July 15, 2025 • 57 mins
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Welcome to Episode 443 of The Clean Comedy Podcast! This week JD and Seth talk about how they went from open-mic to paid gigs.They give advice on how you can get paid for comedy as well as some places that will PAY FOR COMEDY!
This is a money-making episode if you listen and take their advice. You can get more tips on producing comedy shows by picking up a copy of “How To Produce Comedy Shows For Fun & Profit” on Amazon.
Come see Zane and I! You can see all the tour dates at ZaneLamprey.com
Feel free to email me: jamesdcreviston at GMAIL.COM
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-clean-comedy-podcast-w-jd-creviston--4825680/support.
Grab your copy of “How To Produce Comedy Shows For Fun & Profit” here. Or search for it on Amazon.
Have a topic you want us to discuss? Reach out here.
Be Our Guest: Are you a clean comedian interested in being on our podcast? Contact us!
Stay Connected: Subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. Your support helps us grow!
Welcome to Episode 443 of The Clean Comedy Podcast! This week JD and Seth talk about how they went from open-mic to paid gigs.They give advice on how you can get paid for comedy as well as some places that will PAY FOR COMEDY!
This is a money-making episode if you listen and take their advice. You can get more tips on producing comedy shows by picking up a copy of “How To Produce Comedy Shows For Fun & Profit” on Amazon.
Come see Zane and I! You can see all the tour dates at ZaneLamprey.com
Feel free to email me: jamesdcreviston at GMAIL.COM
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-clean-comedy-podcast-w-jd-creviston--4825680/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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
killer tip to help you write tighter, get booked more often,
and build your clean comedy career without selling out or
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and quick 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 the Creek Comedy Podcast.
It's JD and I'm here with my great friend and
cost mister Seth Lawrence Seth.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, howdy, Hey dude.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm so excited to have you back. I thank you.
When this comes out, I will officially be forty four. Whoa,
but as of right now forty three, Tomorrow forty four,
and then when this comes out forty four. So recording
this ahead of time because I have to. I'll be
in Grant Cayman. So we can't. We can't have a podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
One of the seven wonders of the world is it?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I don't know anything about it. Honestly, I think it's beaches.
That's all I know. Although we're supposed to go swim
with stingrays, go to some like stingray play where they
like are our friendly.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah you said Grand Canyon, Grand Cayman. Oh, Grand Cayman.
I heard Grand Canyon swimming with stingrays. I was like, wait,
what what in the world?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Where in the Grey Canyon are stingrays?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, I missed that part. I missed that part.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
No, I'm I'm be on the beach for a couple
of days. I need I need a break for a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
So didn't you know, like I've heard seven Wonders of
the World.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
But now I thought it was eight Wonders of the world.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well see, and people have heard eight and I just
googled it. There's like this list of twenty five things.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
What twenty five wonders of the world.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I mean, look, Wikipedia has new seven Wonders of the world.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Wow, new seven Wonders of the World. I wonder if
I wonder there's something that's like the old Wonders of
the world, which like from the like from before a
certain time, and they're like new wonders and like then like,
well that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, so there's the seven Wonders of the Ancient world.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, yeah, yeah, that makes sense, which you really liked?
What the pyramids and stuff like.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
That, Rome, colosses of roads, hanging gardens of Babylon, Lighthouse
of Alexandria, of Hell, a carnass statue of Zeus, Temple
of Artemis.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Then there was you know, wonders of the Middle Ages.
I guess there's been quite a few wonders. A few, Yeah,
quite a few wonders.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
You know what? You know what people wonder?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Wonder that is listed as a wonder of the world.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, but how what? What? So what you visited via Google?
Is that how that works?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I don't know, Google, Google Earth?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
You know what else people wonder about? Seth This is
a great segue how to go, how to go from
open mics and making money as a comedian.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
That's a wonder, that is a wonder, that is a
true mystery of the universe right there, And J. D.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
James is going to answer it for us, all.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Right, it's gonna be it's gonna be a joint effort
between f and I. I don't know how you made
your first dollar in stand up?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I actually so, here's the weird part. My first year
of stand up I made zero dollars as a stand
up but I made thousands of dollars as a comedy writer.
Oh okay, So that was a weird part where I
was making money in comedy even though I wasn't, at
least in my eyes or most people's eyes, I wasn't
quote unquote a professional comedian. Nobody would paid me to
(03:28):
do stand up right now.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
That's fascinating. So how did you get jobs writing comedy?
Was this part of what you were talking about last time,
with writing specs, scripts and everything else.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, so kind of like that. So I used to
be on Twitter back in the day. I'm no longer
on Twitter, but I used to be on Twitter back
on the truth, not at all. But what's the other one?
Blue Sky? I think is the other new one?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
This guy is the progressive one. But I think i've
seen you most often on four Chan, right.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh yeah, that's my that's my home base right there. Yeah,
he's that's trying to get me canceled right now? What's
going on? Seth? So I used to it used to
be on Twitter x whatever it's called now. It was
Twitter when I was on it. And there was a
show called at Midnight. Do you remember the show hit
at midnight with Chris Hardwick. Yeah, so I would stay
(04:18):
up every night. I would watch that show. I would
compete in the challenges and stuff. Some of my stuff
got shared on at midnight, some of them got retweeted
by at midnight, I got a bunch of follows or whatever,
and so I was like, oh, this is a good start.
Now I'm going to start writing. And I want to
I think it was I want to say it was
Scott Diggers. I think it was Scott Diggers, who is
(04:39):
the guy who started the Onion and stuff. Was talking
about writing you should write, you know, headline jokes or
write whatever jokes. So I didn't know about Babylon B
at the time. I only knew about the Onion. So
I would write silly headlines or silly jokes based on
news headlines, and that would kind of got popular. And
then I was like, oh, I'll post stand up terrible
(05:01):
idea first of all, but it got some eyes on
me as like, oh he could write jokes and he
could perform jokes, so that's great. And then I did
a crazy thing where I had heard a guy had
posted his Seinfeld nine to eleven scripts on Twitter, and
it got him a writing job, so I posted I
(05:23):
wrote a Brooklyn nine to nine spec script called heavy P.
I know it's intended. It's intended to be a double
entendre and it's about, uh, have you ever watched the Showrooklyn?
So in my specscript, Terry and Jake have to go reps,
(05:45):
have to go protect. They're doing bodyguard duty for this
rapper called heavy P who's a misogynist and a jerk,
and he keeps getting threatened on Twitter by by different eggs.
Like people will start like, you know, I'm gonna kill
you zero zero one, I'm gonna kill you zero, and
they like start different things, and so every time you know,
one gets taken down, they start another one. So they
(06:07):
go and try to protect this guy and he's a
jerk kind of and whatever, and they find out who's
who's trying to kill him and bust him. But the
way that they bust him is do you remember the
I forgot It's called black something. It's like where everybody
paused as they were doing something and the camera would
like move around them and they would play that song
or whatever. Yeah, so they use they use that thing
(06:31):
that was big at the time to kind of catch
who's doing it because they're the only one texting still.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Like like the matrix kind of style.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, but I forgot what the song was called. It's
called like black something or whatever. And they would play
it and then everyone would like freeze what they're doing,
whether they like pouring a drink or dancing or whatever
it was. And then the and the and the other
part of it was Holt. Holt gets a tip from
like someone in his in the LGBTQ community that bad
(06:59):
things are happening at this at this spa, at this
men's spa. So he sends he sends Sully or was
what's their names? Uh take it sends a two big
white guys, a big fat like white guys with with
Amy and Rose as backup, and it goes awry. So
he has to go in there and it's just a silly,
(07:20):
silly thing like for them to kind of like do
something silly and and really like understand what a gay
man has to go through because I have a gay uncle.
So I did that. So it was it was funny
like that, and people liked it. People that was funny.
People actually thought it was a real episode, Like what
is this episode coming out. I'm like, it's it's not
a real episode at all, and also has a Charles
(07:42):
Pizza throwback. If you remember Charles did like the pizza,
like he had the Pizza newsletter or whatever and stuff,
so there's like a throwback to that. Okay, there's a
lot of inside baseball stuff for that for that script.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
So then somebody reached out to me. I'm not gonna
say their name, but a famous person and if you
listened long enough, reached out to me to ask if
I wanted to work on a script with them. They
had part of it written, but they were going to
try to reboot their career through a through a new
pilot first show. So I worked on it with them,
punched up jokes, wrote stuff, edited whatever. Keep in mind
I was not good at it yet because I had
(08:17):
only written like three screenplays ever in my life. But
this was good and they paid me. And then after
they did that, they're like, hey, i'd also like you
to write some jokes for me. So I wrote jokes
to them for a year. So that's how I got
my first official writing gig, and then it turned into
writing for podcasts, writing for other people, all those kinds
of things like that, But it wasn't for a year
(08:38):
that I made any money as a stand up at all.
And then I started making money as a stand up
because I started producing my own shows. Ah, So even
then I wasn't getting paid by somebody officially. I was
producing shows, paying people, and then paying myself a portion
of that. So technically at that point I still wasn't
(08:59):
a profess comedian, right was. I was getting paid by myself,
but that doesn't really count. And then and then after that,
then I started booking. People liked me doing stuff, so
then I started getting booked on shows that did pay
five bucks, ten bucks whatever, nothing big. And then it
wasn't until a few years later I was getting paid
(09:21):
like twenty five to fifty bucks a show to host
and do shows. And then from there it just became,
you know, going on the road with people getting paid
that way, hosting, m seeing, doing private gigs, all that
kind of stuff. But it was like two years before
I really got like a real paying gig. And in La,
nobody wants to pay. They want to pay you like
(09:42):
bar drinks or something, or or tacos or anything anything
but money. Anything that money that you can put on
your rent, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Right, And I will say that culture has changed a
little bit since the pandemic. Okay, interestingly enough, a lot
of a lot of independent shows now pay.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Post pandemic. It's not great money, but it's gas money,
you know, at the very least.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I mean, even the Comedy Store I don't think pays
great money if you're just doing a regular book set there.
I think I've heard like thirty bucks or something crazy,
you know, something really low for their workout space.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
That's I think that's for either the oar or the
belly room. They get paid like a little. But then
if you do the main room, it's what it's split
of whatever the door is between the comedians as well.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, well, and that's because it's a more traditional show,
you know. It's that they'll they'll alternate between like a
lineup of three comics which is very traditional host feature headliner,
to like four or five, maybe six headliners, and they'll
kind of work in some people here and there. But yeah,
the workout, workout stuff in the belly room and the
original room minimal pay.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Minimal pay for those fifteen minute sets, which is pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
And by the way, zero dollars you make it on
the on the potluck zero dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, no, they don't pay you at all.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That's an audition, you know, you go to audition, you
don't anyhow.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, fascinating.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
And how much material do you feel like you had
by the time you were getting paid to do stand up?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I would say, like a solid ten fifteen minutes. Okay,
And here's the funny part. I've retired retired most of
the material. I don't use it because they're kind of
older jokes. I've brought some of them back and reworked
them and whatever, so there are is some. But now
I'm doing twenty five you know, twenty twenty five minutes consistently.
I could do more if I you know, if I
(11:40):
had time. I just don't have time. His name because
we have a you know, we're trying to keep a
show at a certain amount of time. So yeah, so
we don't do that. But if he gave me thirty
minutes every night and he did forty five, that would
be awesome. I would love that. Or he did or
he did give me thirty and he did sixty or
fifty five or something like that, I would love that.
But yeah, so yeah, now it's consistent and it's all strong.
(12:02):
There's no weak material in there whatsoever. And I couldn't.
I can't being on the road, there's no way you
could have weak material. If you have weak material, you
have to call it and put something else in there
and work it and then fix it and fix it
and fix it. And that's so what we do on
the road, where constantly I'm like, oh, I have this idea,
is like, we'll try it, see what happens we try it.
He goes, oh, there's something there, but you got to
(12:23):
rewrite it and try it again. And then then I
have the next time to try it again and try
it again. If it doesn't work, like a few times
in a row, there's like, all right, scrap that, We're
gonna work on something.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, yeah, come back to it maybe.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah. What about you? How did you get paid for
your first time? How is it to it?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
My first PID gig I think was also about two years,
maybe a year and a half in I got paid
to go do a set and a military show. Yeah, so,
buddy of mine, and I think you know, the name
of the game for stand up is networking. Whether you
like it or not, it is all about out who
(13:00):
you know. You gotta have some talent, but it is
mostly who you know. And so I I had met
this guy who was stationed at a at a base.
