How to Perform for 500 People (No Pressure)

Though comics like Patton Oswalt hate the one-size-fits-all format, for right now Comedy Central’s Premium Blend is the first TV stand-up performance for many a comic. (I imagine with all the VH1 “Nostalgia-ago-go!” shows, most stand-ups first TV experience is now commenting on Paris Hilton or her 80’s doppelganger.)

Anyway, Todd Levin made his Premium Blend appearance this past Friday and thanks to his quite enjoyable blog Tremble, you can read through his discovery that the laughs in his set have rankings, his negotiations with Comedy Central’s standards and practices and how he copes with the career and monetary expectations of panhandlers he happens to be friendly with. You can even read about how shocked he was to discover he was smiling so broadly for publicity photos. In an interview, Levin mentioned that that are “several years of performing that lead up to those seven minutes”, but these several blog entries are a pretty good lesson on how many things go into a comic preparing to perform for 500 people for the first time.

If you missed it, you can catch a clip of the Todd Levin’s performance here.