Trouble Getting Comedy Gigs? Reinvent Yourself

Just back from NYC where I got lucky and got tixs to see "The Book of Mormon," the Broadway smash hit written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone of "South Park" fame. Hilarious! It got me thinking about all the many different career options there are for funny people -- after all, Trey started his career doing stand-up.  But instead of just limiting himself to stand-up and ending up doing a bringer show in a comedy club, Trey switched gears a few times which led to him accepting the Tony Award for the Best Musical on Broadway In fact, if you're talented at writing and performing comedy, you might want to think about exploring some other options too. Comedy clubs and TV aren't the only, nor even necessarily the best, comedy opportunities out there. We comics need to be just as creative in finding comedy gigs as we are in writing comedy material. You don't want to keep going forever with your same old and tired punch lines, right?  Then why continue with same old career options. Parker and Stone are just as creative at marketing themselves as they are at writing shows. They got their "South Park" series from making a Christmas card version of their little film school animation project. It went viral, before there even was an Internet. The rest, as they say, is history. A stand-up student of mine, Tangela Ekhoff, got a piece written about her in "Women's Day Magazine."  In her blog she reminded me of some good advice I once gave: "Years ago, when I trained under Judy Carter, she said, 'Decide if you want to be successful or famous. There are hundreds of successful comedians who work every day, and there are thousands who will struggle forever because they want to be famous.' It took almost ten years for this sage advice to really hit home with me." Tangela built up her career by being creative in pursuing gigs.  She's performed in hundreds of churches, colleges, conferences, and nursing homes. Not so glamorous, perhaps, but she's a full-time working comic and getting a full page write up in a national magazine is none too shabby. If you have the ability to write funny and be funny, then don't stop thinking out of the box when figuring out how to make money at it. Comedy careers include speaking; hosting award shows; voice-over acting; warming up TV audiences; writing for greeting card companies, t-shirt companies, and billboard designers; sitcom writing; writing tweets for celebrities; being a call-in character on early morning radio (That's how Larry the Cable Guy got his start); and even cruise ship entertaining. So, don't get stuck in a "I want to be a famous stand-up comic and just do TV movies and comedy clubs" mindset. And the next time you get together with your comedy buddy, try jamming money-making career ideas as well as punch lines. That way, your comedy career won't end up as a joke. -Judy