He made the journey down from Fort Irwin, which is
kind of out there, California, pretty far east, and so
(13:22):
he would he would drive in, got to know me
and eventually invited me out to do a show there
on the base and it was very fun. Got paid
I think it was two hundred bucks, which was like wow,
for first payday at a military show.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Yeah, I did that a couple of times, but that
was the only money I made for like a year
and a half, two years in stand up you know.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And then and then it it doesn't doesn't snowball the
way you'd like.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Always, you know, you kind of have.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
One contact and you get paid from that one gig,
and maybe maybe that transpires into other gigs, but more
than likely it won't. You still have to network out
with more people. You still have to So then I
started getting you know, spots on independent shows, which before
the pandemic did not pay. I started producing my own
(14:22):
show and we eventually got a couple iterations at the
ice House where we got paid a decent amount.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Of money to do.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
And then yeah, and then kind of building the ice
house owners they shut down first of all, right around
the pandemic, and everything changed over the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So a buddy of mine and I started producing a show.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
We made a little bit of money off of that,
and then you know, pandemic lifted and more independent shows
started paying. So that's been where a lot of comics
now get their first paycheck as a comedian. And it's
not great money. Yeah, it's like ten maybe fifteen bucks,
(15:05):
you know. And then arguably I got paid to host
with the World Series of Comedy.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
So I joined this festival.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I competed in it for one year, got to know
the people who ran it really well. They liked me,
I liked them, and they were looking for hosts their
following year, and this was like tail end of the pandemic.
So I signed up with them to host and traveled around.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
And I say.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Arguably got paid because I got paid, but I also
had to pay my way, so it's sort of evened out,
you know.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Unfortunately, wait didn't pay for your hotel or airfare or anything.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Like that, so they did not pay for airfare they
did not pay for gas.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
They paid for hotel if it was really paid for
by the club. See, what I thought is that we
were going to be paid by the organization the World
Series of Common But really what they did was get
paid by the club and then split it amongst all
of us.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It was a very different setup. I knew going in
that I was not going to be paid a whole
lot of money. They were fairly upfront about that.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I did not realize I would be paid zero money,
you know, in the end of it all. So from that,
Oh the other thing, from producing my own show, I
networked with a guy who does stuff with Serious ExM.
Actually he filters a lot of content to their clean
(16:36):
channels on Serious XM, and I got a couple jokes
that played and still play to this day on Serious XM.
So every couple months I'll get a decent paycheck. And
that's where most of my money from stand up has
actually come from, is a couple of those jokes that
just keep on playing on Serious XM because those residuals
are fantastic, or the royalties are fantastic.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Were those jokes from like your dry Bar special where
they were pre pre your drive bar especially and how
did you how did you get him up there?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Like?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
How did that work?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
So this guy who records edits, he then sends the
he has a contact with Serious XM with kind of
their their radio playlist or the stand up channels, so
he would send them his own like here's here's what
I think would be good. And then that guy kind
(17:26):
of filtered through and chose jokes to then put into
the Serious XM rolodex.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
So that's how mine got through that filter.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Wow, there's there's a guy that I had, and maybe
I should reach out to him again now that you're
making you think I have some good material that would
be nice if I could get it on Serious.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
You know, I've heard various things about Serious XM.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
You know, they had a big lawsuit with Sound Exchange.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Over the royalties and how it was divided because we
could get super technical.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But anyway, you know, there was a lot that dried.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Up with Serious ExM. They kind of stopped. They didn't
pay less, but they stopped taking new content.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Oh they did, and.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
They did for quite a while. I don't know if
they've changed their stance on that. I need to reach out,
reach back out. To him and see kind of what
the status is on that, because honestly, you know, when
you can find a way for your jokes to work
for you, like making your money work.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
For you, that is that's the way to do it.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Chef's Kiss as the kids say, so that is definitely
the way to do it. And Serious ExM plays the
same stuff from forever ago. You know they once you're
on you're on that for quite a while. So it'd
be nice to get another round of jokes on there.
I need to reach out to him and see kind
of what's going on.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
That's funny because I did that one year for my
buddy David Sudebaker. He had he had a bunch of
stuff recorded and whatever, and he someone I talk to
somebody and I was like, hey, I'll connect you to
and then they got connected and David game all the
stuff and he got it on Serious XM and then
he gets a check from it every month or so
(19:11):
from Serious and he's well. I went one year. I
was like, David, I'm gonna get you a Christmas present.
He's like, no, dude, you don't need to get me anything.
You got me Serious and I have it on there
and stuff you know.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah, well that's great. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I mean Serious XM pays really well as far as
royalties go, So if you can get on.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
There, like, that's great.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
The best the only way I know how to do
it is by networking with other people that already have
contacts or in with them. There are a couple of
guys who got in on that game early, a couple
of comics I know who have kind of a direct
line because they they took so much of their stuff,
so they just like email their contact at Serious XM
(19:54):
and they get.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Almost whole albums that go up. And I know a
lot of comics like that's their living. They make their
living off of that essentially.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Do you know about what it pays? Do you like,
do you have any clue of kind of like a
range around ten dollars a play ten dollars a play, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Which is wow, that's insanely high.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
That's insanely high. Yeah, because even if you have your
album on Apple or Spotify or whatever, and some of
this is the whole album, you're not going to make
ten bucks off of.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
That most likely not.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah. Yeah, that's wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, So you know, obviously with that payout when they
got their lawsuit issues.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I think that's also why they kind of hold on.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
We we need to We're trying to be generous and
people are still frustrated, so we got to reevaluate what
is going on? Wow anyhow, But yeah, it's it's been.
It's not a bad way to go. So if you
can get you know, I guess some of this advice
is like, hey, if you're lucky enough, But a big
piece of it is being out there. You know, you
(20:58):
took a chance, you wrote a script and you put
it out there for people to see and hate on,
like like whatever it is. And I think the more
you get into this business, the more you realize there
are definitely haters out there. There are people that will
just tear down whatever's out there, but they're also not
producing anything other than hate.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
If you put yourself out there, and.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
You know are vulnerable right in that sense, but if
you just put your art out there, there are going
to be way more people who will say nothing but
respect it and like it than those who actually comment
something hateful. You know, And the only way to be
seen is to put yourself out there. So you either
got to go do the open mic thing and try
(21:41):
to find the local producers of shows in your area,
try to be nice to them.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Okay, it's not enough to.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Just be funny on stage when you're talking about independent shows, Okay,
especially if you're not known, if no one knows who
you are, if you've somehow gotten Internet famous, you probably
don't have to be as nice. People will try to
book you on the eyeballs, on whatever it is they're promoting.
But for most of us who no one knows who
we are, you have to be a decent human being,
(22:10):
and you have to be talented to some level.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Right, And arguably.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Being a decent human being is more important at the
independent show level than being super super funny.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Right. That's funny that you say that, because one of
Zane's things is before we ever go into a venue. Yeah,
he always just says out loud and he says it.
I know, he probably says it for me more than anything,
but he says, remember to say please and thank you, okay,
and he goes, he goes okay, because you know it's
like remember, remember, yeah, we're there to put on a
(22:43):
show and whatever, and maybe we're in a rush or
maybe you like whatever, but make sure you say please,
and think you make sure that you're being kind to everybody,
because remember, if you were a jerk, you know what
I'm saying, Yeah, they probably won't remember as much if
you're nice, but they'll probably remember that you were nice.
But then but if you're a jerk, they're for sure
never going to forget that.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yeah, And I will say touring with the World Series
of Comedy, talking to the staff, this is the other thing.
You know, A lot of comics or aspiring comics should
realize the people who book you don't always work at
the club. So they'll book you and then they send you.
But the staff and the managers at the club, that's
(23:20):
who you're going to face to face with, and if
they don't like you, they will tell that booker, Hey,
Seth was a jerk, so please don't book him again,
And the booker will be like, right, no skin off
my back. I got two thousand other comics that would
love to do a spot.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
So however, if.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
You're nice and you make a point of like tipping
the staff and the managers and being nice to them
and not making their lives difficult, that is following the
rules of the club. Okay, whatever the rules are at
that venue. Don't damage their equipment. I know act outs
are fun, but if you're slamming the mic stand unless
(24:00):
you're buying them a new mic stand, they might not
like that and they have to pay for that. So
be nice to the equipment, follow the rules of the club,
and then be nice to the patrons. Okay, if you're
in a conservative space, don't shame them for their conservative views,
(24:21):
just to be a champion, you know, and vice versa.
If you're out here in LA and you just want
to be conservative to just rile everybody up, don't expect
them to want to book you again, so they if
you make it bad for their patrons, who are often
repeat customers, they're not going to want you back.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
So those are the three big pieces of advice.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
And then the booker might work at the club, but
most likely won't, you know, so don't expect to meet
the booker at the club all the time. So be
nice to the staff, let them speak well of you,
and then hopefully you get a spot back, you know exactly.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
And one more things circle around for the independent shows
if you can't if you don't know the independent person,
but you know someone who's on that lineup and they
and they like you, and they will vounce for you.
Just say hey, next time you say you're talking to
the booker, if they're ever looking for somebody, will you
bring up my name? Will you just mentioned me in
passing or whatever? You know? Yeah, And that works a lot,
(25:22):
a lot more than you think, because people go, hey,
I'm friends with Sonso if you ever need another comedian,
he does or she does X, Y and Z. You know,
I've done that too, where I've got asked to do
a show and I can't do it for for some reason,
and I go, I don't know if you will take
a recommendation, but I'd like to recommend this person instead,
if that's okay with you, you know, And nine times out
(25:43):
of ten, bookers will go, thank you. That's great. Now
I don't have to go look for anybody else. Right now,
I don't have to go find another person. I don't
have to deal with a bunch of dms. You've already
given me the person. And that right there, that's you helping.
That's saying that's the please and thank you. Right you're
saying thank you for the opportunity. I can do it,
can I please offer you someone else so that they
could do it right, and they're saying please, thank you too.
(26:07):
At that point it becomes a very nice thing. Do
you know? I think I brought this up on the
podcast a bunch of times, the smile at a cashier thing.
Have I brought that up before? I probably have.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
With me at least.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
So there was a study that was done that anyone there,
you go to a store, if you smile at the
cashier that an average amount of time, there's a certain
amount of times that cashier would then smile at the
next person and the next person, and it would just
keep It will become a cycle of smiles. So what
I mean when I say that in this sense is
(26:40):
if you're passing on good vibes to that person, that
person gonna pass on good vibees to somebody else and
it's gonna keep happening and you're gonna get a better community.
The problem that we have in the comedy community, and
I don't want to say just LA, but I know
it is a lot in LA, is that everyone feels
like they have to be cutthroats. I can't give you
that Booker's information. I can't tell you where they're at
I don't know, you know, so I'm not I know,
(27:00):
I don't want to stick my neck out there or
whatever it's like, but they'll be the first people to
come to you like, hey man, you get be on
the show and you're like, dude, why why would I
do that for you when you're not willing to pass
a good vibes? You know, right? So I always think
about that, and when I do go into comedience stores
or targets or whatever, I always smile at the at
the I just think it's a nice thing. And then
(27:23):
it's from one of my favorite movies. Have you ever
seen pay It Forward? Yes, that's an old movie Haley
and Hailey, Joe Osmond, whatever. It's one of my favorite
favorite movies of all time. By the way, very underrated.
I honestly think they should show it. They just play
it every day on one channel so people will realize
that they should be doing good things in the world.
Like that movie made me realize, oh, I should be
(27:45):
doing nice things for people because it makes the world
a better place, and maybe that person will do something nice.
They would just keep moving forward. I know it's a
silly thought process, but for me, I love that idea
of pay it forward. It's such a great I'm gonna
go watch it.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Go watch that. I'm gonna go watch Six Tents and
remind myself, no.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Don't do that. People are everywhere that that movie. Wow,
what dude.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Anyway, I don't want to get too much down the sidetrack,
but I watched that movie recently with my oldest who's
now thirteen, because we were like, show you a scary movie.
So my wife and I were like super excited to
show her this movie that for us was so scary
when it came out and when we watched it, which
was like it I don't know, eleven or twelve whatever. Yeah,
we played it for her and we ended up just weeping.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, the whole movie is so sad.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I'm so excited that you realized scary.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
It's way more sad than I had remembered. Ever, And
as a.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Parent, did it take your how long did it take
your teenager to figure out the twist? Did they have
to get to the twist like we did to the end? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
She was like, wait, what so the twist still holds up?
