Whether you think his comedy is good or bad is entirely irrelevant — he’s a young comic who has just started his journey.  It takes balls to put up any video of yourself that is something you’re not completely happy with.  I applaud Ben for opening himself up to criticism — more people need to do this (as I discussed here).

Doing critiques like this will help Ben immensely in the long-run.  It forces him to write down his mistakes, no matter how seemingly trivial, and strive for perfection.  The more he obsesses over his flaws, the better he’ll get.  And the better he gets, the more people will follow him.

As his audience grows, his blog will switch from a personal exercise to an obligation for his fans.  He’ll be happy that people are following his progress, and he will feel compelled to critique himself for their sake, as well.

This is not going to be a short journey for him, or any artist that decides to take this path for that matter.  Musicians, filmmakers, comedians, writers — it will take years before any of them reach the level they want to get to.  And rightfully so: if you love the game that much, you have to be willing to push through the pain period.  But as soon as Ben gets over that mountain, he’ll reap all the benefits.

I hope Ben sticks with it.

The problem lies in the pervasive attitude of young comedians: all of them are hyper-paranoid about getting their material stolen.  Just watch this video of Joe Rogan tearing into Carlos Mencia, or listen to this clip of Dane Cook stealing from Louis CK.  No one wants their hard-earned material that they’ve fine-tuned for months to be taken by some lazy moron who can’t write their own jokes.

Because of the potential for theft, amateur comedians will scoff at the idea of having Youtube clips of themselves working out fresh material.  “What if someone on the other side of the country stole my jokes and got rich and famous as a result?!”  A part of me sympathizes with this outlook, but the other part of me wants to slap these people.  This fear of joke-theft is actually hindering their success. And the only way to overcome the fear is to make their jokes available to everyone, even if they’re not perfect yet.

The first aspiring comedian who truly dominates on Youtube will change the standup game forever.  This is why:

• He’ll tap into the long tail. When a great joke is told in a comedy club, it’s heard once by (maybe) 100 people.  When a great joke is told on Youtube, it will be heard by several thousand people in different countries as many times as they want to hear it.  It will be embedded on Myspace pages, saved on delicious, emailed to co-workers, talked about at parties… you get the idea.
• He’ll gain an online following. People will start subscribing to his channel and watching every video he posts.  Slowly but surely, his jokes will spread and his following will grow.  And the high school kids who aren’t allowed into the clubs, but are in love with standup…  they’ll get to hear his jokes, too.  And guess who they’ll want to see once they’re old enough.
• He’ll have a dated record of his jokes. If someone else takes his joke, he can now prove that he was the first to post it online.  His fans will respect him even more, and the thief will lose credibility.  Jokes will no longer be something you hold close to your chest until the time is right.  Instead, there will be a race to publish them first.
• He’ll have more accurate metrics. He no longer has to wonder why a joke is inconsistent (“Is it falling flat because the crowd wasn’t in the right mood, because someone was heckling me during the punchline, because the preceding comedian brought them down?”)  Now he can just look at the view count, ratings, and comments from thousands of people on his videos.  He can test, test, test to his heart’s desire on Youtube.  He’ll post his jokes relentlessly to see which ones work, and which ones need to be dropped from his live routine.
• More people will pay to see him live. The online jokes are great and free.  Imagine how fun it’d be to see his entire set in-person!
• He’ll inspire others. Even if he posts the same joke five times told on different nights, there are people out there who are interested in watching all five videos.  These people will be fascinated by all the nuances in his delivery, tone, wording, etc.  What seems nerdy and boring to him is actually amazing to the outsiders.

If you’re a comedian who’s just getting started, you absolutely have to leverage this medium.  And if you’re terrified that it’s just going to enable others to steal your jokes, you’re an idiot.  First of all, you’re not that original or creative.  Other people have thought of everything you have.  For instance, Maddox came up with some of the same jokes Chappelle told years later.  It wasn’t because Chappelle stole from Maddox – they just had the same train of thought (albeit, a very funny one).  Secondly, if people steal your jokes, GOOD!  That means you’re funnier than they are.  Your lazy competition will force you to come up with even better stuff.  I know any comedian who reads this will roll their eyes at that, but you’re playing by old rules.  And those rules need to be broken.

