Hey there, ArtistHeat readers! Today we’re diving into the world of stand-up comedy cash flow. Ever wondered if your favorite comedians are rolling in dough or struggling to make rent? Well, grab your coffee (or something stronger) because we’re about to spill all the tea on comedian finances and I aint fair at all;)
Starting From the Bottom: Open Mic Struggles
Okay, let’s be serious here for a couple of minutes — any comedian embarks a journey with less than zero dollars to their name. That’s right, zilch, nada, nothing. Open mics are to comedy what receiving credits in the entertainment industry is to any other profession; people pay for their own drinks and their own fare.
One of the friends of mine used to go out and perform the set in four different open mics for three years and never made a dollar. THREE YEARS! That is commitment that some people would run away from as meaningless, and others would consider as insanity. To be honest, majority of new comics perform exactly that by year two.
The Opening Act Hustle
After successfully accomplish the feat of making strangers laughed (not only your mother or friends who want to support you), you may be able to ascend to the level of opening act. Woo-hoo! Time to celebrate with… about 25-50 dollars per performance.
That’s right, folks. It is almost sad that the creativity and talent developed by comedians is paid little money that many of us would consider too little coupled with what we spend on a decent meal. For that amount, they are supposed to entertain the audience for 10-15 minutes to warm up the crowd and ease the work of the main performer, only to be erased from the audience’s memory the second they step off the stage.
Is it glamorous? No. Is it necessary? Absolutely. This is Comedy boot camp and anybody who works here has to be part of the comedian training.
Middle Ground: Feature Acts and Their Middle-Class Dreams
A little higher and the feature acts (or middle acts) that perform between $50 and a $100 per show are found. Many of these comedians have been performing for more than 5 years and can guarantee at least 25-30 minutes of an audience’s captivation.
Here’s where things get interesting. If a feature act manages to keep its material clean enough to perform at corporate events, he may well be invited to warm up for other corporate comedians and have $200 plus per performance.
Well, that is the truth behind comedy business – er, at least for the comedians it became relatively good to tell clean jokes. But it also means self-censorship and possibly, giving up some of your controversial content, or material that may make the board uncomfortable. Should art and artists sacrifice their integrity than ensuring they make timely payments of their bills? That’s the eternal comedian’s dilemma.
Headliner Status: Finally Making Bank (Sort Of)
It also will take about 10 years (more or less depending with talent and the good relationship) before one can actually get to headline. This means that you’ll be able to deliver forty-five plus minutes of humorous material on the go.
The average salary of comedy club main acts ranges between one hundred and two hundred dollars per a single show. Given per hour, the cost ranges from $133- 266 per hour, not a bad earnings when compared with employment of the regular 9 to 5 job. But here are the things you ought to know: most of the headline artists perform only between 3-4 times a week and not more than 2-3 weekends a month.
When you do the math then it comes out very expensive and here you have been having a well-paying paying job, but if you are stuck in your car most of the time you cannot make a decent living wage. The pictures depict a highway rest stop and Holiday Inn Express.
The Market Determines Your Worth
Now here’s where the comedy world gets wildly unequal. The market you work in dramatically impacts your earning potential. Let me break it down:
Comedy Club Comedians: The Working Class
It is also reasonable to note that the average comedy club headline earns between one hundred and two hundred dollars for a show, as stated earlier. But there is a catch here especially depending on the type of comedy you perform, that is it could be a no-no if your comedy is borderline ‘over 18.’ You will remain almost trapped into the club circuit, traveling most of the time, often living out of a carryon suitcase.
Well, while it’s gossiping, let me inform you that television did not become well known for its palace like rooms and staff. I have heard of one comedian who got lodged in a motel that had real crime scene tapes around the compound. True story!
Corporate Comedians: The Upper Middle Class
However if you can for instance come up with an act that is appropriate for corporate functions, fundraising occasions and other private events then you are on a different level. These young innocent talents are capable of commanding five to ten times what club comics are paid per show.
We are aware that it will cost between $1,000 and 3,000 for one concert per electronic music company to perform at a company’s dinner or a charity organization dinner event. The catch? It has to be clean; it cannot have f-bombs or be crossing any contested topics of the society.
There are many performers who have two stand-up routines, the one they perform in house and the other that they perform for money. It is the comedy’s equivalent to weaving in and out of multiple language dialects.
Cruise Ship Comics: Vacation Pay
However, if you are able to get jobs within cruise ships (which is not so simple), then it’s possible to earn $500-$ 1,500 for the initial show. The advantages are free accommodation transfers and meals, but the drawbacks are that the attendee is confined to a floating hotel with the audience all through the trip.
It is the worst thing to be bombing and to be forced to look at the faces of those people in the morning while having breakfast. Awkward!
College Circuit: Campus Cash
The colleges range from paying between $800 to $1,200 for the newcomers and these are evidenced by the NACA or APCA showcases. However, beware, college students are quite easily bored and do pay much attention to what they are fed with.
Tell me a wrong joke and you are likely to be trending in the social media platforms for the wrong reasons. Risk versus reward, people!
The Celebrity Comedians: The 1%
We also have other audacious media personalities such as Kevin Harts, Dave Chappelle, and Joe Rogan, among others. Such companies are in a different league altogether.
To give some background, Netflix paid Dave Chappelle 60 million prior to the boycott, which he had signed up for his internet specials. Kevin Hart’s global tours gross over $70 million. Joe Rogan signed the record deal which of $130,000,000 and was closed with Spotify.
Still, these are all exceptions which are about as hard to come by as hitting the comedy jackpot. While there is a Kevin Hart, paving his way towards becoming one of the biggest stand-up comedians of his generation, there are thousands of other talents struggling to make ends meet by performing at friend’s place between two shows.
The Hidden Costs of Funny Business
What many people don’t realize is that comedians are independent contractors. That means:
- No health insurance
- No paid vacation
- No sick days
- Self-employment taxes (ouch!)
- Paying for their own travel between gigs
- Marketing themselves
- Creating and maintaining their own material
So while $200 for an hour on stage might sound great, it doesn’t account for the 40+ hours spent writing, practicing, traveling, and promoting that show.
Is It Worth It?
You may ask why individuals pursue comedy careers knowing fully well that almost nobody smiles at the end. In general, it is not an option; it is something that was not really chosen by most comedians. It is call me mad, insanity and passion that makes people to find ways to make strangers laugh.
Honestly, performing on a stage – of executing a joke to the T only to be rewarded with a round of gales of laughter from the audience is unparalleled. It is something most comedians look forward to chase despite the fact that it is accompanied with so much instability.
Fortunately, one can always dream of being the next John from Stratford who has his jack reach to the stars. It is the same dream that continues to lure casino users to spin the slots; it may be the luckiest spin.
The Bottom Line
So what’s the verdict? Can comedians make a living? Yes it is possible but it is not an easy task and can only be done a certain way based on your status, friends and degrees of flexibility.
The large amounts of money are not in the jokes, but in branding your comedy. Podcasts, t-shirts, followers on the different social media platforms, film roles, and writing opportunities, that is where comedians can find steady incomes for the future.
In fact, stand-up has turned into the bait with which many new forms are tempted out, but the slightly more lucrative form. Here, it dispels rumors to mention that the stage time is only the audition for the actual performance somewhere else.
Therefore, the next time you hear or watch a comedian deliver their performance, chances are they are not making much as implied by their performance. But they are doing what they like and in the contemporary society today everything that people like is something that should be encouraged.
Until next time, ArtistHeat readers, keep laughing—even if it’s at the state of comedian finances!