And for everyone who's wondering the twist is.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
No, no, we can yarle it the whole time, was
what it was. Miss Scarlett other you're gonna give away
the real twist. I'm like, don't do it just in case.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Someone would come on. You know better than that. And
I also been out for like thirty years, so I know.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
But it's one of those movies where we're like, dude,
if you know the ending, it's like you but it's like, ah, well.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
So on that note, did you know that when Psycho
was was showing in theaters, Alfred Hitchcock requested that every
theater put up on the screen at the end of
the film, please don't talk about this film. They also
shut the doors for the screenings, like people could not
go in and out. They didn't want anybody leaking what
was happening in the movie.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Wow, no, no CID. I wish didnuld do that more often?
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Now I hate no, make the movie a real experience,
like you gotta go see it, you gotta go see it.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Because I'm trying to avoid Superman spoilers right now. Oh sure,
And there's like stuff like people are saying it's a
great I'm like, dude, I don't want to know you anything.
I'm gonna see it tomorrow. I don't want to know,
all right, Well, do.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
You want me to look up a Wikipedia summary?
Speaker 1 (29:59):
No?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
But yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
I think reaching out also cold. Reaching out to independent
producers is a fine thing. Ye send them a tape, okay,
unless you've got a blue check mark and like one
hundred thousand followers. Just realize they're going to want a
tape and to see how you are as a stand up,
who you are as a stand up. So don't make
(30:26):
them ask you for a tape, okay, just send them
a link to a tape. Five minutes is all it
will take. Five minute tape on your YouTube channel. Just
send it or a Vimeo link, whatever it is. But
send it to them unasked. Say I would love to
do your show. It looks very fun.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Be aware with independent shows there's kind of shticks or
parameters to make them a little more enticing to audiences,
to try to find an audience and sell tickets. So
be aware of what that is. Like, I do a
clean show. If someone sends me a tape, which happens
way more often than not, they send me a tape
that has them saying the F word four times and
(31:04):
they're talking about graphic sexual stuff. I immediately have to write
back to them and say, this is not the kind
of comedy we're looking for. Do you have a cleaner set?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
And that's a you know, what is the what is
the response? Usually no respond back wow I And I've
heard people say that, go h, I don't. I can't
because I wanted to book people. And I'm like, can
you do five ten minutes queen? Oh no way, man,
I could never do that. I'm like, yeah, really, you
can't do five minutes clean. You're never gonna get on TV.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, you know, it's insane.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
And I you know, some people just don't care about
getting on TV anymore, to be honest, and people are like, whatever,
TB is not what it is.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I want to do it. Don't tell.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Don't tell, doesn't tell me to be clean or anything true.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
You know my favorite don't tell people. Have you seen
this guy? He's a old He's an old guy. No,
pop it up a lot. He taught me. One of
his jokes is about I just paid off my student loans.
He's like seventy years old. It's so funny. He does
a dotel. I forgot his name I got to find it.
But I absolutely love him. And then I looked him up.
It's like he's been doing stand up for forty five years.
(32:12):
I'm like, forty five years.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
If he's just.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Now getting getting his break, I was like, oh my god,
I like started to get like here he had for him.
I was like, oh, that's so sad.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Yeah, oh man, that is that is awful. Yeah, but
you know, for some people, that's kind of the way
it goes.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
And a lot of people have two three jobs while
they're doing stand up, you know, or they have another life.
So just be ready that that's also a very real
reality for a lot of stand ups is that the
stand up game is not a consistent moneymaker. You know,
you have to without quite a bit of effort and
(32:49):
quite a bit of brind You've got to find kind
of your niche and figure it out.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Otherwise you also got to have another job.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
So you know, all that being said, I think nowadays,
if you want shows to come to you, best of luck.
You got to get famous on social media or get
a spot on a commercial or TV and hopefully get
some notoriety in another sphere and then bring that to
(33:19):
stand up. But most most likely you're gonna need to
just do the grind. There's no substitute for hard work,
being out there being nice.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
And how much material?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
So I asked you this, how much material did you
have kind of ready to go before you got really paid?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
About fifteen to twenty I think is a safe amount
to have.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
And it has to be good. You can't have like
ten minutes strong five minutes as you crowd work kind
of meandering in five minutes as you like this is
off the cuff stuff that I haven't really worked out
or whatever. It can't be that. It's got to be tight,
all of it, every single portion of it.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah, it's got to be your best fifteen to twenty.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Because I just talked to a friend of mine who
I think would do a great job if they got
to record. I don't tell or even a because they're
not clean, a dotel or a lamaof.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Oh yeah yeah, the only fans.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Thing or whatever. And I was like, look, you should
do one of those if you can. And I'm like,
how much time do you have? And they're like, oh,
I got like twenty five minutes if I can do
crowd work for like five ten minutes, And I'm like, no, no,
not CrowdWork. What is what do you have that is
tight that you can go to and do? And that's
the thing that's crazy. Thing is Comedian's like, oh yeah,
I could do. You know, I got fifteen tight and
I got ten minutes of CrowdWork. It's like, no, no,
(34:37):
crowdworks is not going to translate well. The only person
I've ever seen have crowd work translate well to a
special is this guy named Todd Berry. And it's called
The CrowdWork Special and that's what he was gonna do.
And when I saw it for the first time, I
was like, this is magic. This guy is doing magic, right,
That's what I thought. Since then, I've seen good crowd
(35:00):
work and terrible crowd work, and I'll tell you Todd
Berry still looks like he's doing magic. I don't care
what he says. That's one of my favorite favorite specials
of all time.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah he is.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
He is very good. There's another crowd work guy. Why
can't I think of his name?
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Don't say Matt Rife.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
No, he's not gonna say Matt Rife. Uh in bag?
Does that sound right?
Speaker 1 (35:25):
In Bag? I am so so on in Bag? I
do like silver stuff but I've seen so much of
his crowd work that I feel like it's very the
same all the time.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
He's done it so much, Yeah, that if you watch
a lot of it, you realize, oh, he has a formula.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yeah, it's like he hasn't written material, but he's written
the material.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
So that's one thing to keep in mind.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
And you know, the dirty little secret for most of
stand up is that it's not improv.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
It's not improv.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
We've written Todd.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Todd Berry's crowd was improv, yes, and it was fantastic.
And he also did it like in like Seven Cities
or something crazy like that, like and he did them
all And I remember the first time I saw it thinking, oh,
how are you doing this? This is literally it literally
blew my mind. And it was before I ever got
into stand up, but I felt like it was. If
(36:17):
I watched that again today, i'd be like magic, I'm
watching magic happen, you know. Yeah, it's not like slide
of hand fake. I know that you're putting it up
your sleeve magic, but like you made the Statue of
Liberty disappear, David Copperfield level of magic.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
You know, I'm saying, Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, you know,
not to Disshigny and Bag, but like there's not a
lot of work that goes into what Ian Bag does
as well. It's just like in the moment or when
you watch it enough, you realize, oh, these are some
learned responses that he's developed.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, it's just different.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
You know, it might not be the true off the
cuff crowd work, but you know, anyhow, So I think
think having fifteen to twenty minutes is a good benchmark
for when you are ready to get on a show
that could pay you something. And the reason I say
fifteen twenty is because that's about what a host or
feature would do, and that is most likely where you're
(37:15):
gonna get your first paid kind of spot is featuring
somehow or maybe hosting, but hosting is much more difficult
than most people realize, so difficult. Featuring is probably the
safest gateway into getting paid or doing some sort of
showcase spot which is around ten minutes, where you also
get paid that nominal kind of independent show fee, gas
(37:39):
money fee, whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Yes, let me ask you a question. If you were
starting over now and you odite's at the open mic level,
and you wanted to get your first paid gig. Would
you go and produce a show or would you try
to get on someone else's show? What would you what
would be your road or path? What do you think
would be more beneficial?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Yeah, I mean I would produce a show. To be honest,
I think having now producing a show comes with its
own headaches and its own nightmares. But having something that
you can murder that is spots okay. So essentially starting
your own show means you found a venue, you have
(38:23):
taken upon yourself to try to sell tickets, and now
you're reaching out to comics. You have something to offer them, right,
which is stage time. They immediately like you because you're
giving them stage time. And I would say for your
first two three shows, reach out to people that you like,
respect and want to emulate in your own comedy. Okay,
(38:45):
good tool for networking, and you have now a great excuse.
The toughest thing about networking is like, well, why would
I want to talk to them? Why would they want
to talk to me? That's the biggest hang up. What
do I have that they would a show? You have
spots stage, so you reach out to them and say, hey,
I really love your stand up I'm doing this show
on this date. Give them a month notice and ask,
(39:09):
you know, just be like, hey, are you available? And
then you know, hang out with them at the show,
talk to them, Hey, you did a great job, Like
how long you've been doing stand up?
Speaker 2 (39:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
It's a great gateway into a normal relationship.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
But I would definitely try to produce a show I do.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
And on the piggyback on that, I would say, think
of the JFK speech, the most famous speech, right, ask
not what comedy can do for you, ask what you
could do for comedy, right, I mean, honestly, that's that's
what I would do. That's the way to go about
it is because if you're offering something, if you're giving something, right,
this is where it comes back to the pay it forward.
Would you do something like that, people are more inclined
(39:49):
to help you. People are more inclined to give you
an opportunity. If you call that. I hate the most
of people like, hey man, can I get a spot?
Hey man? Can I get a spot? Hey man? Can
I get a spot? And you're like, what's what? What
is what about getting out of this? I'm giving you
a spot, but is there and not to be like, oh,
you have you have to get something out of it.
But like, if you're asking and you're not providing any
value besides your time on stage, which you're doing for you,
(40:13):
what is it really What is it really benefiting the producer,
the show, the club, whatever, you know.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, And I mean I think there's also an issue
where you're gonna now deal with people that you don't
find funny.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yes, do you give them a spot or not?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Right?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
And that is a question that only you can answer
as a producer.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Yeah, and there was there were some people where I
saw that I was like, that person's not funny. But
I know that other people like them. I know that
audiences like them. I don't find them particularly funny, and
I know that they have a following, and I know
that they, you know, are good at networking. And if
I make friends with them or have at least a
decent relationship with them, maybe something could come from it
(40:55):
down the road.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Yeah. And now you find that that actually material realized.
Do you ever find that it? Oh? All right, so
did you ever find that that actually helps you?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Do?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (41:08):
It It helped me be better at networking, and it
helped me be better at I and sticking with my gut,
where if I don't find somebody particularly funny, they're probably
not gonna do well on a show that I produce. Yeah,
doesn't mean that they're not funny, but doesn't mean that
audiences don't find them funny. But for my kind of
shows and for what I'm doing, if I'm not finding
(41:30):
them funny, my audience for my shows are probably going
to feel the same way.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
So that and I broke in that rule maybe three
times in my life. One here was another one. There
are also people that you may find hilarious that other
people do not particularly like. Yeah, that happens too. There
are also people that you, as a comedian may discover
(41:59):
and go that person's awesome. Someday good things are gonna
have for them, and I want to be on their
good side, you know. So for me, Like, the first
person I ever recognized that I knew would be famous
one day was Preacher Losson him and I just talking
outside of an open mic at flappers, laughing, having fun,
and I said to him one day, I said, one
(42:19):
day you're gonna be famous, And he goes, oh, thanks man,
and I go, no, that's not a compliment that is
a I'm telling you this is gonna happen. The other
person that happened for was Bruce Gray. I said, Bruce
and I would dig comedy at Flappers and stuff. And
I said, Bruce, someday, Bro, you're gonna be everywhere. People
are always gonna know who you are. Sure enough, Bruce
(42:41):
Gray is everywhere. I think maybe I missed my calling
as like a comedy manager of like scout, talent scout
or something where like I can I can watch people
and go, that person's got it, They're gonna do something special.
