The truth about comedy crowdwork clips
They’re bad for the audience, the comedian, and comedy in general – also, you should make them or risk getting left behind.
How to feel about Comedy’s Crowd-Work Clip Civil War? There’s a good piece in Vulture about it from Hershal Pandya.
Comedian Megan Gailey nails it: They’re bad for the audience, the comedian, and comedy in general – also, you should make them or risk getting left behind.
[Megan] Gailey believes crowd work is supposed to be ephemeral and that trying to recapture its magic on social media is a doomed and pandering exercise. “We’re playing to the lowest common denominator, and I don’t think that’s beneficial for the audience or the comedian in the long run,” she says. But even though she doesn’t post crowd-work clips on social media herself, she understands the need for comedians to participate in the game. She’s resigned herself to this reality and recently contracted a professional to go through her backlog of stand-up material to cut together short clips for social media. “I’m probably a hypocrite,” she concludes.
I’ve already written about this topic extensively here:
But here’s something I’ll add:
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