How Social Media Transforms Standup Comedy Career - Matt ruby

Erik: Where has using social media been most valuable in your work as a standup comedian? Matt: I think it's good for exposure. Like, especially, like when you're a comedian you go onstage there's those people in the room at that moment but that's it so then it just sort of, again, comedy is this very like evaporating art form where it just like disappears and a lot of times those people won't remember your name or know how to come see you again. So, the good thing about online stuff is it's a way for people to follow you and stay in the loop and know where you're performing and kinda -- I think also you build up a voice in a way over a while like if you're posting on Twitter a couple of times a day for a year. You'll start to have an angle or point of view or a voice that is recognizable, and that sort of shows where you're coming from, which I think is a valuable thing as a comedian. And that's just good for like testing out jokes ideas and like I've had things that I'll post on Twitter that I think are just like throwaway lines or something and I'm like whatever and then all of a sudden it'll be like retweeted, you know, a dozen time in an hour and I'll be like, oh, that's something I should talk about on stage because apparently it is something that's striking a nerve. So, it's a good sort of way to test out ideas without, you know, needing to actually be on stage which is, you know, stage time is in limited quantities. So, it's, you know, any time you can sort of get valuable feedback when you're not just in that chunk of time you're on stage, it's helpful.