And then I go watch other people and go, if
they did X, Y and Z, they wouldn't murder and
they would have whatever they want. But there, I don't
(43:04):
know if they're ready for that. And you can't also
go up to somebody be like, hey, you know, if
you have X, Y and Z, you could do like
you sound like a jerk. So I don't want to
do that. But if I wasn't, if I was a
talent manager, talent manager, talent scout, something like that, and
I could do that for comedians and go up to
them and say, hey, I will I will help you.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I just want whenever you break through some of the payback, Yeah,
some form of cut or money and stuff, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, nothing,
I would ask for that for pretty too.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Late now, too late.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Maybe some listeners right now with like some coaching from
JD on their stand up or their persona or whatever
it is.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
There was a really good guy, his name what is
his real name? His his handle is Adiba dude. And
I did a little bit of coaching and stuff with him,
and I was like, look, this is the thing that
if you're going to lean into this name and whatever,
you got to use it a little more. You gotta
do a thing. And I've seen more stuff from him,
and it feels like he really is leaning into what
he wants to be on stage. And honestly, yeah, I
(44:02):
think his name is like a I'm gonna I'm so sorry,
I'm gonna I'm gonna look it up because otherwise I'm
gonna feel like a jerk, and he's gonna be write
me a mean letter and say, hey.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
How me looking aba Ariba dude?
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Daniel quit there. Yeah, and he is he is very funny. Yeah,
he's very funny, and he is gonna go far. Daniel
Quintero His name is Ariba Underscore Dude on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Go check him out.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
He is very funny, He's from Texas. He's just he's
he's a brand new comedian. I think twenty he started
like twenty twenty three. But I'm telling you, give him
another year or two, dude's gonna be on fire, lighting
up the world.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
I get yell that interesting, all right. I don't keep
a looking out for him.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Yeah, So, I mean I had that thought about was.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Chappelle Lacy Okay?
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
I saw him for the first time we didn't open
mic together at this like ho Dunk Theater in North Hall,
and immediately I was.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Like, oh, yeah, he's gonna blow up.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
And then within the next year he'd absolutely taken off.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Isn't that crazy? Some people just have that thing. We
just go okay that they got it. And what's funny
is I don't know if you ever heard Preacher lost
and laugh, but he laughs a lot like Eddie Murphy. Yeah,
And so I actually I was just walking to the
mic and I heard him laughing, and I stopped and
I was like, I love your laugh, dude. It sounds
like Eddie Murphy. And he's like, oh man, thanks, and
then like then we started joking and bantering or whatever.
(45:30):
And I remember we did open mic stuff together a
couple of times, and I just said to him, like, dude,
one day, you're gonna be famous. I know. He's like, thanks. Man.
I'm like, no, that's not not that's not a compiment.
That's a that is the premonition. I'm telling you right now. Yep.
And I was correct, fly I everybody. I was correct,
And anybody anyone who told Preacher that he wasn't gonna
(45:52):
make it, they were stupid, because the dude is hilarious
and amazing and friendly and outgoing and probably one of
the best human beings on the planet, you know, not just.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Very very nice guy. Yeah, yeah, life. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
But if you want to last me produce a show,
go ahead. What was the last thing they had?
Speaker 3 (46:10):
So I was gonna say the last piece of advice
is to have maybe a few different sets. We've kind
of maybe talked about this a little bit, or you
could have picked up the implication, but have a cleaner set,
have a dirtier set that you can alternate between, and
if that those two merge into your ten fifteen twenty
minute set, then you're just being very efficient about it, right.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
But I would recommend having kind of a cleaner set.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
And then one that you you know, you do to
the drunken the drunken bars to really get their attention
and you know, have have the most reaction that you want,
you know.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Yeah, I always say, and this was something that Robert E.
Lee told me when I was doing comedy and he
was working with me, is that you can always dirty
up clean, but you can't clean up dirty. So if
you write all your jokes clean, you could always throw
in f bomb or you know, a body part reference
or sexual innuendo or whatever it is that you want
to do. But if you keep it all clean, you
(47:09):
could always do clean. And then if you want to
add a little sprinkle it a little dirty later on,
you can always sprinkle it in. But you know that
it doesn't require it, but it will make it a little.
It's like adding a little seasoning on your on your stuff.
You just make a little spicier by a little hot
sauce to it, but you don't have to walk around
and eating it. That way, you don't have to have
your set be dirty all the time. And that's how
COMMUNI say that write everything clean, write it all clean,
(47:32):
then add stuff to it later when you know that
you can. Because if you go in and say, look,
I can do clean and dirty, people be like, all right, cool,
this is a clean show, so I need you to
do clean? Got it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (47:43):
Yeah, you know, and you know, I know it's a
clean comedy podcast, so it should be advocating for clean.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
All the time. But you got to be logical and
talk about the business.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Yeah, And some bookers are like, well, I don't know
if I can fit you in. People don't have faith
in clean comedy. That's really the problem is that people
are like, oh, I don't know if clean can ever
be funny. And the truth is, the biggest comedians are clean.
Nay Bergatzi, Jerry Seinfeld, they are all.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Clean, and Jim You've got Jim Gaffigan.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
Jim Gaffkin, Brian Reagan, Kathleen Madigan, Jerry Seinfelt like, these
are all big, big names and they are clean.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
And it used to be that you had to get
on the Tonight Show to really get that notoriety. You
had to have five minutes five to seven clean that
you could do on the Tonight Show. So I wholly
agree with you. It is always better to be clean.
I think you can always dirty up clean. Sometimes sometimes
bookers don't have faith that clean can be funny, so
(48:49):
you have to just dirty it up a little bit
so that they are on board with like, oh yeah,
this can be fun, this can be fun.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
So exactly right, exactly right, And I think that's the
that's exactly where we are is you know, doing that.
So if you want to make money and you're doing
open MIC's one, produce a show. So you got trades
and also you can bring in a little income that
way if you're charging at the door something like that.
To do those trades and try to get on shows
that are booking. There a lot more that they're doing that. Three,
if you can find a way to distribute some of
(49:18):
your comedy, that is good. Make sure it's a material
it always kills. You have a good audience. See if
you can get it on serious XM, satellite radio or
some other things, Spotify, whatever is. People are releasing YouTube
albums and YouTube stand ups. I know I'm actually gonna
take one of the sets that I have with Zaye,
one of my favorite best sets of all time, and
(49:41):
get it edited and put it out on YouTube pretty soon.
So that's my one of my next things.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
Good, So it's only I think that one's only fifteen minutes,
so I'm just gonna call it fifteen minutes of tame. Yeah.
I just think it's funny. And so I'll put that
out there and then and then I'll keep working on
my stuff and then hopefully I can either get a
don't tell have you heard of Oh, I'm asking you,
have you heard of Open Bar? No. Open Bar is
(50:10):
like another platform that records like Dry Bar, but I
think they're kind of anything goes.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
But oh interesting, And I've.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Tried to I've tried to reach out to them to
see like what their requirements are. I have not heard
anything back, but maybe you maybe you have a better
way of getting it and stuff. It's five ninety nine,
it's all. I mean, it's all over. There's a lot
of good comedians on there that I've seen.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
You know, when you say, what do you mean.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Like it's a it's like it's almost like, uh, it's
almost like Dry Bar, where it's like a certain amount
for a month and you get like all these comedy
specials and stuff.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
Oh oh oh subscription service.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yeah, yeah, which is crazy. Like Peter Peter Burman's on there.
One of my favorite people, Flip Schultz is on there.
I mean, I know, I know a lot of people
who are getting who have these open bars, and I
don't know how long they are. I don't know how
long the yeah, thirty minute plus. So yeah, you know,
(51:16):
maybe there's something there. I guess that's the thing is.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
I know Paul Conyers, he's good guy. Then open bar interesting.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
So yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of them
out there. Auguie Smith I've seen before. I don't know
him well. But what I what I'm probably gonna do
is I'm probably gonna reach out to my buddy Flip
and say, hey, Flip, can you can you get me
you know, a hook up or talk to somebody or
my name out there, you know whatever and stuff. So yeah,
it's so that's that's I mean, you you might get
(51:49):
benefit more than me, but it'd be nice to see,
you know.
Speaker 3 (51:52):
I mean, I don't know, I think we could all
benefit equally from getting someone there.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
Oh yeah, I'll have to check that out.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Yeah, exactly right. Cool, Yeah, very good. They look very new, Yes,
yes they do. They do look very new and I'd
love to see. I have an email for you that
I will drop into the chat for you, just for you,
not for I did. I did some research there in
about fifteen seconds, I found what I what I wanted
(52:21):
to there, you go, yeah, perfect, I.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
Think I found it as well. Maybe yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
All right, A little digging, A little digging'll do it.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
Little digging will do it. Okay, perfect, all right. I
mean that's all I really got. There's no magic, no secret.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
There's just strategy, strategy, networking and and paying it forward.
If you take anything from this, pay it forward, do
the right thing by people, and be a good person
in comedy. If you're a good person, people will remember
you and they will give you opportunities. You know, I
was a big fan of Darren Carter. I saw how
I got as altso the quick story how I got
(53:01):
to be Darren Carter's opener. I saw Darren Carter at
a show. I love Darren Carter. I used to love
listen to his old albums and stuff, and I said,
I said, oh man, I love your stuff. And I
did one of his bits in front of him, and
he goes, man, I haven't done that bit or heard
that bit in a long time, and I go, dude,
that's one of my favorite bits. So he goes on stage,
(53:21):
right I'm waiting. He goes on stage, he does this set.
He's like, hey, I got one more crazy bit. I'm
gonna do some throwback bits, and he did a bunch
of his old bits and I was like, oh my gosh,
and I was like dying laughing the back because I
had only heard it on an album. I'd never seen
him do it live, and it was a thousand times
better live, by the way that it wasn't amazing on there.
And then he's like he got off stage and I
(53:43):
was like, oh my gosh, thank you so much for
doing those. I was great. He's like, dude, thanks for
reminding me. And then we talked, kind of became friends.
I helped him with like a podcast stuff, and then
it turned into Hey, I'm gonna go do this show
so and then I was like, hey, someone else asked
me to do this other show near where you're doing
a show. What if I got them to head let
you headline and then whatever, And then we did shows
and together and nice kind of became a thing for
(54:04):
a little while.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yeah. Yeah, so much of it is just being a
normal kind human being.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
Yeah. Yeah. And also if you like, if you like
a comedian, tell them, tell them that you like their work.
They we want to hear it, right, We're all doing
it for praise, you know, if you say, hey, I
love this bit that you do, and you know the
bit like just say hey, I love your jokes, and
you don't know any of their jokes, Like, don't do that.
If you're a real fan, tell them you're a real fan. Yeah,
(54:31):
end of the work. I mean. I got to meet
Tom Papa that way. Like I met him at Comedy
Magic Club and then he remembered me at another show
where he was performing, and I was in the front
row because my wife and I love Tap Papa And
he goes, yeah, he goes, We're so, I see you
a Comedy Magic Club. We talked for a little while.
He gives me some comedy vice. About three six months later,
he performs A Thousand Oaks the Civic Stark Plaza. We're
(54:53):
in the front row. Paul Morrissey does his set. I
knew Paul Paul was a nice guy. He's a great guy.
Paul does a set. Tom comes out, looks at the
front row and points at me and goes, comedian, what
are you doing here right now? And I go, I'm
watching you. He goes, did you do comedy today? I go, yeah,
I did it earlier. I went and did you know
the show or whatever. He's like, it's seven o'clock, like
(55:14):
what you do open mic? And I go yeah. He goes,
all right, I'll leave you alone. And then it was
just like that. It was just like that bad of
a thing of like him remembering who I was, because
I was very nice and polite and grateful and gracious.
I don't know if you remember me now. I hope
you would, but it probably not, sir. It'd be cool,
it'd be cool if you if you just remember that
I was at least a comedian, you know. Yeah, So
(55:35):
there you go. Be cool, be nice, produce stuff, do trades, network,
be a good person, and be funny. Be funny is
the last one other, because sometimes that's not even as
important as being nice and cool and easy to work
with and networking.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think the way I
would put it is it's it's got to be a given.
Speaker 2 (55:56):
Yes, it's to be understood that you're funny, you know.
Speaker 3 (55:59):
So That's why it's like, okay, but above and beyond
being funny, because that's what most comedians are gonna be.
That they're gonna be funny to somebody. They might be
funny to you, but they're gonna be funny. Then you
gotta be nice, like this is all this tough on
top of being funny.
Speaker 1 (56:16):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (56:17):
That is very true.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
Yeah, this is great advice. I love it.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
Thank you, Seth, Thank you everybody for listening. Please go like, subscribe,
go follow Seth, sethwork.
