1/16/09

Is it dumb to put your jokes online?

A comic who just got a killer 15 minute tape and doesn't have a lot of stuff online yet emailed me:

Hey, I've got a bunch of jokes from this new set I wanna put on YouTube. But do you think its dumb to put all my jokes online? Or do you think its better to put more up there?


My answer:

my take on that: i'm more worried about people never hearing my good jokes than i am about them hearing them too much. but you could always just put up a few if you're worried.

i wouldn't do whole 15 min set. pick 5-10 min solid set that you can use for getting gigs or sending to industry.

then if you want to split up addl jokes and post those individually, that's cool too. any one who watches all those will be super fan anyway. as long as ya have some new jokes, how much can they complain?

if that's too much of a pain, just do one big one and leave it at that.

also, you don't need to promote on your own site if you're worried. you can just post and email it to people who you want to see it. if random others discover it, than no big whoop.


Of course, depends on how much material you have and stage of your career. If you're about to record an album or something, a different approach might be a good idea.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i used to think the more the merrier but I have recently reconsidered. online transparancy can be a great thing but if you're trying to build something you should only use good bricks.

Matt Ruby said...

Yeah, this assumes you have something good to show.

Another point: You're not stuck with anything. Down the road, you can always take it down.

Abbi Crutchfield said...

I heard a veteran comic say that because of the Internet, people aren't allowed to fail in private anymore. You have all the pressure to put your stuff up, but it's nowhere near as good as it will be in five years.

I say, if you did a TV appearance, put it on the web, because it's already been approved of and broadcast. But Matt, I aso like your candid, behind-the-scenes videos. People won't hire you based solely on your riffing, but fans will certainly get into the habit of looking for you, so it's a different kind of promotion.

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