Comedy in cyberspace

BY BRAYDON KEDDIE: Things That You Should Know: Obama is actually a robot. 

These words are from Daniel Woodrow, a Toronto stand-up comic, under his Twitter username, @danieliswhite. 

For comedians hoping to make their name, such as Woodrow, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have replaced Johnny Carson as the place to go.   

OMFGItsJackandDean's Youtube Video "The Tree's Speech"

It was success in Twitter and a Facebook fan page that gained Woodrow thousands of followers online. 

But according to him, a lot of his fellow Toronto comedians have refrained from using Twitter.  

“I think they didn’t have the knowledge of how to use it,” Woodrow says. “When I first saw it, I was like ‘I don’t even know what this is’ and I took a long time to start using it. Some (comedians) do use it, but they don’t try to get followers or they don’t Tweet as much.” 

Matt Ruby, a comedian based in New York City, says social media websites can mean not only testing material, but getting in touch with the people following you. 

“You can talk directly to fans,” Ruby says. “I think that’s helped people reach a new audience and be able to perform in alternative venues outside the comedy club circuit. Also, Twitter can be a good way to test out joke ideas.” 

When Woodrow was able to master Twitter, diving straight into the community was essential to earning followers. 

“I used to do Twitter jokes and I had my Twitter name squeezed in there, so that got some followers. And when I’d see a funny tweet I would retweet it or tweet to the person that wrote it and just get a conversation going. If you put up funny tweets and people retweet it, (you) get followers for sure.”

Woodrow also recommends comedians starting out should get a YouTube channel. That was helped Jack Howard, who performs and co-produces comedy sketches on his YouTube channel, OMFGItsJackandDean. He says videos that could have had just a close-to-home audience are now watched by thousands of subscribers. 

“Without YouTube, I don’t know if I would be as passionate about making films,” Howard says. “There’s only so much pleasure you can get out of showing it to family and friends. Knowing that thousands of people are watching it around the world is an incredible feeling.” 

Howard’s work online even led to achieving a small business of sorts. He and his co-producer Dean Dobbs became YouTube partners after the substantial amount of views their videos received and they currently earn revenue for their content. 

According to Howard, they haven’t only gained contacts through the website’s network, but relationships. 

“Something else that’s great about being part of YouTube is (this) community,” he said. “We have met some of our best friends on the site.” 

With websites helping to boost the comedy industry, it allows comedians to work faster from the ground up. Woodrow says that comics still have to spread their own publicity, but the task has become easier with these new social outlets.  

Daniel Woodrow's Comedy Tweets

“If you were a comedian fifteen years ago, you didn’t have any of this,” Woodrow says. “You had to go out and find your fans and make them buy your DVDs. It’s so much easier for us now. I have over 1000 followers on Twitter and 3000 fans on Facebook. Them even just knowing that I’m a comedian and knowing my name is good publicity for me.” 

Even though Woodrow uses these websites as assets to get his materiel noticed,  he still prefers in building a name for himself by networking face-to-face. Some comedians may be prone to staying away altogether from using the Internet’s social side for their own publicity, but Ruby believes they can’t deny the results achieved. 

“Even the ones who don’t (use) it seem to recognize it can help,” Ruby says. “I think they are usually lazy or not fans of technology. I empathize with both of those feelings.” 

Posted in: Social Media,Twitter,YouTube