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Why Can’t Stand-up Comedians Market Themselves Better?
Good marketers try to get their potential customers to laugh. Isn’t it ironic that stand-up comedians do not market themselves very well? Most comedians are utterly charming or engaging in some way in person but they cannot meet everyone. Getting the right meetings is a challenge. In fact, systematic marketing for comedy simply doesn’t seem to exist. This is somewhat understandable as comedians are good at creative, often not making a lot of money, and perhaps are not structured enough to further their own careers. This is why they have agents. Even if you had an agent, you are either famous already and you don’t need marketing or you have to wait for your social media buzz to climb sufficiently high for you to catch any notice. So what can up and coming comedians or their agents do to hasten visibility and fame?
There have been rare cases like Louis CK who made a cool $1M in ten days by releasing his special online for $5. His huge following was primarily responsible for that success. However the average comic has a far smaller following and little or no digital presence other than some video snippets and a snappy twitter account. Little if any marketing is being wielded for them. They rely on catching the notice of an agent who then body shops the comedian into a comedy circuit. If on that circuit notoriety builds, great. If not, the quality of gigs…
