Feb022006

Stand-Up on Demand Demanded

Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy

I’ve been watching the iTunes store closely since the annoucement that Comedy Central content was added recently. Though the push that a new episode of the cartoon reality show Drawn Together would be available before airing on TV didn’t top the rankings (the highest it reached was 57 I believe), what did rocket up into the iTunes top 100 TV Shows was five or six of the ten episodes of Comedy Central Presents available online.

Dane Cook’s currently treading at #2, Mitch Hedberg #4 and Lewis Black is #14, all pretty remarkable when you consider that they all aired just this past weekend during Comedy Central’s Stand-Up Showdown, and, despite what the article says, have been available on DVD, two as part of a CD/DVD combo (Cook’s Harmful If Swallowed and Hedberg’s Mitch All Together) with Lewis Black’s specials released on a single DVD entitled Unleashed. I imagine part of the success is that, though iTunes video is pretty nice, it’s still on a pretty small screen when viewed on an iPod Video. Stand-up is less demanding visually and easier to segment out your viewing than following the plot of a TV Show on a car or subway ride. The other three comics who have cracked the top 100 - The Amazing Jonathan (29), Dave Attell (61) and Patton Oswalt, who currently doesn’t rank but has been up there in the past week.

Now if Apple would take this as an impetus to create a landing page featuring comedy albums in the music area of the iTunes store, even more comics could gain from the ultra-impulsive digital music distribution. Here’s hoping.

Update: Digg Comments on the story.

Posted by Todd Jackson at 03:00 PM | Send to Friend
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