Latest / Mic Drop Comedy / Broken Drift Productions Patreon Highlight _ Industry Podcast with Ryan Cott _ Kali Scott

Transcript

Broken Drift Productions Patreon Highlight _ Industry Podcast with Ryan Cott _ Kali Scott · Mic Drop Comedy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hi, welcome to the Patreon podcast for Broken Drift. I
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: am Callie Scott, and I am here with Mr. Ryan Cott. Ryan,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: can you please give us the long list of incredible
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: titles that you have in stand-up?
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Hi, thanks for having me. Yeah, I've been in the
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: comedy business for 26 years. I started off as a
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: door guy at the Comedy Connection in Faneuil Hall, worked
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: my way up to being a club manager in Booker,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: and then eventually got into owning clubs in a production company.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: But at this present time, I now am a small
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: stake owner in this club, Detroit, Mic Drop Detroit, which
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: has been a great since handing it over to Casey
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: and Hillary.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: What is one opinion about comedy that you have that
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: other people disagree with?
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: The comedy world has changed dramatically over the years that
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: I've done this. And, you know, looking back at what
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: comedy was like for years from the 80s up until
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: 2000s of just building your act, building your act, and
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: then fans will follow. And then you start selling tickets
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: and doing shows is the complete opposite now. Now you
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: get a viral video and you figure out how to
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: tell jokes after. And it's as a club owner, too, or,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: you know, a booker, I have to put butts in
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: seats and We have to pay our bills and we
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: have to pay our staff. And unfortunately, what's doing that
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: right now are these viral people that don't have an
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: act yet. And at first, I put a hard line
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: in the sand of being like, I'm only doing internet
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: people or YouTube people on off nights. That's had to
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: go away now because, you know, I'm putting in true
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: comics during weekends and having to consolidate shows. A little
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: discouraging because it's the art form, I think, has taken
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a hit on this. And now
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: it's just about who says the most shockingly thing on
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: stage to get bait, clickbait, and then they end up
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: selling tickets. And I'm just not sure how long Jevity
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: that can sustain. And so it's a constantly turnstile of
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: nudes telling filthy sh * *. to sell tickets, but I,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: as I'm trying to run a business, need to play
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: that game.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I was so passionate about what I did for so long.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, I was a door guy, I was a
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: bar back, I was doing this all the way up
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: to running and owning clubs. I feel like the passion
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: has dropped a little bit and I hate that about this.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: As a newer comic, I'll ask you, what is something
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: that you wish new comics would stop doing?
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: You know, they're always asking for advice, which is great,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I think too, but this advice for newer comics is
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: just so simple at this point. And here's the thing,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: it goes back to what I just said, is how
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: the business was done for a long time. Get on stage,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: build your act, build your five minutes, build your 10 minutes.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Now you really have to do that and figure out
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: how to go viral, how to get something there. Can't
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: do it.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: You can. You can do it.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: You can. How to, you know, align yourself with somebody
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: kind of blowing up. It's not an easy time. There's
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: so many things to learn and do. And you just
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: literally have to be different in some way or another.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: And what's trending right now is the shock factor of
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: what's being different.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: What is a behind the scenes comedy reality that comics
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: hardly ever think about?
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: It's the business side of things. It's the, you know,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: how many emails go back and forth internally between a
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: club talking about how do we get more people in
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: the seats for this funny comedian? Or do we have
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: to pull back and consolidate shows? And, you know, is
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: it worth it to spend more money on ads? Is,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: you know, there's so many conversations week in, week out
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: internally between the social media team, the marketing team, the owners,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: the bookers. the club managers that go into one show. And,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: you know, one of my partners and bosses from back
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: in the day used to explain this as a 90
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: minute flight. There's so much work that goes into a
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: 90 minute flight. You have to set the tickets. You
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: have to set the prices. You have to market it.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: You have to get people to buy the tickets and
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: do it. And then you do the flight and then
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: it's over.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: And then you got to do it again. And then
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: you got to do it again. And it's just, there's
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: so much work behind the scenes. And, Going back to
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: what you said was the annoying thing of some of
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: these up-and-comers.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Do you?
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I think you can court all that nonsense. It's the
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: constant touch bases. There's so many people. I'm fortunate enough
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: to have so many clubs to book and work at,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: and I don't take that for granted or lightly at all.