be very hard. So three
out of your four are already hard to find. It's
a valuable it's a valuable system, and I think it's amazing.
It makes me want enjoy it. I'm not gonna lie
to you. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
You are very welcome. I know you bring no over vibe.
We do. We have a bunch of dudes around, we
really do. So it's it's we just need we just
create the most you know, supportive collaborative space we can.
And although we do, there's an ongoing debate on our
sketch teams when people need to have a dude character.

(30:38):
Sometimes they cast dudes, which is fine, but sometimes they
just wear a mustache. And honestly, sometimes I think the
mustaches are funny or and.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
No shade agreed. Agreed.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
The other thing we do is that we're super creator friendly,
so in other words, are in order you need to
be a paid member of Goal to be on one
of our sketch teams. And that's in return for like
the fact that we put you on a sketch team
and also provide a stipend and guidance from an Imman
nominated comedy director and all that stuff. But we but

(31:11):
you own your content.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Wow, that's awesome from you, So we.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Have big We license it from you, and we have
the we have the right to shop it. So we've
that's why we've been able to enter into these like
sub licensing deals with some fast channels that go through
like we're the intermediary, but they're non exclusive deals, so
the team still owns the content, they're just giving us

(31:36):
the right to and so then we split the sort
of like but not really a production company. If and
when there is AD revenue, the cop is a production company.
If and when there is AD revenue, then we're going
to split it because we kind of broke at it.
But it's still your content.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
That's awesome, that's I mean, that's a great thing. You're
finding a way for creators to get paid. Is this
a bible to anybody anywhere, like if they're you know,
because you are based where you're based at New York?

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Right, Yeah, I'm in New York, but our team is
in New York. Our leadership team is in New York,
La Boston. But that doesn't matter because our platform is everywhere.
We have people in Europe, but our online platform is everywhere.
But then we kind of transcend that, you know, like

(32:23):
the people I forget if I just mentioned this, but
the we have three people who just came out of
our comedy about trauma class who developed each of each
of three of them developed their material into an hour,
and then they did an hour of three solo shows,
one each in Boston because they happened to live in Boston,

(32:43):
so they did them in person in Boston. Because they've
also developed that community on the ground through people they
met through goals. So so more and more we're doing,
you know, face to face stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
That's amazing, that's so amazing. What is uh? What is
Is there anything that you want a promoter or anything
you that you want to push or that that you
think will be helpful for for comedians that out of
gold that you're really excited about where you're something new
that's coming, give me something.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Yeah, we are going to start a few things are
coming up. We just launched a new cohort of the
premium Big Deal Pitching class that Ryan Cunningham teaches, but
we also soft launched per July class. So that's something
to think about. If people have you do not have

(33:34):
to have a pilot ready to go. You can, but
oftentimes what people find is that as they develop their pitch,
they update their pilot. So like I took the class
myself without having written a pilot for an idea that
I need for a Breakup Girl five point zero, and
I did the pitch before the pilot because it actually
helped me figure out the core essentials of the show

(33:59):
and then the like the characters, the tone, the point,
you know, and now I feel prepared to write the pilot. Also,
people come into that class with web series, game show, reality,
unscripted feature film. So it's really we call it build
and pitch any idea for a reason. Solo shows. Also,
she directs solar solo shows, so it could be a

(34:21):
pitch for a solo show. So that starts off again
at July. And the sign up is on our website
now at Goldcomedy dot com. And that is one of
the expensive ones. That one's ninth. It's expensive and out
over price it's nine fifty.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
We think.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
We do payment plans, so we totally make it work.
You know, it's not a discount and it has spread
out over time. So that's something to think about for July.
We also, I would also keep an eye out and
follow us. Last thing I'll say, oh, follow us, but
follow us in particular at gold Comedy. Well, sign up

(34:58):
for our newsletter at gold comm number one. Follow us
on Instagram at both comedy and that's where you'll also
find out what we have in store for the next
round of recruitment for our digital sketch teams. We're gonna
have fewer this year than we had before because we

(35:18):
can give them a even more high value experience. But
two things about that. We're going to have a more
in depth program for alternates, which is basically the pool
we draw from if people can't complete their work on
the team. We're gonna have a whole curriculum just for
you where you can you know, learn about sound, lighting,
DP production, all the stuff that you need to know

(35:40):
to make a good sketch. And further, we are we
think we're going to launch some kind of web series
incubator that will also kind of be, you know, not
the same thing as the digital sketch teams, but also
pull some of the people for whom that's really their interest.
And in both cases we are with sketches and and

(36:03):
web series, we are making headway and getting the distribution.
I mean, we promote about our own channels, of course,
but we have partners with a couple of different types
of new entities in the distribution world who can help us,
who are helping us make the connections and find the
deals that we need to get visibility on as I said,

