Are You Playing A Game You Can Win With Your Comedy Career?
It used to be that the comedy “game” could only really be played one way – in order to succeed you needed to win over the gatekeepers (Hollywood executives, comedy club owners, etc.) and convince them to give you a career.
This was extremely difficult of course, but you could take some level of comfort in its simplicity – there was a clear map to success and understandable rules of the game.
But now, as the comedy business has been disrupted by technology in recent years, the game has changed and you’re forced to figure out for yourself what game you actually want to play.
This is a tremendous opportunity of course, but many comedians don’t see it as such. It’s easier to get frustrated and confused. To get bitter as your peers figure out ways to succeed by playing a game that you didn’t even know existed.
In comedy, just like in life, some people embrace disruptions while others run from them. But nothing good ever comes from running from a disruption.
So faced with this comedy disruption, here’s a question to ask yourself:
Are you playing a game you can win?
Agreed. You can’t just be a stand-up comedian these days and expect to make it. The path of the creative in the entertainment industry, not just comedy, is so circuitous, you really have to carve your own path if you expect to get anywhere.