Speaker 3 (56:27):
You will find you find me on my website Seth
Lawrencecomedy dot com or on the socials Seth T Lawrence.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
Perfect, and you go to find me at JD. Creviston
on Instagram. I'm doing more stuff. I'm getting things done.
I am gonna be on vacation for a little while.
I will come back Seth and I will do another
episode uh before that, and I'll be holed for a
little while before I go back on the road in
the middle of August. So nice. It'll be good to go.
Thank you so much everybody for listening. To have a
good one. We're talking soon.
Speaker 3 (56:55):
By
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
killer tip to help you write tighter, get booked more often,
and build your clean comedy career without selling out or
trying to go viral. Just head to the link below
and quick 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 the Creek Comedy Podcast.
It's JD and I'm here with my great friend and
cost mister Seth Lawrence Seth.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, howdy, Hey dude.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm so excited to have you back. I thank you.
When this comes out, I will officially be forty four. Whoa,
but as of right now forty three, Tomorrow forty four,
and then when this comes out forty four. So recording
this ahead of time because I have to. I'll be
in Grant Cayman. So we can't. We can't have a podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
One of the seven wonders of the world is it?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I don't know anything about it. Honestly, I think it's beaches.
That's all I know. Although we're supposed to go swim
with stingrays, go to some like stingray play where they
like are our friendly.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah you said Grand Canyon, Grand Cayman. Oh, Grand Cayman.
I heard Grand Canyon swimming with stingrays. I was like, wait,
what what in the world?
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Where in the Grey Canyon are stingrays?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, I missed that part. I missed that part.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
No, I'm I'm be on the beach for a couple
of days. I need I need a break for a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
So didn't you know, like I've heard seven Wonders of
the World.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
But now I thought it was eight Wonders of the world.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well see, and people have heard eight and I just
googled it. There's like this list of twenty five things.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
What twenty five wonders of the world.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
I mean, look, Wikipedia has new seven Wonders of the world.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Wow, new seven Wonders of the World. I wonder if
I wonder there's something that's like the old Wonders of
the world, which like from the like from before a
certain time, and they're like new wonders and like then like,
well that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, so there's the seven Wonders of the Ancient world.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Okay, yeah, yeah, that makes sense, which you really liked?
What the pyramids and stuff like.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
That, Rome, colosses of roads, hanging gardens of Babylon, Lighthouse
of Alexandria, of Hell, a carnass statue of Zeus, Temple
of Artemis.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Then there was you know, wonders of the Middle Ages.
I guess there's been quite a few wonders. A few, Yeah,
quite a few wonders.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
You know what? You know what people wonder?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Wonder that is listed as a wonder of the world.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, but how what? What? So what you visited via Google?
Is that how that works?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I don't know, Google, Google Earth?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
You know what else people wonder about? Seth This is
a great segue how to go, how to go from
open mics and making money as a comedian.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
That's a wonder, that is a wonder, that is a
true mystery of the universe right there, And J. D.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
James is going to answer it for us, all.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Right, it's gonna be it's gonna be a joint effort
between f and I. I don't know how you made
your first dollar in stand up?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I actually so, here's the weird part. My first year
of stand up I made zero dollars as a stand
up but I made thousands of dollars as a comedy writer.
Oh okay, So that was a weird part where I
was making money in comedy even though I wasn't, at
least in my eyes or most people's eyes, I wasn't
quote unquote a professional comedian. Nobody would paid me to
(03:28):
do stand up right now.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
That's fascinating. So how did you get jobs writing comedy?
Was this part of what you were talking about last time,
with writing specs, scripts and everything else.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, so kind of like that. So I used to
be on Twitter back in the day. I'm no longer
on Twitter, but I used to be on Twitter back
on the truth, not at all. But what's the other one?
Blue Sky? I think is the other new one?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
This guy is the progressive one. But I think i've
seen you most often on four Chan, right.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh yeah, that's my that's my home base right there. Yeah,
he's that's trying to get me canceled right now? What's
going on? Seth? So I used to it used to
be on Twitter x whatever it's called now. It was
Twitter when I was on it. And there was a
show called at Midnight. Do you remember the show hit
at midnight with Chris Hardwick. Yeah, so I would stay
(04:18):
up every night. I would watch that show. I would
compete in the challenges and stuff. Some of my stuff
got shared on at midnight, some of them got retweeted
by at midnight, I got a bunch of follows or whatever,
and so I was like, oh, this is a good start.
Now I'm going to start writing. And I want to
I think it was I want to say it was
Scott Diggers. I think it was Scott Diggers, who is
(04:39):
the guy who started the Onion and stuff. Was talking
about writing you should write, you know, headline jokes or
write whatever jokes. So I didn't know about Babylon B
at the time. I only knew about the Onion. So
I would write silly headlines or silly jokes based on
news headlines, and that would kind of got popular. And
then I was like, oh, I'll post stand up terrible
(05:01):
idea first of all, but it got some eyes on
me as like, oh he could write jokes and he
could perform jokes, so that's great. And then I did
a crazy thing where I had heard a guy had
posted his Seinfeld nine to eleven scripts on Twitter, and
it got him a writing job, so I posted I
(05:23):
wrote a Brooklyn nine to nine spec script called heavy P.
I know it's intended. It's intended to be a double
entendre and it's about, uh, have you ever watched the Showrooklyn?
So in my specscript, Terry and Jake have to go reps,
(05:45):
have to go protect. They're doing bodyguard duty for this
rapper called heavy P who's a misogynist and a jerk,
and he keeps getting threatened on Twitter by by different eggs.
Like people will start like, you know, I'm gonna kill
you zero zero one, I'm gonna kill you zero, and
they like start different things, and so every time you know,
one gets taken down, they start another one. So they
(06:07):
go and try to protect this guy and he's a
jerk kind of and whatever, and they find out who's
who's trying to kill him and bust him. But the
way that they bust him is do you remember the
I forgot It's called black something. It's like where everybody
paused as they were doing something and the camera would
like move around them and they would play that song
or whatever. Yeah, so they use they use that thing
(06:31):
that was big at the time to kind of catch
who's doing it because they're the only one texting still.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Like like the matrix kind of style.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, but I forgot what the song was called. It's
called like black something or whatever. And they would play
it and then everyone would like freeze what they're doing,
whether they like pouring a drink or dancing or whatever
it was. And then the and the and the other
part of it was Holt. Holt gets a tip from
like someone in his in the LGBTQ community that bad
(06:59):
things are happening at this at this spa, at this
men's spa. So he sends he sends Sully or was
what's their names? Uh take it sends a two big
white guys, a big fat like white guys with with
Amy and Rose as backup, and it goes awry. So
he has to go in there and it's just a silly,
(07:20):
silly thing like for them to kind of like do
something silly and and really like understand what a gay
man has to go through because I have a gay uncle.
So I did that. So it was it was funny
like that, and people liked it. People that was funny.
People actually thought it was a real episode, Like what
is this episode coming out. I'm like, it's it's not
a real episode at all, and also has a Charles
(07:42):
Pizza throwback. If you remember Charles did like the pizza,
like he had the Pizza newsletter or whatever and stuff,
so there's like a throwback to that. Okay, there's a
lot of inside baseball stuff for that for that script.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
So then somebody reached out to me. I'm not gonna
say their name, but a famous person and if you
listened long enough, reached out to me to ask if
I wanted to work on a script with them. They
had part of it written, but they were going to
try to reboot their career through a through a new
pilot first show. So I worked on it with them,
punched up jokes, wrote stuff, edited whatever. Keep in mind
I was not good at it yet because I had
(08:17):
only written like three screenplays ever in my life. But
this was good and they paid me. And then after
they did that, they're like, hey, i'd also like you
to write some jokes for me. So I wrote jokes
to them for a year. So that's how I got
my first official writing gig, and then it turned into
writing for podcasts, writing for other people, all those kinds
of things like that, But it wasn't for a year
(08:38):
that I made any money as a stand up at all.
And then I started making money as a stand up
because I started producing my own shows. Ah, So even
then I wasn't getting paid by somebody officially. I was
producing shows, paying people, and then paying myself a portion
of that. So technically at that point I still wasn't
(08:59):
a profess comedian, right was. I was getting paid by myself,
but that doesn't really count. And then and then after that,
then I started booking. People liked me doing stuff, so
then I started getting booked on shows that did pay
five bucks, ten bucks whatever, nothing big. And then it
wasn't until a few years later I was getting paid
(09:21):
like twenty five to fifty bucks a show to host
and do shows. And then from there it just became,
you know, going on the road with people getting paid
that way, hosting, m seeing, doing private gigs, all that
kind of stuff. But it was like two years before
I really got like a real paying gig. And in La,
nobody wants to pay. They want to pay you like
(09:42):
bar drinks or something, or or tacos or anything anything
but money. Anything that money that you can put on
your rent, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Right, And I will say that culture has changed a
little bit since the pandemic. Okay, interestingly enough, a lot
of a lot of independent shows now pay.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Post pandemic. It's not great money, but it's gas money,
you know, at the very least.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I mean, even the Comedy Store I don't think pays
great money if you're just doing a regular book set there.
I think I've heard like thirty bucks or something crazy,
you know, something really low for their workout space.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
That's I think that's for either the oar or the
belly room. They get paid like a little. But then
if you do the main room, it's what it's split
of whatever the door is between the comedians as well.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, well, and that's because it's a more traditional show,
you know. It's that they'll they'll alternate between like a
lineup of three comics which is very traditional host feature headliner,
to like four or five, maybe six headliners, and they'll
kind of work in some people here and there. But yeah,
the workout, workout stuff in the belly room and the
original room minimal pay.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Minimal pay for those fifteen minute sets, which is pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
And by the way, zero dollars you make it on
the on the potluck zero dollars.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, no, they don't pay you at all.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That's an audition, you know, you go to audition, you
don't anyhow.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, fascinating.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
And how much material do you feel like you had
by the time you were getting paid to do stand up?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I would say, like a solid ten fifteen minutes. Okay,
And here's the funny part. I've retired retired most of
the material. I don't use it because they're kind of
older jokes. I've brought some of them back and reworked
them and whatever, so there are is some. But now
I'm doing twenty five you know, twenty twenty five minutes consistently.
I could do more if I you know, if I
(11:40):
had time. I just don't have time. His name because
we have a you know, we're trying to keep a
show at a certain amount of time. So yeah, so
we don't do that. But if he gave me thirty
minutes every night and he did forty five, that would
be awesome. I would love that. Or he did or
he did give me thirty and he did sixty or
fifty five or something like that, I would love that.
But yeah, so yeah, now it's consistent and it's all strong.
(12:02):
There's no weak material in there whatsoever. And I couldn't.
I can't being on the road, there's no way you
could have weak material. If you have weak material, you
have to call it and put something else in there
and work it and then fix it and fix it
and fix it. And that's so what we do on
the road, where constantly I'm like, oh, I have this idea,
is like, we'll try it, see what happens we try it.
He goes, oh, there's something there, but you got to
(12:23):
rewrite it and try it again. And then then I
have the next time to try it again and try
it again. If it doesn't work, like a few times
in a row, there's like, all right, scrap that, We're
gonna work on something.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah, yeah, come back to it maybe.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah. What about you? How did you get paid for
your first time? How is it to it?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
My first PID gig I think was also about two years,
maybe a year and a half in I got paid
to go do a set and a military show. Yeah, so,
buddy of mine, and I think you know, the name
of the game for stand up is networking. Whether you
like it or not, it is all about out who
(13:00):
you know. You gotta have some talent, but it is
mostly who you know. And so I I had met
this guy who was stationed at a at a base.
He made the journey down from Fort Irwin, which is
kind of out there, California, pretty far east, and so
(13:22):
he would he would drive in, got to know me
and eventually invited me out to do a show there
on the base and it was very fun. Got paid
I think it was two hundred bucks, which was like wow,
for first payday at a military show.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Yeah, I did that a couple of times, but that
was the only money I made for like a year
and a half, two years in stand up you know.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
And then and then it it doesn't doesn't snowball the
way you'd like.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Always, you know, you kind of have.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
One contact and you get paid from that one gig,
and maybe maybe that transpires into other gigs, but more
than likely it won't. You still have to network out
with more people. You still have to So then I
started getting you know, spots on independent shows, which before
the pandemic did not pay. I started producing my own
(14:22):
show and we eventually got a couple iterations at the
ice House where we got paid a decent amount.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Of money to do.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
And then yeah, and then kind of building the ice
house owners they shut down first of all, right around
the pandemic, and everything changed over the pandemic.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
So a buddy of mine and I started producing a show.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
We made a little bit of money off of that,
and then you know, pandemic lifted and more independent shows
started paying. So that's been where a lot of comics
now get their first paycheck as a comedian. And it's
not great money. Yeah, it's like ten maybe fifteen bucks,
(15:05):
you know. And then arguably I got paid to host
with the World Series of Comedy.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
So I joined this festival.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I competed in it for one year, got to know
the people who ran it really well. They liked me,
I liked them, and they were looking for hosts their
following year, and this was like tail end of the pandemic.
