How does one "make it"? Obviously it's a combination of effort and talent. With a little luck sprinkled on top. Bake for 20 minutes...
Anyway, it's obviously more than just being funny. I notice that a minority of comics do stand up exclusively. By that I mean the only thing that they do in their career is to perform on stage. Nowadays, it's very easy to have your own website, blog (this one took me all of 3 minutes to set up), a YouTube Channel (30 seconds), podcast, just about any kind of outlet you want.
The content is getting easier to produce too. You can create videos and songs on a computer for a fraction of the time and cost it would have taken 20 years ago. Now, couple that with all the comics that are often creative people in their own right, and you'll find all sorts of side projects all over the internet.
Dane Cook's ingenious use of Myspace is well documented. Long story short, he used social media to help create an internet awareness that propelled him to mega-stardom. But like any innovation, it can have an ugly side:
A) Does this mean that in order to get anywhere you need to use these avenues?
B) Does/can this supersede talent?
For the first question, I hope not. On the stereotypical commodity trading floor (those guys yelling "BUY! SELL!" with pieces of paper and all the screens everywhere), the idea is that everyone gathers around and yells their orders, and that chaos is fair. If you see old videos of this, it just looked like a mass of people. Then, some people started wearing something that was striking, brightly colored, or otherwise distinctive. As I understand it, the idea behind this was that with the odd looking jacket you'd stand out more and get noticed, thus giving you an advantage over the throng of other traders. After that, more and more people started wearing silly looking jackets. Now, if you walk around the financial district, traders wearing goofy jackets are not uncommon. I'm saying that I don't want to feel like I HAVE to wear a goofy outfit now just to get noticed.
This is mostly for lazy reasons. I have this, Twitter, and a YouTube channel, but I don't use them very often. I don't have a podcast, haven't started any shows; I haven't even set up a simple web page. All I've really wanted to do is just tell jokes. I'm sure other people have many creative outlets that they want to explore, and more power to them. Point being, I hope these side projects are something that people are doing because they enjoy doing it and not because they're viewing it like a get rich quick scheme: "I don't have to be the funniest, I just have to establish a robust web presence and then the money will flow!"
Not that I'm giving advice, I'm extremely unqualified. I just think in general life terms, I hope that people are doing these things because they want to, and not because they feel that they "should be" doing them. If I was doing that, I'd probably be annoyed at the whole process, but that's me. I'm aware that I'm sounding a bit grumpy old man-ish. These kids today with their websites and podcasts, they don't know the value of REAL hard work. I can see the other side saying "That's the way the world is, and this is just another aspect of putting in time to make it."
All that being said, in the world of getting on a stage and telling jokes, I honestly feel that there is no other way to get better at it than to actually, physically do it. To get on a stage with a microphone in front of people and try to make them laugh. So I guess that's another reason why I'm mildly rebelling against the idea of creating a strong internet presence. Although, to counter myself, there's definitely a difference between using the internet to supplement/enhance your presence, instead of defining it. So I guess just go ahead and do whatever you want. But that brings me back to my prior point. Do what you WANT to do.
For the second question, I think the answer is ultimately no. I think, at most, it can create opportunities that wouldn't normally manifest, but talent wins out. But to again argue with myself, I could say "Hey, look at Hollywood. Look at the music charts. It's not about who's the most talented, it's about who's the best looking, in the right place at the right time, the best kiss ass, etc." But my counter, to myself, arguing with me, is that I'm defining "making it" as having the respect of your peers that you respect in kind. And in that case, I feel that people who just hustle a lot will get opportunities, but once they use those opportunities, it won't lead to something else unless they have the talent to back it up. It might be possible to talk yourself into getting a set at a place where you might not "deserve" to perform, but it'll be really clear, really fast, that you don't deserve it, if you don't deserve it.
It's also not just on the interwebs that people hustle, obviously. I swear, it feels like there's a new open mic/show starting up every month. That's really exciting for the city to have so many people enthused and trying to do things. It also means that there's a possibility of too much market saturation because too many people are saying "Me too! Me too!", regardless of merit. But again, I do honestly think that in the long run, talent and quality can win out.
Now, I also understand that we live in a world with bottom lines, where money and time are real factors. So sometimes good shows die and they didn't deserve it. But in a creative world like comedy, I think that when I look back on it, I'd rather have been a part of something that people felt was something special, that was important or worth while, rather than something that made a lot of money. If I had to choose only one.
