Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy

Stand-Up is a Trademark of Comedy Central, All Rights Reserved

Sometimes when writing this blog, I worry I get a little too Comedy Central centric, but as a story today’s Wall Street Journal makes clear - that it’s the cable network’s intention to own the genre as much as possible.

Sound of Young America’s Jesse Thorn wonders if this is not a mixed blessing - having one network that puts its full might behind stand-up comedy, at the price of become so synonymous that there’s nowhere else to go. I don’t really worry so much about comedians not reaching audience without Comedy Central, the web’s do-it-youself ethos will still help comedians find audiences without the cable channel’s control.

But of course, the other factor is that Comedy Central’s gaining more competitors by the day. HBO’s multiplatform deal with Dane Cook, the biggest star on Comedy Central records and arguably the biggest stand-up out there right now, pretty much ensures that stand-up comedy isn’t going to be owned by giant megacorp - it’ll be owned by two or three. And if you look at the web, you could see platforms like MySpace Comedy being the perfect spot to launch a comedy album sans CC (and your friend and mine Tom could sell their own MySpace comedy album, considering they’ve already done so with music).

And there’s plenty of releases coming out independently as well. Look at tomorrow’s Eugene Mirman release “En Garde Society” on Subpop or Brian Posehn‘s forthcoming “Live in Nerd Rage” from the appropriately metal-oriented Relapse Records. Artists are never going to universally join up with Comedy Central - money might bring some to go it alone (Eugene Mirman once sighted the difference as 50 percent of royalties vs. the 13 percent CC offers). And they won’t be hurt by it because they’re willing to make up the marketing difference by doing tours like Comedians of Comedy.

But even more importantly, Comedy Central Records has been pretty fantastic - going above the profit motive by creating a record from alternative show like “Invite Them Up” and in a three-disc plus a DVD package no less, serving as a kind of a snapshot of what’s next in comedy. CC Records’ Jack Vaughn, like a lot of people at the network, loves the funny stuff and wants to bring it to people. In some ways, I worry the other people who will get inevitably get into the space, seeing the money to be made, will be far more evil.

Posted by Todd Jackson at 10:50 PM | Send to Friend
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