So I signed up with them to host and traveled around.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
And I say.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Arguably got paid because I got paid, but I also
had to pay my way, so it's sort of evened out,
you know.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Unfortunately, wait didn't pay for your hotel or airfare or anything.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Like that, so they did not pay for airfare they
did not pay for gas.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
They paid for hotel if it was really paid for
by the club. See, what I thought is that we
were going to be paid by the organization the World
Series of Common But really what they did was get
paid by the club and then split it amongst all
of us.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It was a very different setup. I knew going in
that I was not going to be paid a whole
lot of money. They were fairly upfront about that.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I did not realize I would be paid zero money,
you know, in the end of it all. So from that,
Oh the other thing, from producing my own show, I
networked with a guy who does stuff with Serious ExM.
Actually he filters a lot of content to their clean
(16:36):
channels on Serious XM, and I got a couple jokes
that played and still play to this day on Serious XM.
So every couple months I'll get a decent paycheck. And
that's where most of my money from stand up has
actually come from, is a couple of those jokes that
just keep on playing on Serious XM because those residuals
are fantastic, or the royalties are fantastic.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Were those jokes from like your dry Bar special where
they were pre pre your drive bar especially and how
did you how did you get him up there?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Like?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
How did that work?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
So this guy who records edits, he then sends the
he has a contact with Serious XM with kind of
their their radio playlist or the stand up channels, so
he would send them his own like here's here's what
I think would be good. And then that guy kind
(17:26):
of filtered through and chose jokes to then put into
the Serious XM rolodex.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
So that's how mine got through that filter.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Wow, there's there's a guy that I had, and maybe
I should reach out to him again now that you're
making you think I have some good material that would
be nice if I could get it on Serious.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
You know, I've heard various things about Serious XM.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
You know, they had a big lawsuit with Sound Exchange.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Over the royalties and how it was divided because we
could get super technical.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
But anyway, you know, there was a lot that dried.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Up with Serious ExM. They kind of stopped. They didn't
pay less, but they stopped taking new content.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Oh they did, and.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
They did for quite a while. I don't know if
they've changed their stance on that. I need to reach out,
reach back out. To him and see kind of what
the status is on that, because honestly, you know, when
you can find a way for your jokes to work
for you, like making your money work.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
For you, that is that's the way to do it.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
Chef's Kiss as the kids say, so that is definitely
the way to do it. And Serious ExM plays the
same stuff from forever ago. You know they once you're
on you're on that for quite a while. So it'd
be nice to get another round of jokes on there.
I need to reach out to him and see kind
of what's going on.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
That's funny because I did that one year for my
buddy David Sudebaker. He had he had a bunch of
stuff recorded and whatever, and he someone I talk to
somebody and I was like, hey, I'll connect you to
and then they got connected and David game all the
stuff and he got it on Serious XM and then
he gets a check from it every month or so
(19:11):
from Serious and he's well. I went one year. I
was like, David, I'm gonna get you a Christmas present.
He's like, no, dude, you don't need to get me anything.
You got me Serious and I have it on there
and stuff you know.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah, well that's great. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I mean Serious XM pays really well as far as
royalties go, So if you can get on.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
There, like, that's great.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
The best the only way I know how to do
it is by networking with other people that already have
contacts or in with them. There are a couple of
guys who got in on that game early, a couple
of comics I know who have kind of a direct
line because they they took so much of their stuff,
so they just like email their contact at Serious XM
(19:54):
and they get.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Almost whole albums that go up. And I know a
lot of comics like that's their living. They make their
living off of that essentially.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Do you know about what it pays? Do you like,
do you have any clue of kind of like a
range around ten dollars a play ten dollars a play, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Which is wow, that's insanely high.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
That's insanely high. Yeah, because even if you have your
album on Apple or Spotify or whatever, and some of
this is the whole album, you're not going to make
ten bucks off of.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
That most likely not.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah. Yeah, that's wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, So you know, obviously with that payout when they
got their lawsuit issues.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I think that's also why they kind of hold on.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
We we need to We're trying to be generous and
people are still frustrated, so we got to reevaluate what
is going on? Wow anyhow, But yeah, it's it's been.
It's not a bad way to go. So if you
can get you know, I guess some of this advice
is like, hey, if you're lucky enough, But a big
piece of it is being out there. You know, you
(20:58):
took a chance, you wrote a script and you put
it out there for people to see and hate on,
like like whatever it is. And I think the more
you get into this business, the more you realize there
are definitely haters out there. There are people that will
just tear down whatever's out there, but they're also not
producing anything other than hate.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
If you put yourself out there, and.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
You know are vulnerable right in that sense, but if
you just put your art out there, there are going
to be way more people who will say nothing but
respect it and like it than those who actually comment
something hateful. You know, And the only way to be
seen is to put yourself out there. So you either
got to go do the open mic thing and try
(21:41):
to find the local producers of shows in your area,
try to be nice to them.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Okay, it's not enough to.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Just be funny on stage when you're talking about independent shows, Okay,
especially if you're not known, if no one knows who
you are, if you've somehow gotten Internet famous, you probably
don't have to be as nice. People will try to
book you on the eyeballs, on whatever it is they're promoting.
But for most of us who no one knows who
we are, you have to be a decent human being,
(22:10):
and you have to be talented to some level.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Right, And arguably.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Being a decent human being is more important at the
independent show level than being super super funny.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Right. That's funny that you say that, because one of
Zane's things is before we ever go into a venue. Yeah,
he always just says out loud and he says it.
I know, he probably says it for me more than anything,
but he says, remember to say please and thank you, okay,
and he goes, he goes okay, because you know it's
like remember, remember, yeah, we're there to put on a
(22:43):
show and whatever, and maybe we're in a rush or
maybe you like whatever, but make sure you say please,
and think you make sure that you're being kind to everybody,
because remember, if you were a jerk, you know what
I'm saying, Yeah, they probably won't remember as much if
you're nice, but they'll probably remember that you were nice.
But then but if you're a jerk, they're for sure
never going to forget that.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yeah, And I will say touring with the World Series
of Comedy, talking to the staff, this is the other thing.
You know, A lot of comics or aspiring comics should
realize the people who book you don't always work at
the club. So they'll book you and then they send you.
But the staff and the managers at the club, that's
(23:20):
who you're going to face to face with, and if
they don't like you, they will tell that booker, Hey,
Seth was a jerk, so please don't book him again,
And the booker will be like, right, no skin off
my back. I got two thousand other comics that would
love to do a spot.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
So however, if.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
You're nice and you make a point of like tipping
the staff and the managers and being nice to them
and not making their lives difficult, that is following the
rules of the club. Okay, whatever the rules are at
that venue. Don't damage their equipment. I know act outs
are fun, but if you're slamming the mic stand unless
(24:00):
you're buying them a new mic stand, they might not
like that and they have to pay for that. So
be nice to the equipment, follow the rules of the club,
and then be nice to the patrons. Okay, if you're
in a conservative space, don't shame them for their conservative views,
(24:21):
just to be a champion, you know, and vice versa.
If you're out here in LA and you just want
to be conservative to just rile everybody up, don't expect
them to want to book you again, so they if
you make it bad for their patrons, who are often
repeat customers, they're not going to want you back.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
So those are the three big pieces of advice.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
And then the booker might work at the club, but
most likely won't, you know, so don't expect to meet
the booker at the club all the time. So be
nice to the staff, let them speak well of you,
and then hopefully you get a spot back, you know exactly.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
And one more things circle around for the independent shows
if you can't if you don't know the independent person,
but you know someone who's on that lineup and they
and they like you, and they will vounce for you.
Just say hey, next time you say you're talking to
the booker, if they're ever looking for somebody, will you
bring up my name? Will you just mentioned me in
passing or whatever? You know? Yeah, And that works a lot,
(25:22):
a lot more than you think, because people go, hey,
I'm friends with Sonso if you ever need another comedian,
he does or she does X, Y and Z. You know,
I've done that too, where I've got asked to do
a show and I can't do it for for some reason,
and I go, I don't know if you will take
a recommendation, but I'd like to recommend this person instead,
if that's okay with you, you know, And nine times out
(25:43):
of ten, bookers will go, thank you. That's great. Now
I don't have to go look for anybody else. Right now,
I don't have to go find another person. I don't
have to deal with a bunch of dms. You've already
given me the person. And that right there, that's you helping.
That's saying that's the please and thank you. Right you're
saying thank you for the opportunity. I can do it,
can I please offer you someone else so that they
could do it right, and they're saying please, thank you too.
(26:07):
At that point it becomes a very nice thing. Do
you know? I think I brought this up on the
podcast a bunch of times, the smile at a cashier thing.
Have I brought that up before? I probably have.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
With me at least.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
So there was a study that was done that anyone there,
you go to a store, if you smile at the
cashier that an average amount of time, there's a certain
amount of times that cashier would then smile at the
next person and the next person, and it would just
keep It will become a cycle of smiles. So what
I mean when I say that in this sense is
(26:40):
if you're passing on good vibes to that person, that
person gonna pass on good vibees to somebody else and
it's gonna keep happening and you're gonna get a better community.
The problem that we have in the comedy community, and
I don't want to say just LA, but I know
it is a lot in LA, is that everyone feels
like they have to be cutthroats. I can't give you
that Booker's information. I can't tell you where they're at
I don't know, you know, so I'm not I know,
(27:00):
I don't want to stick my neck out there or
whatever it's like, but they'll be the first people to
come to you like, hey man, you get be on
the show and you're like, dude, why why would I
do that for you when you're not willing to pass
a good vibes? You know, right? So I always think
about that, and when I do go into comedience stores
or targets or whatever, I always smile at the at
the I just think it's a nice thing. And then
(27:23):
it's from one of my favorite movies. Have you ever
seen pay It Forward? Yes, that's an old movie Haley
and Hailey, Joe Osmond, whatever. It's one of my favorite
favorite movies of all time. By the way, very underrated.
I honestly think they should show it. They just play
it every day on one channel so people will realize
that they should be doing good things in the world.
Like that movie made me realize, oh, I should be
(27:45):
doing nice things for people because it makes the world
a better place, and maybe that person will do something nice.
They would just keep moving forward. I know it's a
silly thought process, but for me, I love that idea
of pay it forward. It's such a great I'm gonna
go watch it.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Go watch that. I'm gonna go watch Six Tents and
remind myself, no.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Don't do that. People are everywhere that that movie. Wow,
what dude.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Anyway, I don't want to get too much down the sidetrack,
but I watched that movie recently with my oldest who's
now thirteen, because we were like, show you a scary movie.
So my wife and I were like super excited to
show her this movie that for us was so scary
when it came out and when we watched it, which
was like it I don't know, eleven or twelve whatever. Yeah,
we played it for her and we ended up just weeping.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, the whole movie is so sad.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I'm so excited that you realized scary.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
It's way more sad than I had remembered. Ever, And
as a.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Parent, did it take your how long did it take
your teenager to figure out the twist? Did they have
to get to the twist like we did to the end? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
She was like, wait, what so the twist still holds up?
And for everyone who's wondering the twist is.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
No, no, we can yarle it the whole time, was
what it was. Miss Scarlett other you're gonna give away
the real twist. I'm like, don't do it just in case.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Someone would come on. You know better than that. And
I also been out for like thirty years, so I know.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
But it's one of those movies where we're like, dude,
if you know the ending, it's like you but it's like, ah, well.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
So on that note, did you know that when Psycho
was was showing in theaters, Alfred Hitchcock requested that every
theater put up on the screen at the end of
the film, please don't talk about this film. They also
shut the doors for the screenings, like people could not
go in and out. They didn't want anybody leaking what
was happening in the movie.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Wow, no, no CID. I wish didnuld do that more often?
