DIY Comedy and Touring

I just wrapped up a 14 city, 15 day DIY tour of all indie venues throughout the southeast called “The 3 Headed Moron Tour.” I did it with two of my favorite people/comedians, Dave Stone and Ryan Singer. It was some of the most fun I’ve had doing comedy, and only further solidified my faith in/love for the DIY comedy movement. 

(^Tour poster. Artwork by Dave Kloc)

I want to be clear and say that this isn’t some diatribe bashing comedy clubs. I love doing comedy clubs, and especially the ones that treat comedians right. I don’t believe in any alt vs. club type of bullshit. I will do and have done every type of room. I was in a pretty dark place when I started doing comedy, so honestly I love it all to a certain extent. Even the rough situations can be fun or enlightening, plus I had already hit much lower bottoms in life before I ever did stand up; so the worst is not unbearable to me.

Anyway, I think I love doing DIY tours and indie venues for the same reason that drew me to comedy in the first place: the bare bones aspect of it. In stand up, you are responsible for how good you are. You are the only one up there. You wrote the material. You deliver the material. You get the laughs, and you are the one who bombs. There are other factors outside of your control sometimes, but you know when you could’ve done better (almost always). I think of stand up as the comedy equivalent of freebasing. That bare bones-ness translates to DIY tours. When you book your own tour, you really learn from your mistakes because you feel them (hard). I know for a fact that setting up my own shows at independent venues has made me better at comedy, in both the artistic and business sense. 

(^me at JJ’s Bohemia in Chattanooga)

Artistically speaking, when you are in a non-comedy club setting, you have to learn how to get control of the show and command the audience’s attention. If you are performing at a dive bar and half-ass your way through a set, shit can get out of hand quick. You have to remain present and in the moment: no phoning it in. It doesn’t matter that you just pulled in after driving a bunch of hours and you feel out of it. There’s no choice but to suck it up. In a comedy club, it is understood what the people have come to see. If you bomb at a club, people will think “that comedian isn’t funny.” When you tank at a rock club, people think, “what the fuck is this, and why can’t I play the jukebox?” You have to bring a sense of professionalism while on stage just to make the crowd feel comfortable with listening and laughing. You gotta make them respect the show. Every laugh is earned. Momentum isn’t a given. It builds a different kind of chops all together. Also, the kind of material you’re doing is on you. There’s no excuse for not doing the kind of jokes you want to be doing. There’s no club owner telling you what does or doesn’t fly. You’re free to do whatever you think is best, and you can’t blame anyone else for what you decided to do. 

(^Ryan Singer at Blind Mule in Mobile, AL filling the crowd in on what’s goin on in the streets)

On the business side of things, you learn what it is to “tour.” How to route shit. How to talk to venue owners/bookers/comics producing shows. Understanding your value and how to tactfully negotiate. You become hyper-sensitive to vague language and get better at making sure that whatever deal you’ve worked out is crystal clear. Sometimes, you have to let someone know that they’re fuckin with the wrong bull, and sometimes you’re amazed that people will go out of their way to help you. You also figure out that there’s a difference between what you’re willing to do while emailing from a desk and what you can actually handle doing. It took a few years before I knew when to schedule an off day. As far as building a following goes, I always have more people coming back to see me at indie venues than in clubs in any town that I do regularly. It’s a more memorable experience for them than seeing that week’s headliner at the local comedy club. 

(Dave Stone on stage at Brookland Tavern in Colombia, SC)

I just think there’s no harm in being self sufficient. I have representation, and that can be a big help, but I’ll never have to rely on that completely or be stuck with a manager I don’t like for fear of not having one at all. 

This most recent tour was interesting to me because I got to team up with two comics I have a lot of respect for who are also good friends. They live on the other side of the country from me, so we don’t do many shows together on the regular. We all have gotten used to setting up our own tours where we headline and bring an opener, if possible. It was cool to see and talk to their fans who came to the show because of the last time they came through that town, and the people that came out to see me again were introduced to Ryan and Dave’s comedy. I never had to worry about having to dig out of someone else’s hole, and having to follow them kept me on my game. We were all aware of what material each other was working on and had daily joke machine sessions (our term for “workshop”). We all managed to hammer out some quality new stuff by the end of the tour, and we managed to get more people out than we anticipated. A great experience overall, and it reaffirmed my belief that the future of comedy will only have time for well-run independent shows and the clubs who are doing things the right way. 

(^Show at a yoga studio in St. Petersburg, FL)

Just because DIY stands for do it yourself, and literally anyone can throw together some stuff and call it a “tour,” I would strongly urge comics to not get ahead of where you’re at comedically and setup a poorly thought out “tour” where you’re in over your head skill-wise. You could do a straight door deal just about anywhere and go bomb around the country losing money to look like a bigger deal than you are on fb…but that’s not the best way to go about it, or even a reasonable way. Visit other scenes. Get to know the comics there. When you’re ready to be touring, people will let you know you should be. Don’t be a doofus and try to big time those comics from other places. That’s the first sign of a guy no one wants to deal with.

This was long,

-Andy

Tonight: 3 Headed Moron Tour w/ Ryan Singer, Andy Sandford & Dave Stone at Relapse!

atlantacomedy:

We have a triple decker of a night at Relapse Theatre today with the 3 Headed Moron Tour! Former ATLiens Andy Sandford and Dave Stone team up with Ryan Singer for a killer tour. 

