This week I’m honored to interview comedian Slava Yaryshkin who has created the most popular listing of open mics in the comedy world. Slava is also a funny comedian and interviews lots of comics on his site.
1. How are you using the internet / social media to promote your career?
Well, for starters I have my own website, badslava.com, which I am turning into the most reliable and curent list of comedy open mics in the nation. I must have spent at least one hundred hours on it by now, but I can’t help myself. As far as my career, I believe the first step in comedy is to become famous, which is partially why I built my website. Everything else should work out as a result. Maybe.
I am a big fan of facebook, mostly because I am always interviewing comedians and it is the best way to find and contact them. I check it about every other day. I am planning to cancel my myspace account sometime soon. The war is over, facebook won. As far as twitter, I’ve tried it and quit it a long time ago, and I can’t wait until the media moves on to “the next big thing” and stops talking about it incessantly. I really, really, really hate twitter. To me, it symbolizes everything wrong with our self-absorbed, celebrity-obsessed culture.
2. Have you noticed the payoff yet?
In my three years of comedy, I’ve only done two paid shows, so I haven’t noticed the “pay” in payoff yet. But I have met so many interesting people and made so many friends, that I consider myself a very rich man. Everything I have accomplished I owe to my friends and I am sure this will be the case with everything I have yet to achieve.
3. What do you think about posting videos of your show online?
I think it only makes sense to post videos online if you can do so regularly. I have yet to figure out a way to produce quality comedy on a regular basis. Plus for the last three years I have spent too much time on material and not enough on stage presence. That’s my next area of concentration.
4. How do you think digital tools will change comedy?
I don’t think I can talk about digital tools and comedy without mentioning Dane Cook. I feel there is a huge disconnect between what comedians think digital tools will do for them and what actually happens in real life. I signed up for MySpace because I thought it would magically make me as popular as Dane Cook. Nothing like that actually happened. MySpace didn’t make Dane Cook popular. What made him popular was staying after every show, shaking every hand, signing every autograph, being in every photo and then going online afterwards and talking to every fan that instant messaged him. You have to make every fan feel special and appreciated. MySpace is just another tool that helps you do that. I think many comedians don’t realize how valuable the fans are and how little the tools matter. I think in the future comedians will make very little money from CDs/DVDs and all the income will come from live shows. The successful comedians will be the ones with the biggest tribes, and the best example of this is Dane Cook.
5. How much information do you tend to share on the social networks?
I share very little on facebook, because right now my life isn’t all that interesting. That should change very soon as I have a couple of projects under wraps, but first I have to finish grad school. Also I’m a big believer in sharing only that which may benefit the other person, that’s why you will never hear what I had for breakfast this morning (apple, pear, orange, grapefruit.) Part of the reason I interview other comedians on my blog is because I am more interested in others than I am in myself.
6. Have you ever gotten laid by a fan from your facebook ? What’s your weirdest online experience involving your comedy career?
Well, building a list of open mics doesn’t exactly drive women wild with desire. My weirdest experience yet was when I wrote an abortion shower joke on my blog. Some guy out there who started a band called “abortion shower” sometime ago found my blog, accused me of stealing his idea and told me he wished I died. So I’m really looking forward to all the other feedback that is waiting for me in the future.
Great interview!! Twitter is important because you may have fans out there who only use twitter, so having a twitter account is the only way they will find you. That being said, it’s a huge waste of time and makes me hate myself every time I use it.
Hey Soce,
I haven’t heard of anyone who uses twitter exclusively, my understanding is that twitter is used in addition to myspace and/or facebook. Not instead of. Have you had a different experience? I’d be interested to hear about it…
And using twitter has a good and bad for sure. I like the challenge of fitting a message into 140 characters, makes me work at tightening my words
It actually happened last night! After I finished my set, a guy told me that he only uses twitter and not fb or myspace. Basically it’s another way to reach people who may not find you elsewhere.
When a new website pops up called SillyPhotosOfMomAndDadPlusSocialNetworking.com and everyone starts joining it, then you’ll be able to find me there as well 🙂
Right now, I’m on just about every networking website.. facebook, myspace, twitter, vimeo, youtube, livejournal, blogger, funnyordie, blip.tv, linkedin, friendster, and more.. I don’t check most of them that often except the active ones that give responses. For instance, when I post a video on youtube, it’ll generally get at least 50 to 100 hits in the first day. On vimeo, however, I’m generally the only one who sees it…
I also read and comment on a whole bunch of blogs and such.. it’s kind of a sad, pointless existance, but I only stick with the websites that I find entertaining, so there’s that–
That’s interesting. I’ll have to keep an eye out for that.
Personally, I think you should pick the places that appeal to you (and that draw an audience for you) and ignore the rest.
That said, I maintain an active profile on facebook and twitter. I have my tweets automatically posted to my facebook page and to my blog as status updates which makes things a little more automated and efficient. I have a myspace page but don’t check it very often and would prefer to never check it.
I’d much rather comment on other blogs then maintain hundreds of profiles on different websites.
It’s a tough balance between online promoting, offline promoting and actually creating and performing our material, but it makes for interesting times!
Cheers,
Ben