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Now I hate no, make the movie a real experience,
like you gotta go see it, you gotta go see it.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Because I'm trying to avoid Superman spoilers right now. Oh sure,
And there's like stuff like people are saying it's a
great I'm like, dude, I don't want to know you anything.
I'm gonna see it tomorrow. I don't want to know,
all right, Well, do.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
You want me to look up a Wikipedia summary?
Speaker 1 (29:59):
No?
Speaker 2 (30:03):
But yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
I think reaching out also cold. Reaching out to independent
producers is a fine thing. Ye send them a tape, okay,
unless you've got a blue check mark and like one
hundred thousand followers. Just realize they're going to want a
tape and to see how you are as a stand up,
who you are as a stand up. So don't make
(30:26):
them ask you for a tape, okay, just send them
a link to a tape. Five minutes is all it
will take. Five minute tape on your YouTube channel. Just
send it or a Vimeo link, whatever it is. But
send it to them unasked. Say I would love to
do your show. It looks very fun.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Be aware with independent shows there's kind of shticks or
parameters to make them a little more enticing to audiences,
to try to find an audience and sell tickets. So
be aware of what that is. Like, I do a
clean show. If someone sends me a tape, which happens
way more often than not, they send me a tape
that has them saying the F word four times and
(31:04):
they're talking about graphic sexual stuff. I immediately have to write
back to them and say, this is not the kind
of comedy we're looking for. Do you have a cleaner set?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
And that's a you know, what is the what is
the response? Usually no respond back wow I And I've
heard people say that, go h, I don't. I can't
because I wanted to book people. And I'm like, can
you do five ten minutes queen? Oh no way, man,
I could never do that. I'm like, yeah, really, you
can't do five minutes clean. You're never gonna get on TV.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, you know, it's insane.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
And I you know, some people just don't care about
getting on TV anymore, to be honest, and people are like, whatever,
TB is not what it is.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I want to do it. Don't tell.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Don't tell, doesn't tell me to be clean or anything true.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
You know my favorite don't tell people. Have you seen
this guy? He's a old He's an old guy. No,
pop it up a lot. He taught me. One of
his jokes is about I just paid off my student loans.
He's like seventy years old. It's so funny. He does
a dotel. I forgot his name I got to find it.
But I absolutely love him. And then I looked him up.
It's like he's been doing stand up for forty five years.
(32:12):
I'm like, forty five years.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
If he's just.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Now getting getting his break, I was like, oh my god,
I like started to get like here he had for him.
I was like, oh, that's so sad.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Yeah, oh man, that is that is awful. Yeah, but
you know, for some people, that's kind of the way
it goes.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
And a lot of people have two three jobs while
they're doing stand up, you know, or they have another life.
So just be ready that that's also a very real
reality for a lot of stand ups is that the
stand up game is not a consistent moneymaker. You know,
you have to without quite a bit of effort and
(32:49):
quite a bit of brind You've got to find kind
of your niche and figure it out.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Otherwise you also got to have another job.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
So you know, all that being said, I think nowadays,
if you want shows to come to you, best of luck.
You got to get famous on social media or get
a spot on a commercial or TV and hopefully get
some notoriety in another sphere and then bring that to
(33:19):
stand up. But most most likely you're gonna need to
just do the grind. There's no substitute for hard work,
being out there being nice.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
And how much material?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
So I asked you this, how much material did you
have kind of ready to go before you got really paid?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
About fifteen to twenty I think is a safe amount
to have.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
And it has to be good. You can't have like
ten minutes strong five minutes as you crowd work kind
of meandering in five minutes as you like this is
off the cuff stuff that I haven't really worked out
or whatever. It can't be that. It's got to be tight,
all of it, every single portion of it.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Yeah, it's got to be your best fifteen to twenty.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Because I just talked to a friend of mine who
I think would do a great job if they got
to record. I don't tell or even a because they're
not clean, a dotel or a lamaof.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Oh yeah yeah, the only fans.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Thing or whatever. And I was like, look, you should
do one of those if you can. And I'm like,
how much time do you have? And they're like, oh,
I got like twenty five minutes if I can do
crowd work for like five ten minutes, And I'm like, no, no,
not CrowdWork. What is what do you have that is
tight that you can go to and do? And that's
the thing that's crazy. Thing is Comedian's like, oh yeah,
I could do. You know, I got fifteen tight and
I got ten minutes of CrowdWork. It's like, no, no,
(34:37):
crowdworks is not going to translate well. The only person
I've ever seen have crowd work translate well to a
special is this guy named Todd Berry. And it's called
The CrowdWork Special and that's what he was gonna do.
And when I saw it for the first time, I
was like, this is magic. This guy is doing magic, right,
That's what I thought. Since then, I've seen good crowd
(35:00):
work and terrible crowd work, and I'll tell you Todd
Berry still looks like he's doing magic. I don't care
what he says. That's one of my favorite favorite specials
of all time.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Yeah he is.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
He is very good. There's another crowd work guy. Why
can't I think of his name?
Speaker 1 (35:16):
Don't say Matt Rife.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
No, he's not gonna say Matt Rife. Uh in bag?
Does that sound right?
Speaker 1 (35:25):
In Bag? I am so so on in Bag? I
do like silver stuff but I've seen so much of
his crowd work that I feel like it's very the
same all the time.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
He's done it so much, Yeah, that if you watch
a lot of it, you realize, oh, he has a formula.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yeah, it's like he hasn't written material, but he's written
the material.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
So that's one thing to keep in mind.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
And you know, the dirty little secret for most of
stand up is that it's not improv.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
It's not improv.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
We've written Todd.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Todd Berry's crowd was improv, yes, and it was fantastic.
And he also did it like in like Seven Cities
or something crazy like that, like and he did them
all And I remember the first time I saw it thinking, oh,
how are you doing this? This is literally it literally
blew my mind. And it was before I ever got
into stand up, but I felt like it was. If
(36:17):
I watched that again today, i'd be like magic, I'm
watching magic happen, you know. Yeah, it's not like slide
of hand fake. I know that you're putting it up
your sleeve magic, but like you made the Statue of
Liberty disappear, David Copperfield level of magic.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
You know, I'm saying, Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, you know,
not to Disshigny and Bag, but like there's not a
lot of work that goes into what Ian Bag does
as well. It's just like in the moment or when
you watch it enough, you realize, oh, these are some
learned responses that he's developed.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, it's just different.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
You know, it might not be the true off the
cuff crowd work, but you know, anyhow, So I think
think having fifteen to twenty minutes is a good benchmark
for when you are ready to get on a show
that could pay you something. And the reason I say
fifteen twenty is because that's about what a host or
feature would do, and that is most likely where you're
(37:15):
gonna get your first paid kind of spot is featuring
somehow or maybe hosting, but hosting is much more difficult
than most people realize, so difficult. Featuring is probably the
safest gateway into getting paid or doing some sort of
showcase spot which is around ten minutes, where you also
get paid that nominal kind of independent show fee, gas
(37:39):
money fee, whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Yes, let me ask you a question. If you were
starting over now and you odite's at the open mic level,
and you wanted to get your first paid gig. Would
you go and produce a show or would you try
to get on someone else's show? What would you what
would be your road or path? What do you think
would be more beneficial?
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Yeah, I mean I would produce a show. To be honest,
I think having now producing a show comes with its
own headaches and its own nightmares. But having something that
you can murder that is spots okay. So essentially starting
your own show means you found a venue, you have
(38:23):
taken upon yourself to try to sell tickets, and now
you're reaching out to comics. You have something to offer them, right,
which is stage time. They immediately like you because you're
giving them stage time. And I would say for your
first two three shows, reach out to people that you like,
respect and want to emulate in your own comedy. Okay,
(38:45):
good tool for networking, and you have now a great excuse.
The toughest thing about networking is like, well, why would
I want to talk to them? Why would they want
to talk to me? That's the biggest hang up. What
do I have that they would a show? You have
spots stage, so you reach out to them and say, hey,
I really love your stand up I'm doing this show
on this date. Give them a month notice and ask,
(39:09):
you know, just be like, hey, are you available? And
then you know, hang out with them at the show,
talk to them, Hey, you did a great job, Like
how long you've been doing stand up?
Speaker 2 (39:20):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
It's a great gateway into a normal relationship.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
But I would definitely try to produce a show I do.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
And on the piggyback on that, I would say, think
of the JFK speech, the most famous speech, right, ask
not what comedy can do for you, ask what you
could do for comedy, right, I mean, honestly, that's that's
what I would do. That's the way to go about
it is because if you're offering something, if you're giving something, right,
this is where it comes back to the pay it forward.
Would you do something like that, people are more inclined
(39:49):
to help you. People are more inclined to give you
an opportunity. If you call that. I hate the most
of people like, hey man, can I get a spot?
Hey man? Can I get a spot? Hey man? Can
I get a spot? And you're like, what's what? What
is what about getting out of this? I'm giving you
a spot, but is there and not to be like, oh,
you have you have to get something out of it.
But like, if you're asking and you're not providing any
value besides your time on stage, which you're doing for you,
(40:13):
what is it really What is it really benefiting the producer,
the show, the club, whatever, you know.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
Yeah, And I mean I think there's also an issue
where you're gonna now deal with people that you don't
find funny.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yes, do you give them a spot or not?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Right?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
And that is a question that only you can answer
as a producer.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Yeah, and there was there were some people where I
saw that I was like, that person's not funny. But
I know that other people like them. I know that
audiences like them. I don't find them particularly funny, and
I know that they have a following, and I know
that they, you know, are good at networking. And if
I make friends with them or have at least a
decent relationship with them, maybe something could come from it
(40:55):
down the road.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Yeah. And now you find that that actually material realized.
Do you ever find that it? Oh? All right, so
did you ever find that that actually helps you?
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Do?
Speaker 2 (41:07):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (41:08):
It It helped me be better at networking, and it
helped me be better at I and sticking with my gut,
where if I don't find somebody particularly funny, they're probably
not gonna do well on a show that I produce. Yeah,
doesn't mean that they're not funny, but doesn't mean that
audiences don't find them funny. But for my kind of
shows and for what I'm doing, if I'm not finding
(41:30):
them funny, my audience for my shows are probably going
to feel the same way.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
So that and I broke in that rule maybe three
times in my life. One here was another one. There
are also people that you may find hilarious that other
people do not particularly like. Yeah, that happens too. There
are also people that you, as a comedian may discover
(41:59):
and go that person's awesome. Someday good things are gonna
have for them, and I want to be on their
good side, you know. So for me, Like, the first
person I ever recognized that I knew would be famous
one day was Preacher Losson him and I just talking
outside of an open mic at flappers, laughing, having fun,
and I said to him one day, I said, one
(42:19):
day you're gonna be famous, And he goes, oh, thanks man,
and I go, no, that's not a compliment that is
a I'm telling you this is gonna happen. The other
person that happened for was Bruce Gray. I said, Bruce
and I would dig comedy at Flappers and stuff. And
I said, Bruce, someday, Bro, you're gonna be everywhere. People
are always gonna know who you are. Sure enough, Bruce
(42:41):
Gray is everywhere. I think maybe I missed my calling
as like a comedy manager of like scout, talent scout
or something where like I can I can watch people
and go, that person's got it, They're gonna do something special.
And then I go watch other people and go, if
they did X, Y and Z, they wouldn't murder and
they would have whatever they want. But there, I don't
(43:04):
know if they're ready for that. And you can't also
go up to somebody be like, hey, you know, if
you have X, Y and Z, you could do like
you sound like a jerk. So I don't want to
do that. But if I wasn't, if I was a
talent manager, talent manager, talent scout, something like that, and
I could do that for comedians and go up to
them and say, hey, I will I will help you.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I just want whenever you break through some of the payback, Yeah,
some form of cut or money and stuff, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, nothing,
I would ask for that for pretty too.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
Late now, too late.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Maybe some listeners right now with like some coaching from
JD on their stand up or their persona or whatever
it is.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
There was a really good guy, his name what is
his real name? His his handle is Adiba dude. And
I did a little bit of coaching and stuff with him,
and I was like, look, this is the thing that
if you're going to lean into this name and whatever,
you got to use it a little more. You gotta
do a thing. And I've seen more stuff from him,
and it feels like he really is leaning into what
he wants to be on stage. And honestly, yeah, I
(44:02):
think his name is like a I'm gonna I'm so sorry,
I'm gonna I'm gonna look it up because otherwise I'm
gonna feel like a jerk, and he's gonna be write
me a mean letter and say, hey.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
How me looking aba Ariba dude?
