In the last several years the world of stand up comedy has been oversaturated with crowd work videos. Crowd work is a form of improv comedy used by stand up comedians during their live performances. It consists of engaging with the audience by asking them often personal questions and coming up with jokes in response to their answers. The appeal of crowd work is that there’s no script or rehearsal and it can’t be repeated. In a way it creates a unique experience for the audience as it was a performance that only they got to enjoy.
With the rise of social media and consistent demand for quick entertainment, but also to advertise their work, comedians have been in pursuit of recording all of their sets hoping to catch an interesting interaction with an audience and post it on social media for exposure. It became the most common marketing tool that allowed comedians to show their comedic range, style and personality without burning through their jokes. With these videos they attract you to come to their show where they will perform their actual written material.
In the past, stand up comedians used crowd work in very specific situations, mostly if they were in a role of a host to warm up the audience, or as a headliner, when they were trying to fill up time or shortly acknowledge the elephant in the room. Rarely, almost never as a feature act, as it comes with a huge risk. Crowd work can go really well and can completely take the show to the next level OR it can completely kill the energy of the room and make it impossible for other comedians on the lineup to do their job. Most comedians are not on the level where they can execute crowd work with an extremely high rate of success. My advice to you is, If you are part of a showcase just do your written bits, leave crowd work for the host or a headliner to play with. You are not less of a comedian if you don’t do crowd work.
What’s needed in order to be good at crowd work?
Before I get into a particular skill set you need to develop, I need to clarify that there’s a different stance among comedians about what is considered crowd work and what’s not.
Old school comics often believe that none of the crowd work should be planned. According to one of the best crowd work comics, Ian Bagg, crowd work is when you have an authentic conversation, there’s no agenda that leads the audience into your material. You have no plan for the outcome, you are basically raw-dogging the whole interaction. According to him, asking a couple in the audience about their marriage just so you can use it as an intro to your own bit about your relationship is not crowd work. You see how someone who is not skilled as Ian Bagg can make a ton of mistakes trying to gamble with this approach. A lot of new comics are using a safer method and mixing crowd work with their written material just so they have something to fall back on if improvising gets too intimidating. There’s really nothing wrong with that, it’s ok to experiment and see how far you can take it.
In order to use crowd work to your advantage you first need to be comfortable with small talk and be a good listener, instead of just waiting for your turn to speak. It’s important to let go of your ego and work with whatever other person gives you. You have to be comfortable with venturing into unknown territory, quickly catching a detail you can work with and creating a flow of your conversation. You also have to recognize when others want to converse with you and you are not repelling them. Improv comedy only works if all the players are collaborating. Do people enjoy the conversation? If so or not you’re given a template where to go and how. Do they instantly laugh or does the laughter die quickly? Do they want to continue to engage or did they give you that polite smile that’s a cue to change the subject. This is why emotional intelligence is very important when interacting with your audience.
The next thing you should consider is having a direction and the reason for doing the crowd work. What are you trying to accomplish? Is it for a joke set-up or are you just killing time? Is there a theme you’re trying to establish? Being specific will give you some sort of control of the room. Don’t try going into more than one direction as you are a part of a live show where we experience enormous sensory stimulation and we can get off track very easily. Ask simple questions your audience can answer without going too deep. Instead of “What do you do for fun?” you can ask “Do you prefer concerts or sporting events?” Now you made things much easier for them to answer and you can go into a specific detail based on what they gave you like “Who’s your favorite band?” or “Did you watch the game last night?” The more specific you are, the easier it will be for you to navigate the whole interaction and also bond with people who just shared something they care about. You’re building a rapport with them and keeping them at ease.
The downside of crowd work
Comics who are really good at crowd work might have different styles but they all have this ability to have fun with the audience and make fun of them without alienating them. In the attempt to bond with the crowd we can often make a mistake of saying something that can be perceived as insensitive to the people who are there to have a good time, not to be attacked. There’s a reason some show goers have anxiety when comedy clubs seat them in the front row. They know comics will talk to them and they tense up, which is not good for the show. An experienced host will know how to relax them and make them feel comfortable at the beginning of the show.
