| StageTimeMag.com | Vol. 2 No. 1 |
Comedy news, interviews, reviews and essays
STAGE TIME | "The Comedian's Magazine"
| Cover Story |
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE FEATURES Festival Wrap Up: New York Underground Comedy Festival Hustle & Grow: STAGE TIME Celebrates 1st Anniversary Comic Resolutions 2007 Comic's Final Progress Report 2006 INTERVIEWS Brad Stine **NEW** Careers in Comedy: Ryan McCormick PR Manager COVER STORY Shang REVIEWS Angry Bob Comedy Jump Off Doug Powell Eric Schwartz James P. Connolly **NEW** Anatomy of a Joke "Racism Damnit!" Written and Performed by Shang |
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SHANG - PAGE 7
You should be sending out press. You should send out
promos, MySpace, email blasts. You should be doing
everything in your power to make everybody and their
mother know you have a special.
And you should be ready. You should kill from beginning to
end. You shouldn’t meander throughout your set like Mike
Epps did [on his HBO comedy special, Inappropriate Behavior].
How dare you from the middle of a special say,” So where
you from?” This ain’t no club set. Horrible. Kill yourself.
I talked to the lady from HBO. She knows I’m telling the
truth. She said, “We were very disappointed with the specials.
Jim Norton is known here [in New York]. He can play in four
markets. Tops. He's very funny. He has a specific crowd from
the radio stuff, but everybody in the country is not talking
about him. They’re talking about Earthquake. Earthquake is
known around the country…HBO needs to know these things.
I could outdraw Jim Norton. Flat out.
Nationally?
Nationally. No gray area. If we go to Atlanta, I’m outdrawing him.
promos, MySpace, email blasts. You should be doing
everything in your power to make everybody and their
mother know you have a special.
And you should be ready. You should kill from beginning to
end. You shouldn’t meander throughout your set like Mike
Epps did [on his HBO comedy special, Inappropriate Behavior].
How dare you from the middle of a special say,” So where
you from?” This ain’t no club set. Horrible. Kill yourself.
I talked to the lady from HBO. She knows I’m telling the
truth. She said, “We were very disappointed with the specials.
Jim Norton is known here [in New York]. He can play in four
markets. Tops. He's very funny. He has a specific crowd from
the radio stuff, but everybody in the country is not talking
about him. They’re talking about Earthquake. Earthquake is
known around the country…HBO needs to know these things.
I could outdraw Jim Norton. Flat out.
Nationally?
Nationally. No gray area. If we go to Atlanta, I’m outdrawing him.
They don’t even nurture those markets. They don’t get it. Why are they surprised that Katt Williams had
one of the #1 specials? Katt Williams has been grinding on the road.
How do you think the Bernie Macs come in and do so good? It’s because we already know. Ya’ll say the
Kings of Comedy is an obscure comedy tour and how did they possibly make this much money? Because
apparently, they’re obscure to you, not to those 22,000 people who just bought their tickets.
They were grinding. They were doing everybody. They weren’t just doing the New York market. That’s the
problem with a lot of New York comics. If you just do this market, you think you’re the shit. You go on the
road and it’s, (says in a redneck voice) “I don’t know you. You killed in Harlem. Who gives a shit? I don’t
care.” You’re trying to do subway references and you’re in Alabama.
I seen some of the comics – the reason I asked you [for the cover], because I saw some the cats who
were on the cover of STAGE TIME and I thought, “I am bigger than them nationally.” It’s just not possible.
It’s 15 years of grinding and dealing with people saying, “Oh, you’re too political. You’re too opinionated.”
Yet, I am still here and I’m making more than you. That means in spite of it all, I’m still getting gigs.
And I thought, when you get a cover, you’re supposed to promote that. How is it that you have an email
list, you’re on a cover and I have to find out about it by chance? You should have been emailed me that
you’re on the cover of this cutting [edge] thing for comics.
What advice do you have for comics in terms of branding? Because one of the problems comics face is
that most people will remember the joke, before they remember the comic’s name. What can comics do
to get their name out there?
I read a book by PT Barnum from Barnum & Bailey Circus. And he said, “Your name should be in bold on
everything you advertise. Your name should be first.” If I do a show on the road, I tell them, you have to
put my name and underneath my name, you have to put my website. If I do a TV show, I tell them, you
have to put my name and my website. Cause when I came home, I did Montel [Williams Show]; they put
my website up and I had 7,000 emails just from one Montel.
[Hip-hop mogul] Puffy (Sean “Diddy” Combs) did it too. When he first started, everything was Bad Boy.
Bad Boy. Everything he was saying was Bad Boy to the point where you were saying, “Who the fuck is Bad
Boy?” And that’s what I do a lot of the times.
one of the #1 specials? Katt Williams has been grinding on the road.
How do you think the Bernie Macs come in and do so good? It’s because we already know. Ya’ll say the
Kings of Comedy is an obscure comedy tour and how did they possibly make this much money? Because
apparently, they’re obscure to you, not to those 22,000 people who just bought their tickets.
They were grinding. They were doing everybody. They weren’t just doing the New York market. That’s the
problem with a lot of New York comics. If you just do this market, you think you’re the shit. You go on the
road and it’s, (says in a redneck voice) “I don’t know you. You killed in Harlem. Who gives a shit? I don’t
care.” You’re trying to do subway references and you’re in Alabama.
I seen some of the comics – the reason I asked you [for the cover], because I saw some the cats who
were on the cover of STAGE TIME and I thought, “I am bigger than them nationally.” It’s just not possible.
It’s 15 years of grinding and dealing with people saying, “Oh, you’re too political. You’re too opinionated.”
Yet, I am still here and I’m making more than you. That means in spite of it all, I’m still getting gigs.
And I thought, when you get a cover, you’re supposed to promote that. How is it that you have an email
list, you’re on a cover and I have to find out about it by chance? You should have been emailed me that
you’re on the cover of this cutting [edge] thing for comics.
What advice do you have for comics in terms of branding? Because one of the problems comics face is
that most people will remember the joke, before they remember the comic’s name. What can comics do
to get their name out there?
I read a book by PT Barnum from Barnum & Bailey Circus. And he said, “Your name should be in bold on
everything you advertise. Your name should be first.” If I do a show on the road, I tell them, you have to
put my name and underneath my name, you have to put my website. If I do a TV show, I tell them, you
have to put my name and my website. Cause when I came home, I did Montel [Williams Show]; they put
my website up and I had 7,000 emails just from one Montel.
[Hip-hop mogul] Puffy (Sean “Diddy” Combs) did it too. When he first started, everything was Bad Boy.
Bad Boy. Everything he was saying was Bad Boy to the point where you were saying, “Who the fuck is Bad
Boy?” And that’s what I do a lot of the times.