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Daniel quit there. Yeah, and he is he is very funny. Yeah,
he's very funny, and he is gonna go far. Daniel
Quintero His name is Ariba Underscore Dude on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Go check him out.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
He is very funny, He's from Texas. He's just he's
he's a brand new comedian. I think twenty he started
like twenty twenty three. But I'm telling you, give him
another year or two, dude's gonna be on fire, lighting
up the world.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
I get yell that interesting, all right. I don't keep
a looking out for him.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Yeah, So, I mean I had that thought about was.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
Chappelle Lacy Okay?
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
I saw him for the first time we didn't open
mic together at this like ho Dunk Theater in North Hall,
and immediately I was.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Like, oh, yeah, he's gonna blow up.
Speaker 3 (45:04):
And then within the next year he'd absolutely taken off.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Isn't that crazy? Some people just have that thing. We
just go okay that they got it. And what's funny
is I don't know if you ever heard Preacher lost
and laugh, but he laughs a lot like Eddie Murphy. Yeah,
And so I actually I was just walking to the
mic and I heard him laughing, and I stopped and
I was like, I love your laugh, dude. It sounds
like Eddie Murphy. And he's like, oh man, thanks, and
then like then we started joking and bantering or whatever.
(45:30):
And I remember we did open mic stuff together a
couple of times, and I just said to him, like, dude,
one day, you're gonna be famous. I know. He's like, thanks. Man.
I'm like, no, that's not not that's not a compiment.
That's a that is the premonition. I'm telling you right now. Yep.
And I was correct, fly I everybody. I was correct,
And anybody anyone who told Preacher that he wasn't gonna
(45:52):
make it, they were stupid, because the dude is hilarious
and amazing and friendly and outgoing and probably one of
the best human beings on the planet, you know, not just.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Very very nice guy. Yeah, yeah, life. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
But if you want to last me produce a show,
go ahead. What was the last thing they had?
Speaker 3 (46:10):
So I was gonna say the last piece of advice
is to have maybe a few different sets. We've kind
of maybe talked about this a little bit, or you
could have picked up the implication, but have a cleaner set,
have a dirtier set that you can alternate between, and
if that those two merge into your ten fifteen twenty
minute set, then you're just being very efficient about it, right.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
But I would recommend having kind of a cleaner set.
Speaker 3 (46:35):
And then one that you you know, you do to
the drunken the drunken bars to really get their attention
and you know, have have the most reaction that you want,
you know.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Yeah, I always say, and this was something that Robert E.
Lee told me when I was doing comedy and he
was working with me, is that you can always dirty
up clean, but you can't clean up dirty. So if
you write all your jokes clean, you could always throw
in f bomb or you know, a body part reference
or sexual innuendo or whatever it is that you want
to do. But if you keep it all clean, you
(47:09):
could always do clean. And then if you want to
add a little sprinkle it a little dirty later on,
you can always sprinkle it in. But you know that
it doesn't require it, but it will make it a little.
It's like adding a little seasoning on your on your stuff.
You just make a little spicier by a little hot
sauce to it, but you don't have to walk around
and eating it. That way, you don't have to have
your set be dirty all the time. And that's how
COMMUNI say that write everything clean, write it all clean,
(47:32):
then add stuff to it later when you know that
you can. Because if you go in and say, look,
I can do clean and dirty, people be like, all right, cool,
this is a clean show, so I need you to
do clean? Got it? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (47:43):
Yeah, you know, and you know, I know it's a
clean comedy podcast, so it should be advocating for clean.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
All the time. But you got to be logical and
talk about the business.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
Yeah, And some bookers are like, well, I don't know
if I can fit you in. People don't have faith
in clean comedy. That's really the problem is that people
are like, oh, I don't know if clean can ever
be funny. And the truth is, the biggest comedians are clean.
Nay Bergatzi, Jerry Seinfeld, they are all.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Clean, and Jim You've got Jim Gaffigan.
Speaker 3 (48:15):
Jim Gaffkin, Brian Reagan, Kathleen Madigan, Jerry Seinfelt like, these
are all big, big names and they are clean.
Speaker 1 (48:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
And it used to be that you had to get
on the Tonight Show to really get that notoriety. You
had to have five minutes five to seven clean that
you could do on the Tonight Show. So I wholly
agree with you. It is always better to be clean.
I think you can always dirty up clean. Sometimes sometimes
bookers don't have faith that clean can be funny, so
(48:49):
you have to just dirty it up a little bit
so that they are on board with like, oh yeah,
this can be fun, this can be fun.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
So exactly right, exactly right, And I think that's the
that's exactly where we are is you know, doing that.
So if you want to make money and you're doing
open MIC's one, produce a show. So you got trades
and also you can bring in a little income that
way if you're charging at the door something like that.
To do those trades and try to get on shows
that are booking. There a lot more that they're doing that. Three,
if you can find a way to distribute some of
(49:18):
your comedy, that is good. Make sure it's a material
it always kills. You have a good audience. See if
you can get it on serious XM, satellite radio or
some other things, Spotify, whatever is. People are releasing YouTube
albums and YouTube stand ups. I know I'm actually gonna
take one of the sets that I have with Zaye,
one of my favorite best sets of all time, and
(49:41):
get it edited and put it out on YouTube pretty soon.
So that's my one of my next things.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
Good, So it's only I think that one's only fifteen minutes,
so I'm just gonna call it fifteen minutes of tame. Yeah.
I just think it's funny. And so I'll put that
out there and then and then I'll keep working on
my stuff and then hopefully I can either get a
don't tell have you heard of Oh, I'm asking you,
have you heard of Open Bar? No. Open Bar is
(50:10):
like another platform that records like Dry Bar, but I
think they're kind of anything goes.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
But oh interesting, And I've.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Tried to I've tried to reach out to them to
see like what their requirements are. I have not heard
anything back, but maybe you maybe you have a better
way of getting it and stuff. It's five ninety nine,
it's all. I mean, it's all over. There's a lot
of good comedians on there that I've seen.
Speaker 2 (50:38):
You know, when you say, what do you mean.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
Like it's a it's like it's almost like, uh, it's
almost like Dry Bar, where it's like a certain amount
for a month and you get like all these comedy
specials and stuff.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
Oh oh oh subscription service.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Yeah, yeah, which is crazy. Like Peter Peter Burman's on there.
One of my favorite people, Flip Schultz is on there.
I mean, I know, I know a lot of people
who are getting who have these open bars, and I
don't know how long they are. I don't know how
long the yeah, thirty minute plus. So yeah, you know,
(51:16):
maybe there's something there. I guess that's the thing is.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
I know Paul Conyers, he's good guy. Then open bar interesting.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
So yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of them
out there. Auguie Smith I've seen before. I don't know
him well. But what I what I'm probably gonna do
is I'm probably gonna reach out to my buddy Flip
and say, hey, Flip, can you can you get me
you know, a hook up or talk to somebody or
my name out there, you know whatever and stuff. So yeah,
it's so that's that's I mean, you you might get
(51:49):
benefit more than me, but it'd be nice to see,
you know.
Speaker 3 (51:52):
I mean, I don't know, I think we could all
benefit equally from getting someone there.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
Oh yeah, I'll have to check that out.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Yeah, exactly right. Cool, Yeah, very good. They look very new, Yes,
yes they do. They do look very new and I'd
love to see. I have an email for you that
I will drop into the chat for you, just for you,
not for I did. I did some research there in
about fifteen seconds, I found what I what I wanted
(52:21):
to there, you go, yeah, perfect, I.
Speaker 2 (52:24):
Think I found it as well. Maybe yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
All right, A little digging, A little digging'll do it.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
Little digging will do it. Okay, perfect, all right. I
mean that's all I really got. There's no magic, no secret.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
There's just strategy, strategy, networking and and paying it forward.
If you take anything from this, pay it forward, do
the right thing by people, and be a good person
in comedy. If you're a good person, people will remember
you and they will give you opportunities. You know, I
was a big fan of Darren Carter. I saw how
I got as altso the quick story how I got
(53:01):
to be Darren Carter's opener. I saw Darren Carter at
a show. I love Darren Carter. I used to love
listen to his old albums and stuff, and I said,
I said, oh man, I love your stuff. And I
did one of his bits in front of him, and
he goes, man, I haven't done that bit or heard
that bit in a long time, and I go, dude,
that's one of my favorite bits. So he goes on stage,
(53:21):
right I'm waiting. He goes on stage, he does this set.
He's like, hey, I got one more crazy bit. I'm
gonna do some throwback bits, and he did a bunch
of his old bits and I was like, oh my gosh,
and I was like dying laughing the back because I
had only heard it on an album. I'd never seen
him do it live, and it was a thousand times
better live, by the way that it wasn't amazing on there.
And then he's like he got off stage and I
(53:43):
was like, oh my gosh, thank you so much for
doing those. I was great. He's like, dude, thanks for
reminding me. And then we talked, kind of became friends.
I helped him with like a podcast stuff, and then
it turned into Hey, I'm gonna go do this show
so and then I was like, hey, someone else asked
me to do this other show near where you're doing
a show. What if I got them to head let
you headline and then whatever, And then we did shows
and together and nice kind of became a thing for
(54:04):
a little while.
Speaker 2 (54:05):
Yeah. Yeah, so much of it is just being a
normal kind human being.
Speaker 1 (54:11):
Yeah. Yeah. And also if you like, if you like
a comedian, tell them, tell them that you like their work.
They we want to hear it, right, We're all doing
it for praise, you know, if you say, hey, I
love this bit that you do, and you know the
bit like just say hey, I love your jokes, and
you don't know any of their jokes, Like, don't do that.
If you're a real fan, tell them you're a real fan. Yeah,
(54:31):
end of the work. I mean. I got to meet
Tom Papa that way. Like I met him at Comedy
Magic Club and then he remembered me at another show
where he was performing, and I was in the front
row because my wife and I love Tap Papa And
he goes, yeah, he goes, We're so, I see you
a Comedy Magic Club. We talked for a little while.
He gives me some comedy vice. About three six months later,
he performs A Thousand Oaks the Civic Stark Plaza. We're
(54:53):
in the front row. Paul Morrissey does his set. I
knew Paul Paul was a nice guy. He's a great guy.
Paul does a set. Tom comes out, looks at the
front row and points at me and goes, comedian, what
are you doing here right now? And I go, I'm
watching you. He goes, did you do comedy today? I go, yeah,
I did it earlier. I went and did you know
the show or whatever. He's like, it's seven o'clock, like
(55:14):
what you do open mic? And I go yeah. He goes,
all right, I'll leave you alone. And then it was
just like that. It was just like that bad of
a thing of like him remembering who I was, because
I was very nice and polite and grateful and gracious.
I don't know if you remember me now. I hope
you would, but it probably not, sir. It'd be cool,
it'd be cool if you if you just remember that
I was at least a comedian, you know. Yeah, So
(55:35):
there you go. Be cool, be nice, produce stuff, do trades, network,
be a good person, and be funny. Be funny is
the last one other, because sometimes that's not even as
important as being nice and cool and easy to work
with and networking.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think the way I
would put it is it's it's got to be a given.
Speaker 2 (55:56):
Yes, it's to be understood that you're funny, you know.
Speaker 3 (55:59):
So That's why it's like, okay, but above and beyond
being funny, because that's what most comedians are gonna be.
That they're gonna be funny to somebody. They might be
funny to you, but they're gonna be funny. Then you
gotta be nice, like this is all this tough on
top of being funny.
Speaker 1 (56:16):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (56:17):
That is very true.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (56:20):
Yeah, this is great advice. I love it.
Speaker 1 (56:23):
Thank you, Seth, Thank you everybody for listening. Please go like, subscribe,
go follow Seth, sethwork.
Speaker 3 (56:27):
You will find you find me on my website Seth
Lawrencecomedy dot com or on the socials Seth T Lawrence.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
Perfect, and you go to find me at JD. Creviston
on Instagram. I'm doing more stuff. I'm getting things done.
I am gonna be on vacation for a little while.
I will come back Seth and I will do another
episode uh before that, and I'll be holed for a
little while before I go back on the road in
the middle of August. So nice. It'll be good to go.
Thank you so much everybody for listening. To have a
good one. We're talking soon.
Speaker 3 (56:55):
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