Building a Following as a Comedian

I have a joke that makes fun of online dating using PlentyOfFish.com. After the show last night, a guy came up to me and we had a conversation that made my heart burst:

Him: Hey man, you should talk about the intermediate encounters on PlentyOfFish.
Me: Oh yeah? Is that where the girls are kind of good at having sex?
Him: Nah man…it’s that image bar with the hot girls that wanna bang.
Me: Oh…ok. Hey man, so what happens when you click on the link?
Him: Aw dude…it’s just a bunch of fuckin’ Asians that wanna have sex.

Then, he went back to his girlfriend.

Comedian = Entrepeneur

I’ve harped on this before, and I’ll say it again: the best compliment I can receive is when people approach me after the show and repeat my material back to me. That tells me that I’m making a lasting impact on them, which is the most important step in building a following. Build a following that will pay for your wares, and you won’t need to beg anyone for stage time.

That’s the entrepeneur in me, though. In life, most people want to be employees because it’s safe, and I understand that. But I think that if more comedians understood that they were self-employed, they might manage their careers differently…a lot differently.

If you have a boss, that means that someone else is control of your life’s plan. The problem is that you might not like what they have planned for you. – Anonymous

The Cool Ruler himself, Gregory Isaacs,

Jagdeo