3 Things an Artist Can Learn from Stand-Up Comedians

At first glance you'd think a professional standup comic and a professional fine artist are two different animals... But I've learned some VERY meaningful lessons from the comedian! Read on to learn why I think the practice and discipline of stand up comedy can help artists sell more art.

Artists are in their attic, alone, communing with the divine, expressing the muse, and being altogether singular.

 Comedians are in the trenches of late night dive bars, talking into a mic to 45 semi-drunk people, trying to spark delight with mass appeal.

 These two approaches seem to be the exact opposite, but I think there’s lessons to be learned from the two disciplines.  As an artist, there are many lessons I gain from the comedian.

 1) The Power of Iteration

Comedians do the same line to different audiences over and over and over and over. They tweak the timing, a word, the emphasis, the punch line, the expressions, the affect, the tone. They are looking for the universally funny, the delivery that delights the most people consistently. When you see the biggies on stage, when they say something like they JUST thought of it, know that they have delivered that line hundreds or even thousands of times.

The artist can take this same technique to get REALLY good at her craft. The way artists do this is to create a series of works in a similar theme and style, a collection.

2) Collaboration with an Audience

An artist can easily be subsumed by the “high and lonely calling” and become so obscure as to have zero decipherable meaning, and zero value to community at large. I have known artists who are highly suspicious of positive reception to their work, thinking that it proves they are “bougie”, plebeian, populist and easy. All well and good if there is some fancy art group that loves your work, but that sadly is rarely the case. Usually, the artist labors in obscurity. The artist both resents and revels in failure, thinking that the failure to connect with an audience is proof of their genius and being ahead of their time.

But comedians can’t do that. Comedians cannot be myopic or insular about their performance-they are trying to delight people, remember? Professional artists can learn from this. They need to both hold their ground on their unique voice, but they also need to be responsive to what their audience seems to like, or their career and their business will go exactly nowhere.

3) Developing a Unique Voice

The best comedians discover their voice in collaboration with their audience, but their voice is no less unique. A general audience wants to be surprised and delighted by something they haven’t heard yet. The audience acts as the chisel to the act’s hammer, shaping the singularity of the performer over time. The comedians job is to push the audience to conclusions it hasn’t thought of yet. Some of the best comedians would be hilarious just reading the traffic code.

Responding and collaborating with an audience DOES NOT mean that the art won’t be as good. Far from it. In fact, the use of social media can help refine the artist’s voice in a way that will be profoundly beneficial. The most amazing thing about this process is that the artist’s unique voice becomes augmented rather than eliminated. It’s a bit paradoxical, but I’ve seen it happen with comedians and artists many, many times.