(36:27):
Fox Soul and other other third party entities, which is
and there. Maybe you're gonna no one's gonna buy a
yacht from me. The ad sales, I'm just going to
tell you right now. But it's it's actual distribution and
actual visibility that can lead to more. So it's not nothing.
And it's of course bragging rights.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Of course, yeah, I mean that's yeah. I mean getting
your foot of the door, getting that getting that door
open is a huge deal. And the other thing I
saw on your site that I think a lot of
comedians should look at and I would probably do the
human writing class first, but uh, there's you guys always
have writers send headline and article pitches to you. So
if you're somebody who is a comedian and you're learning something,

(37:09):
this is a great way. And here's here's just the
ps on this. Just you know, so I looked at it. Yes, yes,
we always pay. That is the biggest thing. That's amazing.
Even if it's five bucks, it doesn't matter. You're getting
paid to be a comedy writer or write about comedy
or whatever. This is a great thing that you guys
are doing and I love this. So I just want
people to know there's opportunities here. So you join them,

(37:31):
you pay for this. You're learning something. Then you can
turn around and monetize that almost immediately by pitching articles
and stuff and getting paid to do that. And now
you're becoming part of the community. And it's kind of
a good cycle. And like I said, everything that you
have is you would pay way more than for ninety
nine ninety nine to get anywhere else. You know, it's crazy,

(37:53):
I say, it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Thank you, I know ed, I think. But if you
don't have to be a member of Goal to pitch
us for the website, so that's good. If you want
to just pitch us and then think about joining later,
that's fine. We get it. And also it's we're not

(38:20):
hiring right now, but a lot of people, you know,
contact me about hiring, and I I feel a little bad,
but not very bad when I say the thing that
they think they don't want to hear, which is I
can't hire you right now, but you should pay money
to join us, which sounds like go on, len But
actually when you join us, we actually we actually open

(38:43):
up opportunities for you. To get paid, both because you're
part of this professional network where people will say, like, hey,
you know someone in Queen's needs a DP on set today,
It's paid even little things like that. Or we hire
for women like our humor writing teacher came to us
because she is a member of Gold and she's highly qualified.

(39:03):
She's she's actually right for the onion, which is very
hard to get to get, very hard to acquire. And
our improv teacher came to us as an actor an
improviser who wanted to kind of find out what it
was like to do stand up and now does stand
up and wins awards all over like throughout Kentucky and

(39:27):
Ohio and where she's from. And she always says, I
blame you my being a successful stand up And we
hired her to teach improv. So we hire from within
as well. So we try to just help people succeed
in any director indirect way that we can.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
No, that's perfect, and I love that that you have
this community that you're building. I'm I am looking at
this going man, because again one of my things is
I want to do the fringe. It's one of those
big things I want to do. And I'm like, I
have a friend of mine shout out to Liah. She awesome,
she is going, she's going over for her I think
it's her second or third year going over to Edinburgh

(40:06):
to do the Fringe festival. And dude, she just is
crushing it and it's amazing to watch. And I go,
you are so brave and gutsy, like I'm terrified to
do this. She's like, no, I can do it, and
she's and she yes, She's amazing. So I love when
people do that. I love that you're give the opportunity
because that's again one of those things people comedians go ah,
maybe I'll do it, and mean put if they're like me,

(40:27):
they put it off because they're scared of that's a
big investment in yourself right to go to some one
of the fringe festivals. It's a huge investment travel and
booking and setting up shows and all those things. And
then and then on top of that, you have to
do your show whatever the show is, half hour, hour story,
whatever it is, and you're like, oh no, and if
it's for like I think Edinburgh is like a month

(40:47):
of that, it's just like no way this, Yeah, it's terrifying.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
So yeah, yeah, I have a class you're referring to
it the plast that we have starting Sunday, So it's
a little bit after when this will air, But that's okay.
If you hear this podcast, if you want to join,
just let me know. We can figure it out. But
we are always always trying to help people not just
develop their content, but we have a lot for the show,
whether they're just beginning or whether they're polishing it. And

(41:13):
that's the teacher is amazing. It's Eris bar who you've
probably seen on Curb your Enthusiasm or hats. She's an
amazing coach. And we also get people who've done for
a million times to come talk to our members about
like you mentioned this about like okay, legit, like how
do I manage this? How do I do my own
pr where do I stay? Who do I have to

(41:35):
talk to? Like what's the best way to arrive there?
Not loft, you know, And so we try to facilitate
that stuff as well, something that stuffs on our website,
so that's available to anyone.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
But yeah, perfect, well, where can people find you? Again?
One more time? For where gold is anything else you
want to shout out or that you that you want
to help push on all about it.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Sure, okay, so yeah, I mean really just.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (42:04):
We have a lot of stuff this week, but that
we have repeatedly. So we have workshops coming up that
you will miss this time but not next time. On
Late Night Writing, which is actually a public workshop that
anyone can join doing sound for Comedy, which we're going
to do again. Those are public workshops that we do
just to you know, say, hi, we're here. So you

(42:24):
should watch for us on event right, But the easiest
way to do that is watch us on Instagram and
to go to our website and sign up for our
mailing list. So Goldcomedy dot com and uh gold Comedy
on Instagram. And we really will have something for you
whatever you whatever you're If you're a beginner, we are
so nice. We are a great place for you to start.

