“He’s a Crowd Work Comedian”

I heard a comedian say that recently in a condescending manner about another comedian. Crowd work has taken a new meaning in comedy. During Covid, comedians were posting their crowd work clips and the algorithm was loving it. Some comedians were doing it to avoid posting their written jokes, keeping those for their shows and specials. Others just were good at crowd work and leaned into it. 

When I started comedy, I did a lot of crowd work. I was good at it. I think because I had a sincere interest in learning about the person, it helped. I also avoided asking the same questions everyone else asked and would lean into specific details, which I found funny when I heard it. The reason I did it was because I did not enough write jokes. I was busy as a full time lawyer so I treated stand up as a fun deposition. I get to ask questions, just not under oath and with a goal of making people laugh. I preferred hosting to doing a spot on shows too. Obviously, now that I have been a full time comedians for over 6 years, that has changed. I prefer to do my jokes but know that I have the ability to do crowd work when needed, from the first few years of developing that skill set.

Crowd work is a useful skill to have. Sometimes your jokes are not working so you need to talk to the crowd. Or they need a break from your jokes or they are getting their checks. Whatever the reason, crowd work is a skill that should not be looked down upon. At the same time, just know that every comedians worth their weight can do crowd work. It’s not as hard as it looks. #standup #crowdwork #deposition #formerlawyer
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