Motley Fool Money - The Road to Success in Comedy

Episode Date: July 7, 2020

Back in the day a great stand-up comedy set on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” meant instant success, but so much has changed since then. Greg Fitzsimmons, stand-up comedian and host of the long-running comedy podcast “Fitzdog Radio”, explains that despite the increased competition comedy is still a meritocracy for those willing to work for it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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which makes it so much easier to stay on track. And you can get unlimited expert help at no extra cost, even on nights and weekends during tax season. Visit turbotax.com to get matched with an expert today, only available with TurboTax full service experts. With the Motley Full Money Extra, I'm Chris Hill. Back in the 1970s and 80s, there was a surefire way to succeed in the world of stand-up comedy. Get on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. If you could nail a five-minute set and make Johnny laugh, it was like a gold stamp of approval that made it easy to get booked in comedy clubs across America. Then the comedy bubble burst and things began to change.

Someone who's lived through those changes is comedian Greg. Fitzsimmons. Craig has a stand-up special on Netflix and Comedy Central. He's also an Emmy Award winning comedy writer. Last year, I got the chance to sit down and talk with him about the business of comedy, the long road to success, and the role of social media. There are a lot of headliners around the country that have social media following, and the clubs will book them when they have a million followers because they know they can get a crowd. And this is kind of what happened when the last comedy bubble burst is they were booking headliners that they thought could draw because there was a soap opera star named Walt Willie who was like, exactly. And they would put him

into clubs and crowds would leave and they would go, I'm never coming to the date and funny bone again because that was such a terrible experience. And clubs have to book great comedians. And there are enough great comedians right now. And they don't do that and it's going to ultimately burn them. But now, I think it's a meritocracy. I think if you're a good comic and you're in a big market, whether it's New York or L.A., Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, you will get seen and you'll eventually get asked to go to the Montreal Comedy Festival where you'll get an agent and then the agent will push you out and you'll get seen. If you have a unique voice and you kill and you make crowds laugh, you will move ahead.

You'll get a writing job or you'll get on a sitcom or you'll get your, shot, it may take years, but it took me seven years until I got any notoriety before I got really seen. And the best thing that a comedian can do is, I believe, stay in a secondary market and get really good. You know, go to a place like Austin, Texas, and, you know, Minneapolis, where you can actually work three, four, five nights a week and not be seen by the industry and get so good that when you come to New York or L.A., you're blowing everybody else off the stage, and all of a sudden you make some noise, and then you get a development deal, or you get an agent or whatever, and then things will happen from there.

If you're looking for a few extra laughs, and really, who isn't these days, check out Greg's podcast, Fitzdog Radio. It's one of the longest-running and most popular comedy podcasts out there. I'm Chris Hill. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.