How important is touring for comedy? Sam Morril:
You can tell when a comedian does their Netflix special and they didn't tour. You’ve got to run your material through the mud. If you’re only doing your act in New York or Los Angeles I can tell. I’ll do New York jokes in my special but I better make sure they kill in Kansas City or else why I am putting out something that’s released for everyone.
That’s the geography version of running your material through the mud. Then there’s the type-of-audience version: If the same joke kills at a club filled with tourists, a hipster show in Brooklyn, an urban room uptown, and in front of an older crowd out in Long Island, then you know you’ve got a legit bit.
On the other hand, if you’re doing the same jokes in the same room(s) in front of the same kinds of people all the time, you’re not getting a full read on them.