I have to say with great honesty that I am absolutely blown away by some of the negative comments and opinions generated by my Comedy Evaluator Pro software.

Part of the problem lies with the lack of audience dynamics present when individuals are viewing stand-up comedy videos alone and how opinions are formed on an individual basis regarding how ‘funny’ a particular comedian is.

And here’s the big secret that’s hidden in plain view…

Audience dynamics and the subsequent laughter reactions recorded in a stand-up comedy video do not significantly impact individual viewers watching the video online.

The same phenomenon can be said of individuals who are watching stand-up comedy alone at home on TV. Why?

Laughter is a shared response which is representative of understanding (i.e. getting the jokes). Without someone else to share that laughter with in the immediate vicinity, laughter will be greatly reduced when it comes to individual viewership of stand-up comedy videos.

The intensity of this shared laughter response will increase relative to the size of the group (audience) sharing the laughter.

Subsequently, individual viewers of stand-up comedy tend to gravitate to the comedians they watch based on the ability to relate to what that comedian is saying. The more an individual viewer relates to a comedian’s material in a stand-up comedy video, the “funnier” that comedian will be to that individual.

What does that mean? It means that no matter how funny a comedian may have been to the live audience they performed for to get the video in the first place, what will matter most to the casual individual viewer of stand-up comedy is how the material being presented by the comedian relates to them — much more so than the amount of laughter generated from the audience in the video.

That also means that there is no way to accurately determine how funny any comedian is relative to another when it comes to individual viewership, no matter how hard or how long the live audience in the video background laughs.

Well, here’s the deal — comedians develop their acts for live audiences. Comedy timing is based on the length of laughter generated during a performance, relative to audience size. Comedians must get laughs virtually every minute they are on stage in front of a live audience, regardless of audience size.

Comedy Evaluator Pro cannot measure likeability or a comedian’s ability to relate to their audience on an individual, video viewing basis. It can only measure the results experienced (laughs) in a live performance with audience dynamics in play.

I also know that laughter is contagious, but only in a group environment. Only half of a live audience need to laugh to cause the other half to laugh because of the contagious nature of laughter — even if that other half didn’t care for the material per se.

Laughter is not contagious in the individual viewership environment because there is no one else there to share the laughter with.

When I evaluate a comedian using Comedy Evaluator Pro, I already know I won’t be laughing out loud like the audience in the video did — the group dynamic of a live audience is missing.

But what’s not missing is how that live audience reacted in the live performing environment — the reactions demonstrated as evidenced by the video. Those reactions are certainly measurable and represent that comedian’s true laughter generation ability for that particular audience.

This is the objective part of a comedian’s act — audience laughter, cheering or applause — that can be measured objectively, regardless of how well or how poorly I personally relate to that comedian’s act on an individual basis.

I wonder how many comedians miss out on paying work because the booking agent or talent manager who reviews comedy acts on an individual basis didn’t really relate to the comedian’s material, completely ignoring the significant amount of laughter that comedian could generate from an audience?

I can certainly understand why many armchair comedy quarterbacks cannot seem to grasp what Comedy Evaluator Pro really does or how it works as an accurate evaluation tool for comedians. These folks are opining with personal likes or dislikes, as opposed to the degree of measurable results (laughs) that the comedian attained during a live performance with audience dynamics in play.

In my professional opinion, to compare a comedian’s ability to generate laughs in front of a live audience with their likeability or popularity based on a YouTube video is like trying to compare apples and oranges.

But for those comedians who are serious about the craft of comedy, you will be hard pressed to find a better performance evaluation tool than Comedy Evaluator Pro — period.

Cheers,
Steve Roye
The Professor of Funny for Money

For more information about Steve Roye, author of this blog and the Killer Stand-up Online Course, click here.


Tags: , , , ,