(42:47):
If you're a mid career, you can refresh your skills,
you can grow skills that you haven't grown yet. You
can make really serious professional connections that will get you
to the next level, whatever the next level is for you. You.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
I have a question for you because as a travel community,
like I'm very interested in like the Late Night packet class,
but I travel a lot, so if I paid for it,
is there a recorded version that I get to watch
later or is it?

Speaker 2 (43:12):
Yeah? So the other thing you get is, which again
makes our price good saying, is that all of our
public workshops are recorded, and so Goldies can go to
them free because we just give you a secret link,
you know, inside our platform, and they live on as
they live on as on demand content inside our platform.

(43:36):
So yeah, you can go watch that anytime. And we're
also you heard it here, I should mention this now.
Later in the okay, okay, later in the spring and summer,
we're adding this is not on our site right now.
We're adding an in house longer course on late night
writing taught by Mark Kramer, who's won a billion awards

(43:58):
and I think was the only Asian dude on John
Oliver on getting this wrong. But he's like he knows
his stuff and and he knows that, you know, he's
also another you know, he knows that what that feels like.
We have We're gonna have a work We're gonna have
a finish your Pilot writing workshop. We're gonna have an

(44:20):
m Seeing and crowd work class. Actually finish your pilot class,
M Seeing and crowd Work class taught by dere Jamontt,
the Pilot class top by Legina Hill. And we're also
developing more editing for comedy classes, which is so important.

(44:44):
You know, like one one, you know, one beat, one
in one direction or another can make or break a
joke just from an editing standpoint. So we want to
build that skill and make sure also that there are
you know, women who know how to do sound, women
who know how to edit women dps. They're out there,

(45:05):
but you know, we want to bring them together and
help them learn from each other and make sure they
get hired. Poor things.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, that's I mean, that's the thing is. That's why
I always tell my daughters. My oldest one wants to
do like sets, set design and stuff like that, and
she's like all about that in film or whatever. I'm like,
you can do anything you want to do, Go do it.
Do not let anyone tell you know, anyone who tells
you know, roll over, keep going, like, don't let anyone
stop you. So I love that mentality as well that
you have of like, no, let's find a way to

(45:34):
give you the opportunity and just make kick that door open.
To me. That's that's the way to do it is
you got to kick that kick that door open sometimes,
so we.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Try to kick it open for others that they may
walk through. Ill do your doc.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
I have two One is eighteen and one is fifteen.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
So I have an eighteen year old daughter also and
also I'm so sorry they identify as non binary. But yes,
I have an eighteen year old kid and then also
a sixteen year old son. Both very both intimidatingly funny. Yeah,
exactly for me, not for them, not for their friends.
But yeah, where I'm like, oh, how did you think

(46:12):
of that?

Speaker 1 (46:13):
Yeah? I know. I keep trying to get my oldest
to do stand up. I'm like, you should do it.
You're so funny. You have this, you have you have it.
You can do it. I know you can.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
You know.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
I wish someone would have told me that when I
was younger. I mean, people told me, but I didn't
believe them. But now I am a stand up I'm
a freshial stand up. I travel around the country. I
do stand up. I get paid for it. It's my living.
It's like, if I can do it, and now I'm
not that great, I will be honest, she can do it.
She's amazing, so you know.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Yeah, totally sold enough to join Gold just saying.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
There you go, that might that might be something I do.
I mean here, birthdays coming up, I might do it.
So that's a good idea. Yeah, well, thank thank you
Lynn for being here. Thank you so much. Everybody. Go
check out Gold Comedy. It's Goldcomedy dot com. All the
links are in there. If you go to the bottom,
they'll have all the links that have their Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok,

(47:01):
all that stuff. You just go to the bottom, but
go to the classes and go look at it. And
then just there's another big right gold button that says
join the club, and that's where you can go join
four hundred and nine dollars nine And since that is
an amazing steel for all the stuff that you get.
And again, as Lind said, there's stuff on demand there,
so forever you're gonna be able to watch that stuff hours.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Yeah, conversations with celebrities we're having. We get Jeff Hillar
this week bragging. So now we've got the entire class
of cast of somebody somewhere. We've had Murray and Bridgets
and now we complete the trifecta with Jeff. So we
have amazing conversations with people too that are all out
of demand. So yeah, come hang out, come chill with

(47:45):
your favorite comedy celibs.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
There you go, perfect. Thank you so much for Lynn
for being here. Thank you everybody for listening. Have a
good one. We'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Thank you much.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Thanks for having me, of course,