My favorite line from No Country for Old Men is when Anton Chigurh says, “If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?”  Exactly.  Even if you’re a moral comedian and you never steal from anyone, it won’t matter because some of your jokes will probably be stolen at some point.  Now, I’m not saying you should ignore the code of not stealing; I’m saying you need to stop worrying and focus on getting your jokes heard by as many people as possible.  Once you’ve established a loyal fanbase, you’re golden.

When Dane Cook started interacting with his fans on Myspace years ago, it changed things.  He wasn’t the funniest comedian, but his album sales were suddenly in the hundreds of thousands.  He was performing in arenas.  Why?  Because he’d built relationships with everyone who cared about him.  No comedian had ever done that before on the level he did.  He made his fans feel appreciated, both online and off.  Dane baked his fans into his brand and turned them into members of his tribe.

Now every comedian is on Myspace, thinking that the site will somehow propel them to Cook’s level of success.  But they’re missing the point entirely.  It’s not the tool that matters, it’s how you use it.  Youtube is a different dynamic, but it has far more potential to disrupt standup comedy.

Comedians need to learn from the fashion industry, where ideas are stolen, tweaked, manipulated, and then thrown out two weeks later.  Posting jokes for the world to see would speed up the evolution of every comedian’s material.

The successful artists will be the ones who also learn how to be great marketers.  All it takes is for one comedian to have a successful Youtube channel, and it will change the standup landscape forever.

——

Sidenote: If you’ve never seen Comedian, go out and rent it.  It’s brilliant.

If you want to build a substantial permission asset, you’re not going to be able to do that very well with an e-newsletter or a blog.  You need to focus more on proving the service you’ll provide: great jokes.

So spend one night each week filming the comedians, and edit that footage into several 1-2 minutes clips.  Then, start a Youtube channel for your club and post those clips (with each comedian’s permission, of course).

There are a lot of diehard standup fans out there (I’m one of them).  If you show us the kind of talent you have in your club, we’ll be more likely to come when you post a great clip with a description that says, “This guy is headlining this weekend.  Buy your tickets now!”

On how salami seems like a food terrorists would like:

One could easily imagine a group of bearded cave dwellers gnawing on hunks of salami while plotting the demise of the Great Satan.  Of course, one could also easily imagine that same group juggling bowling balls on the moon, for the simple reason that imagining stuff is easy.

Two of his New Years’ resolutions:

Don’t call in bomb threats to get out of dental appointments. This is, without a doubt, one of my worst habits.

Stop saying “zygote” when i mean “fetus.”

I recommend you check this book out if you like Black’s style of humor.  Before you read it, you may want to listen to his album to get a feel for him.  I think the guy is hysterical and the topics of his essays are really creative.  He’s able to take “intellectual” ideas and seamlessly blend them with goofiness.  Example: one of his essays is called, “Using the Socratic method to determine what it would take for me to voluntarily eat dog shit for the rest of my life.”

It was really interesting to hear about their writing process, and how important it is for them to have a free flow of ideas. He said that it’s a tremendous accomplishment if a writer has 5% of their original material left in any one episode, because they go back and rewrite things so many times. One of the funniest parts was when he talked about Fox’s censors, and the memos they’ve sent back to the writers. A particular memo they sent back was, “Please delete Bart’s line of: ‘Bastard, bastard, bastard, bastard, bastard.’ This is a repetitious stream of bastards, and it’s unnecessary.” Joel then quipped, “Which is not unlike the Baldwin brothers.”

One concept Joel introduced that I’d never heard of is “The Blow.” This is, apparently, an important element in writing comedy. The Blow is the joke at the end of a scene. It’s supposed to be the funniest joke, which gives the audience a huge laugh and makes it easier to transition to the next scene. Very interesting concept, and something I’ll try to apply to my film for the Trimedia Film Festival. For now, enjoy my old film “Home-Schooled,” which I finally got around to posting on YouTube.

One last thing: my Squidoo lens on how to make better slideshows.