Last week, my photography was featured in Travis Wright’s I’m a Fan Of newsletter. He writes and podcasts about the DFW comedy scene and is an amazing resource for our community. His take on the importance of our DeadGood photos was really unexpected and interesting. Check it out!
The following is part 3 in my series about the lessons I’ve learned in comedy in my two years of doing stand up. You can read part 1 and 2 here.
Money is absolutely not a reason to do comedy.
People always ask me if I want comedy to be my full-time job eventually. While I don’t disparage anyone who is working to make it their full-time gig, for me the answer is “no.” I don’t think that comedy is ever going to pay my bills. It’s extremely low paying at basically every level except the people with Netflix specials or nationwide tours. Even touring comedians may not be making much more than an average mid-level HR person.
Plus to be successful you have to tour the country consistently, and I’m not interested in that while I have a young family. So full-time success in comedy isn’t what I’m going for. That said, I am entrepreneurial in everything I do and I don’t want comedy to be a drain on my income either.
Once I started to figure out how pay worked in comedy, I quickly realized that the only way to make any money through comedy was to be more in control. Kevin Deanda and I started DeadGood Productions on a whim in 2023 after a silly conversation via Instagram turned into a “dude should we actually do this?”
Despite the accidental nature of it's beginning, the general idea of producing my own shows and taking more control had been in my mind for a while. I don’t like relying on other people to pay me out of the goodness of their heart or because I sucked up to them enough. To my eternal detriment, I am allergic to sucking up. I’ve also been laid off enough to know that the goodness of a superior’s hearts is nonexistent. Instead, I prefer to provide value and then get money for that value. It’s why I started my own business, Bedgood Marketing, and why Kevin and I started DeadGood Productions.
Sure, we need club owners to give us opportunities, and we’re grateful for those chances they gave us. But we’re also giving them value in return: talent they don’t have to book, tickets they don’t have to sell, and a show they don’t have to run.
Here’s the thing though: We’re not special. We’re not extra smart or talented. We don’t have any advantage over any other comedian. I don’t mean to give away the secret sauce or anything here but…literally anyone can do this.
But not enough do. Instead they scrounge for small payments from clubs, complain about not getting booked or paid enough, and invent wild conspiracies in which everyone has it out for them.
If you’re that good (and in my case, even if you’re not), then go out and do it yourself. Find a venue. Negotiate with them. Do a show there. Promote it yourself. Book some talent. Host it. Then take the profits for yourself and pay your talent.
Kevin and I did it about a year after we started comedy.
It’s not that hard.
It takes no special skills or experience.
But it’s not as easy as complaining.
Most of you are not comedians and you may not be super interested in this insider conversation. But truthfully, the points I make apply to every situation of life. Often we complain about something instead of rolling up our sleeves and trying to fix it.
Complaining is just a mask for our insecurities. It’s an outward expression of our fear. Yes, there are things that suck. There isn’t always a solution. But most of the time there is. We’re just too scared or insecure to take the chance.
Trying, and failing, is how we grow and learn. We’ve failed many things in our time running DeadGood Productions. We’ve had to pay comedians out of our own pocket because we didn’t sell enough tickets. And we learned how much that sucks and how much work we have to put in to every show to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Think about areas in your life where that same thing applies. What are you complaining about the most? Can you actually change that situation if you try something new? What’s stopping you from doing so?
I’d love to hear stories from you about times that you’ve decided to do try something new or risky. Overall were you happy with the risk you took? Did it change your life in a positive or negative way? Let me know in the comments or by replying to this email.
DeadGood Productions hosts a show the first Friday of every month at 10 PM at Dallas Comedy Club. We’ve also produced shows at The Comedy Arena in McKinney and Rose City Comedy in Tyler, TX and are available to put on a show at any venue.
We also sell awesome merch. Buy yours today by replying to this email or sending me a message on FB/Insta or text. Proceeds go towards making comedy an extremely lucrative business (aka not losing money and making my wife mad at me).
I’ll have part 4 of this series for you soon. Next week we’ll have my first foray into short fiction. It’s gonna be a weird one. Please subscribe to be the first to experience it.