Late stage comedy writers in Los Angeles
Little podcasting chieftains forming networks of shows under such banners as Nerdist, Earwolf and Ace Broadcasting, which belongs to the former radio host turned podcaster Adam Carolla. It's no coincidence that this is all happening in Los Angeles, where comics move to work in TV and movies and stay to become ironic, insular and defeated about it.
The vacuum was what initially flummoxed comedians when the Internet revolution happened. Suddenly comics were in the discomfiting position of needing to relate to audiences outside the more hostile, and familiar, setting of a particular night in front of a particular crowd. Dane Cook, who embraced the "Hey, guys!" approach of building a brand on the Web, was scoffed at for his Internet people-pleasing. He even came to symbolize the end of stand-up comedy as a great antisocial art form.
But eventually comics, who tend to talk and talk and talk, who often write their material by talking, recognized the springboard of a podcast as a beautiful thing -- Internet radio without the gatekeepers or, if you like, instant stage time in their down time. Half a decade into the trend, something like an establishment industry is starting to form, with little podcasting chieftains forming networks of shows under such banners as Nerdist, Earwolf and Ace Broadcasting, which belongs to the former radio host turned podcaster Adam Carolla. It's no coincidence that this is all happening in Los Angeles, where comics move to work in TV and movies and stay to become ironic, insular and defeated about it.
Magazine
Stand-Up Comedy Without the Stand-Up. Or the Comedy.
By PAUL BROWNFIELD
Published: February 3, 2012
Don't listen to podcasts by stand-up comics because they're funny. Listen to them because they're almost unbearably raw.