Chasing TV

Being recognized for your comedy is great. A lot of people get into this business for exactly that reason, to get famous. But that’s not really want I was shooting for. I don’t have any major late-night TV credits, and even if I did, getting a spot on one of those shows is tough. And it doesn’t guarantee fame anyway.

Before cable TV, one late-night appearance could

make you famous because there just weren’t that many shows. Doing a set on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show and then getting invited to sit down by his desk was the golden ticket. That’s how comedians like Jay Leno, Joan Rivers, and Drew Carey became household names. Or so I’ve heard.

Now there are endless channels, platforms, and comedy shows. With so much content, it’s much harder to stand out.

Case in point.

A comedian friend of mine was shopping at Target and recognized the guy sitting at a desk pushing store credit cards. He had just seen him the week before on The Tonight Show. The guy got his five minutes of fame, but there wasn’t any real money or career momentum behind it.

What TV is looking for is also all over the map.

One night at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, I followed a comedian who was practicing his five-minute set for a late-night show he had just booked. His bit was about squirrels getting nervous and chewing off their own male body parts, which is apparently a real thing. The crowd was hysterical. He even acted it out.

I stood backstage thinking, well, if that’s what TV is looking for, I am definitely not it.

While being recognized because I was on TV

hasn’t really happened for me, I have been recognized from my in-person shows, and that’s been incredibly cool.

Airports are a big one.

I once finished a humor keynote for 2,000 people in Nashville.

Standing ovation. Fantastic event. Later at the airport, I stopped at a bar for a beer. A guy was playing guitar and singing, so I sat at the front table to listen. Suddenly about 15 people from the conference walked into the bar. They saw me and completely swarmed my table, telling me how much they enjoyed the show. It was so intense that the singer stopped playing, stared at me, and said, “Who are you?”

I told him I was a comedian who had just done a corporate gig. Pretty cool moment.

I’ve also been recognized on

planes when people from the audience were on the same flight home. Other passengers started turning their heads as people walked down the aisle pointing at me and saying, “You were great!”

Another memorable moment happened upstairs at the Laugh Factory, where comedians and special guests hang out. A dad and his teenage son came up to me and said they recognized me from a casino show in Vegas the week before. They were incredibly kind and complimentary.

And not being recognized as a comedian has only bothered me once.

The Improv on Melrose has a bar where audience members and comics hang out. The bartender had been there forever, and as such he had a few rules that he enforced or didn’t when he wanted to. One rule was that comics only got the discounted comic price on beer if they were performing that night. Fair enough. People just saying they are a comic shouldn’t get the discount.

Except

he regularly gave the discount to comics who weren’t performing because he was friends with them. He never did that for me. He wouldn’t even acknowledge that I was a comic, even though I hung out there a lot and other comics told him I was legit.

It ticked me off.

I never bought a beer there on the many nights I hung out, and even when I performed there, I only bought a beer once. I was annoyed.

Recognition hasn’t just been visual, either.

People have come up to me saying they recognized my jokes from XM Satellite Radio. I’ve been played a lot on XM, and hearing that people remembered the jokes was flattering.

When you start any career or project, you have to decide what success means to you.

Being recognized is nice, but it was never my main goal. Early on, I realized I didn’t want to spend my life chasing five-minute TV sets. I wanted a career where I could make good money, work reasonably regular hours, have freedom, and actually enjoy what I do.

I found that through humor keynotes.

Be crystal clear about what you want your life to look like and what success truly means to you. Otherwise, it’s easy to spin your wheels chasing things that sound impressive but deliver very little payoff and don’t actually move you closer to the life you want. Don’t waste your precious time on this planet.

---

Jan McInnis is a Keynote Speaker, Comedian, Comedy Writer, and Master of Ceremonies. She has written for Jay Leno’s Tonight Show monologue as well as many other people, places, and groups – radio, TV, syndicated cartoon strips, and even guests on the Jerry Springer show (her parents are proud). For 20+ years she’s traveled country as a keynote speaker and comedian sharing her unique and practical tips on what business leaders can learn from comedians (no, it’s not all about telling jokes). She can be reached at www.TheWorkLady.com, or Jan@TheWorkLady.com She’s also a GREAT Master of Ceremonies. Click here for her emcee site

Some of the stories in this newsletter are taken from Jan’s popular book:

Convention Comedian: Stories and Wisdom From Two Decades of Chicken Dinners and Comedy Clubs.