Dave Stone: Based out of Los Angeles by way of Atlanta, Dave made his television debut on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” in 2013. In 2014 Dave was a featured performer on season 8 of “Last Comic Standing”, and the following year he released his first album “Hogwash”. When not headlining his own tours, Dave can be seen in theaters nationwide opening for Craig Ferguson. He can also be heard voicing several characters on Adult Swim’s hit animated series “Squidbillies”.

Andy Sandford: Andy Sandford is a comedian who got funny in Atlanta, GA and is now based out of New York City. Last year, Andy made his late night debut on CONAN, which was included in The Laugh Button’s “Top 5 Late Night Stand-up Debuts of 2015.“ Andy’s album, Me The Whole Time, was named one of the “9 Best Standup Specials & Albums of 2014“ by Splitsider. He also played an animated version of himself on Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The Village Voice described Andy as “one of New York’s comedic gems,” and despite all of this, he has managed to remain humble.

Ryan Singer: Ryan just released his 3rd full-length album Immortal For Now after his debut album, How To Get High Without Drugs, and sophomore release, Comedy Wonder Town, were selected as Top 10 Comedy CD’s of the year (2010 & 2012). He was selected by LA Weekly as one of “10 LA Comics to Watch” for 2014, and was mentioned in NY Magazine as a “Comic to Watch.” Ryan is also a frequent guest on the WTF Podcast w/Marc Maron, and his joke “United Snacks of America” has over 7 million listens on Pandora.

Special Guests
David Perdue
Samm Severin
Michael Rowland

Doors: 8pm; Show: 9pm. $10

(art by Dave Kloc)

When I was new in comedy, I saw Shane Mauss’s tv debut and was blown away. I then sent him a myspace message asking how he went about comedy and what to avoid etc. half expecting him to ignore it. Instead, he answered all my dumb questions very sincerely and didn’t condescend to me or anything. He was a class act, and later on we did some shows together and became friends. My point is, if you are new in comedy and wanted to ask a comic you respect questions, no matter how stupid, make sure you don’t ask me. I am not cool like Shane and I will encourage you to quit comedy all together. There’s only so much money to go around, and I’m tryin ta get ALL of it. Consider this a warning: I have little to lose and will stop at nothing to ruin your career before you ever become a threat. See you on the battlefield, dorks. Do not look me in the eyes.

Hell gig story I did for Splitsider

In 2009, I was one fourth of an ongoing tour called The Beards of Comedy. We were all based in or around Atlanta and chose that name because we all happened to have beards and thought of it as a sort of parody of a hook. We did no material about beards or any beard-centric comedy; we just thought it was a funny name. All that being said, when someone from the NYC Beard and Mustache Championship contacted us and offered to pay us to perform at the annual event in Williamsburg, BK, we were more than happy to take the gig and the money… mostly the money. I was the first of us that had to do a set, which was about three hours into the event. 1,000 people were packed into a capacity 800 venue. Everyone was hammered. I was supposed to do 20 minutes of standup after a bluegrass/rockabilly band, a ZZ Top cover band, and a mustache competition. The MC butchered my intro, paraphrasing whatever BS credits no one would know anyway, and failing to mention that I was a comedian (kind of important). Right off the bat, the 600 people toward the back were completely tuned out or ordering beers. The 400 or so toward the front were still wondering what I was there to do without a costume or an instrument. I told a few quick jokes and finagled some laughs, more or less by way of trickery. Someone realized a few minutes in that I was a comedian and yelled, ‘Tell a joke!’ To which I replied, ‘You remember when I was talking and then I stopped and people laughed?…That was a joke.’ I thought I had won over the crowd, and I was so, so wrong. People were heckling five or ten at a time. I was only five minutes into a 20 minute set. I strapped in and braced myself for 15 minutes of 1,000 people hating me (I couldn’t risk not getting paid). About three more minutes of chaos ensued before the MC walked right up to me and asked, ‘What you wanna do?’ I said, ‘If you’re saying I can bail, then I’ll bail. I just wanna make sure I get paid.’ He said, ‘Let me make an announcement real quick.’ He then informed someone that their car was about to be towed and said to the DJ, “Hey DJ, play that Wilson Phillips song. Andy and I are gonna dance!” I immediately told him, “I’m not a fuckin’ monkey. Not dancin’.” And walked backstage where five or six bands were visibly cringing. A ZZ Top cover band member patted me on the back and said, ‘Fuck em all.’ To this day, that’s the only phrase I use when consoling a comic who just bombed.

Fandy Fandford Update

Philly Fandy Fandfords: March 18th, I will be dropping truth bombs at Boot & Saddle ($10. 8pm. tix & info: http://www.bootandsaddlephilly.com/event/1064283/)

Boston Fandy’s: March 24th, I’ll be tellin my funny make-em-ups at Davis Square Theatre ($10. 8:30pm. tix and info: http://bit.ly/1R80GAO)

Cable-having Fandfords: April 7th, 10:30pm. My jokes will be broadcasted on Vice’s new show, “Flophouse” on their new channel, VICELAND. Lotta funny ATLien homies on there with me.

Southern Fandy’s: Check this sweet poster to see if the 3 Headed Moron Tour will be in yer town in April. It’s not just me. There’s 2 other funny dummies (Dave Stone and Ryan Singer) 3headedmoron.com