If you decide to work the crowd, make sure you know the audience. Sometimes, crowd work ends up being an excuse for one person in the audience to believe they are now part of the show. In the last several years we’ve seen this trend where comedians like to advertise themselves as edgy in the form of “Comedian DESTROYS a heckler” videos. Granted, heckling a show is never a good thing and when we have to address someone who is interrupting we feel pressured to face them and teach them a lesson. When you are a comedian there’s this notion that you are the wittiest person in the room and the king of clapbacks. It’s almost expected of you to put someone in their place. There are some pro comedians who will not engage in that at all. Louis CK is known for literally responding to hecklers with something along the lines of “Shut up, it’s my show. If you want to talk, go outside.” I think this is such a great way to go about it because if you entertain hecklers you will keep attracting them. As time goes by, your audiences will become people who are on board with that idea of entertainment, and they will go to a show proactively seeking it out. Then you will be stuck with never ending cultural stereotypes and insults and have a hard time fighting for your right to perform what you really want - your carefully written jokes.
Crowd work can present a problem during a showcase. The audience sees they can talk to one comedian so they might wanna talk to the rest. It reduces the quality of the show, not to mention it puts the pressure on other comics to also deal with hecklers or even engage in a simple conversation during their sets, when they might not even be the type of a comic that is good at that or even wants to do it.
The audience is there to enjoy what you’ve created, so the accent should be on your material, not their lives. This is why a lot of pro comedians find crowd work to be lazy writing - you are not a sole writer, the audience is helping you write, they are doing half of your work. Even if they think they are helping you, they’re really distracting to other comics on the lineup, so we have to be very mindful of that. I’ve seen shows where the feature’s crowd work causes the audience to talk between the set and once that seal’s broken it can throw off the energy in the room and even destroy the show.
Advertising your comedy without using crowd work
The beautiful thing about stand up comedy is that it allows you to talk about anything and everything, people, places and situations. We often limit ourselves with this idea that we have to be this one type of a person or a performer and we let a few jokes define us to the point that we are trying to save them for our “big break”. This is how we end up with farm crowd-work clips for the internet instead of trying to please the actual live audience and even ourselves.
If you are still very much unknown on the scene you should not be afraid to post your strongest bits online. You want to show yourselves in the best possible light and attract people to come to your show. You might think that you will burn through all your jokes but you are neglecting the fact that the more you post clips and get recognition the more you will want to create. This is essential for longevity in this business. As you know, once comics publish their comedy specials they can’t use those jokes on their next tour, they have to write a completely new hour of stand up. I watched many interviews with pro comics who’ve been doing comedy for decades. They all say the same thing, once they release the special they think they have absolutely nothing else to say, but then they start thinking about random things, go on a vacation or attend an event and they soon find new topics to talk about. They find their flow and so will you, but only if you are prepared to let go of what you’ve made and think of your next joke.
For those that are actively touring and preparing their next special, the common go-to is writing topical material or jokes about current news and trends or specific facts about the city they are performing at. It can be one-liners or a longer bit, it doesn’t matter, the topic might not be relevant next week, month or year. The goal is to just showcase that you can joke about anything and remain relevant.
Your content can also include a funny sketch, or an interesting appearance on a podcast, as well as sharing point of view videos to show people a different side of your personality. Don’t neglect the fact that a lot of people are not necessarily fans of stand up comedy. You might start a podcast or a channel about your other passions like cars or cooking but your jokes really stand out so now people who know you for one thing get introduced to your comedy. Now you have a whole new audience. The good example of this is Joe Rogan who through his podcast combined comedy fans, martial arts enthusiasts and lovers of conspiracy theories. You don’t always have to be hilarious, just be entertaining and you will find your audience.
As you can see there’s so much more to comedy than just crowd work clips. If it’s not your thing don’t force it. It’s so much better to be known for writing quality jokes that can land you serious opportunities. If you happen to have a really good crowd work video post it, but don’t over do it, don’t let that be your whole thing. It will look like you are not able to write actual material as you are always relying on the audience to carry your set.
Let me know in the comments what your experience with crowd work is and if you think it’s important for one's comedy career.
I always love reading your articles Sonja!
Comedy has many facets, and I personally have not experimented with crowd work much, but I want to exercise that muscle a bit more to at least understand how it works. I think it's important for artists of all kinds to be metropolitan and try new things. Art is a process of discovery, and sometimes beautiful things emerge from plunging into the unknown!
True, "crowd work" is the mania now, and you make good points for and against. I'm posting the link on my Comedy Bits & History page on FB, thx.