Comedy Shows Find a New Audience with Virtual Events

Laughter is the best medicine, the saying goes. As the Covid-19 pandemic keeps us quarantined, often anxious, and tiptoeing on health’s eggshells (if we’re fortunate), this adage seems more apt than ever. But with comedy clubs and performance venues shut down, how do comedians connect with virtual audiences to share fresh laugh-worthy material in a pandemic that prevents gatherings and interaction?

Comics at the famously funny Laugh Factory have figured out how to get the jokes to the people. Like much of our new quarantined life, it’s different and a little awkward. As cities and gatherings began shutting down in March, comedians at the Laugh Factory and beyond quickly turned to streaming their performances and jokes online. No live audience, no live laughs or social connection, just a comic, a camera person or phone, and a website. 

“It’s as if the guy who cleans the hockey rink decides to play hockey by himself,” quips Thom Tran, a veteran (literally) comedian who doubles as the national comedy group’s director of marketing and media relations. And, he notes, “It’s not just working stiff comics, it’s late night television hosts who are doing whatever we can with the tech that we have.”

Every day at 2pm Pacific time, the Laugh Factory churns out live streaming comedy on its YouTube channel. In a studio space in Hollywood, a few comedians gather (at a physically safe distance) “in an empty room, 300 empty seats, some water bottles, and someone filming upstairs,” Tran describes. He credits fellow Laugh Factory comedian Jamie Masada for moving “almost immediately” after the crisis began, to set up this virtual daily live joke machine.

As Tran recalls, Masada couldn’t “watch these comics not make a living,” so he created the streaming performances where both the comedians and their fans can “get their comedy fix, they get their Jones out.” (Even though the daily streams are free, the comedians are getting paid for their work.) It’s been as much a boon to comedians as to the audience, says Tran: “After about a week I was getting messages from comics saying I need to get out of the house, I need to do this. I need to be funny, even if it’s just to two other comedians.”

Only half-jokingly, Tran notes, “this is how all of our careers got started. Very often at the beginning of our careers, we are doing standup at 1 o’clock in the morning to two people in a bar that aren’t paying attention.”

But is it awkward to crank out jokes about a deadly global virus? Tran replies, “Whether it’s the pandemic, or cancer, or your favorite football team losing the Super Bowl, comedy is tragedy plus time, that’s the old equation. The good comics can take anything and make it funny.” 

Other independent comedians are using whatever online platforms they can to get their material out in the world — and, they hope, to keep making a living at it. Some comedians Tran knows “are just streaming through Zoom from their bedroom. One buddy of mine did an interview where he was on an iPhone, and the guy interviewing him was on a live stream on YouTube, and he just held the iPhone in front of the camera. We are being creative with the tools that we have.”

Comedian and writer Zahra Noorbakhsh reports that 90 percent of her income relies on touring and live performances, all of which have dried up for now. From a financial standpoint, the pandemic hit at an especially tough moment for Noorbakhsh, who identifies as a Feminist Muslim, Iranian-American comedian: March marked Persian new year month, plus women’s history month, plus AAPI heritage month. When venues began shutting down, she soon “started a Patreon and did some quick crowd funding for Muslim Women’s Day.” 

Noorbakhsh predicts that comedians’ coronavirus coping through streaming content may go the route of podcasting. She expects that more comedic content will soon “become curated and rated and networks will start exclusive channels.” The shift, she says, could favor “comics who are real good at bringing energy up regardless of the physical audience.”

Ironically, for all the challenges of streaming comedy online, Tran says the process is making some comedians better. “As a comic, we are feeding off of the audience and playing off of their laughter, there is a vibe and a rhythm, it’s all about timing.” he says. “Now you have to take off that watch and step on it, because there is no audience to play off of, no laughter to play off of.”

Whether it’s on the Laugh Factory daily stream, the comedian’s YouTube channel, or a joke on a Twitter feed, comedy is still about human connection and survival. As Tran puts it, “I think comedy is the only thing that’s going to get us through this time.”