As an open miker I have a lot of concern about the future of stand-up. There’s the obvious problem: standup shows traditionally held in crowded clubs, with the audience packed like sardines and of course spreading droplets like cluster bombs when they laugh.
Then there’s the comic. How many COVID, Quarantine and looting jokes before it gets tired? While wearing a mask, which takes away most of the performers persona.
There’s also about 1000-2000 stand up comics that are so good they rely on their gigs as a source of living. How do they comeback after all this?
Though we have to adapt to a more considerate and hygienic behaviour, it’s not like this plague will be hovering in the air around us forever like a cloying mist. Like any viral epidemic, it comes in waves and may go years or decades without recurring.
Wasn’t there a similar situation after 9/11 where nothing was considered funny? Even a cop in a donut shop joke wasn’t funny because it disrespected first responders.
I’d assume elderly jokes will be out of the routine for a while as well as dumb minimum wage workers jokes.
But, will people come back? I can enjoy live music in a half full bar. I don’t often make it to comedy clubs, that tends to be a fairly good expensive night out. I’m not sure stand up works as well in a half empty club.
Once the pandemic is under control and people stop being afraid to gather together again, stand up comedy is actually exactly the sort of entertainment that has a good chance of rebounding. It doesn’t require the kind of big teams or fragile infrastructure that will collapse from neglect and have to be rebuilt; it requires a comedian, a microphone and an audience.
Believe it or not, some are doing shows on Zoom , etc - I don’t know how well it works, but using Zoom and having hte audience leave their mics on apparently makes it more like a live show than a video
I doubt it. A comedy club is likely only open for a few hours each day and often closed one day a week at least. And they’re not the type of places people tend to go to alone.
A dive bar can make money at 50% occupancy, especially open at noon until last call. People tend to stick around longer and have more than a couple drinks. And, there’s always the jukebox or pool tables to make money from.
No, as long as demand is there supply will find a way to meet it. It’ll be set back but it’ll come back. People want to pay for it. However with the economic collapse and people saving money on top of the virus it’ll take years to come back.
Also only 1000-2000 people make a living as stand up comics? I assumed the number was higher but that’s, probably accurate. Lots of towns don’t have navy comedy clubs.
There will be public gatherings again, whether it be live shows, outdoor gatherings or whatever. People are a social species. There’s a ton of pent-up demand to get out there and do social things again-- look at what happened over Memorial weekend when states let down their shelter in place orders and people gathered in force in places like Lake of the Ozarks or certain beaches-- packed like sardines with no social distancing and no masks. Was it smart? Hell no. Was it human nature? Yes.
Interesting I attended a comedy show the weekend after 9/11 in Atlantic City and the backdrop, poorly done enough, was of the NYC skyline with the World Trade Center in it. The comics all stuck with their usual material and didn’t touch the elephant in the room. One comic started looking around the room for things to make fun of, saw the backdrop, did a “WHOA” but went right back to his material.
I’m doubly concerned because before 2020 there was a politically correct war on comedy, and to me, within obvious reason, comedy should be the one art form that should not conform to PC.
I imagine jokes about police brutality and the protests will be off limits, as well as COVID 19. Quarantine jokes will be fine since it’s a topic we can all relate to.
How many stand-up comedians do you know who deliver their jokes within a metre of the audience? I’ve been to some pretty small clubs, but none were so cramped that I was swapping pathogens with the performer. (And even if you do know of any such performers or venues, so what? The loss of these isn’t going to result in the death of stand-up comedy generally.)
Where I live, the crisis is largely passed and public performances are once again permitted, as long as audience members sit far enough apart. Performers aren’t required to wear masks.
I’ve never been close enough to a standup comic to worry I might catch something from him up there on the stage, but I’ve been sitting very close to strangers in the crowd and would rather not be in that situation again for quite awhile yet.
Having audience members sit far enough apart sounds like they’re leaving every other seat empty or even only occupying one out of three seats in a row. I imagine that affects the economics of a live performance; can a live show still be profitable with one half or one third of the audience? And does a stand-up performance loose some audience energy when there are that few people there?
