Art vs. Commerce Or, The Cheeseburger Theory of Comedy

I still haven't decided what the core purpose of this blog is.  Should I just update everybody on my experiences as a full-time comedian?  Or should I get a little more theoretical and try to analyze comedy a bit?  Is this blog about the comedian or the comedy?  (I'm still not sure, so please feel free to weigh in in the comment section!)

With that in mind, I have been working on something for a bit, a theoretical discourse on the art-commerce spectrum as it relates to stand-up comedy.  I think I may be in withdrawal from all of the paper writing of 12 years in public schools and 4 years at Harvard, so I apologize if the language gets a little too academic for an informal blog post, but here goes anyway:

As someone who makes his living as an artist, it's always fascinating to me to consider the relationship between art and commerce.  I think all comedians fall somewhere on a spectrum between art (comedy purely for the sake of comedy) and commerce (comedy purely for the sake of making money).

The first thing to consider in regards to this spectrum is that the audience plays an important role.  Since the commerce aspect of art is fueled by those paying for it, the commerce side of the spectrum could also be labeled "comedy dictated by the wants/needs of others" while the art side of the spectrum could be labeled "comedy dictated by the wants/needs of the artist."

I think the best analogy for conceptualizing the scale is as follows: at the far end of the commerce side of the spectrum is a fast food cheeseburger.  It's cheap, it's easy, it sells well, and is extremely popular on a large scale.  However, it's not good for you nor is it really satisfying on any level below the topmost surface.  As we move along the scale, the cheeseburger starts to get less and less manufactured and its composition is less and less dictated by what will appeal to a large, generalized population.  At the center of the scale, we have a standard cheeseburger, one you might find at a good diner.  As we start to move farther and farther down the art side, the cheeseburger starts to get more and more experimental.  Instead of cheese, you might find an avocado.  Instead of a bun, you might find lettuce.  Instead of beef, you might find tuna or turkey or vegetables.  At a certain point, however, these cheeseburgers go from pushing the limits of what a cheeseburger is to being so un-cheeseburger-like that anyone who orders it will send it back because, at this point, it's just not a cheeseburger anymore.

I think every comedian should decide where they want to be on this scale.  If comedy is a cheeseburger, what kind of cheeseburger do you want to be?  I think, ideally, you want one foot on the art side and one foot on the commerce side, in such a way that you can straddle the middle point, putting weight on one or the other foot depending on the venue, audience, etc.  If comedy is something you want to do but not something you want to do for a living, then I think you have the freedom to be farther out on the art side.  (If comedy is a cheeseburger, you don't have to worry about people sending a cheeseburger back if you're not concerned with selling a lot of them or making a profit.)  Thus, the danger in going too far out on the art side is that it diminishes your ability to make a living as an artist.  More importantly, being that far out means you're too far away from the comedy the audience wants to see or expects - of course, you have to make strong artistic choices, but since the audience is so important to stand-up comedy, you can't completely alienate all possible audiences.  If you end up performing in an empty room, you're no longer performing stand-up comedy.

Still, I think more comedians tend to go too far out on the commerce side, ignoring the art and the craft solely in order to create commerce (make money).  Stand-up comedy is an art form and should be treated as such - it's a vehicle for creativity and expression.  If you're too far on the commerce side of the scale, you're denying the very essence of comedy, which is that it is an art.  Somebody too "arty" is still an artist, but somebody too "commerce-y" has forgotten what it is or ceased to be an artist.

I describe this spectrum and my thoughts on it because I think it's useful in conceptualizing certain theories or ideas.  

For example, people struggle to define "alternative" or "alt" comedy.  Instead of trying to nail down what it is, I would argue that it might be reasonable to simply define it as comedy a significant distance away from the midpoint towards the "art" side of the art-commerce spectrum.

Using the spectrum also makes it easier to explain the difference between the comedy scenes in the U.S.  In New York, there are more comedy clubs (centers of commerce) than Boston; it's also more expensive to live in New York, so the commerce aspect has to be pushed even harder in order just to survive as an artist.  As a result, Boston comics tend to be more art/less commerce than New York comics.  (This is not to say that New York comics are not artists, only that in relative terms Boston comics on a whole are "artier"/more art-focused than New York comics.  Both might be on the art side of the scale, but Boston would probably be farther out from the center.)

Another example: stealing jokes and doing hack material is an art/commerce question.  These comics are performing in front of audiences and getting hired - this is the commerce aspect of this issue.  (Commerce is the only reason these comedians resort to this - if it didn't help them get up in front of an audience or do better when performing for them, they wouldn't steal jokes or use hack material, as it would defeat the whole purpose of them doing it in the first place.)  According to this scale, you can't get closer to the commerce side without getting farther from the art side - I think we can agree that this works well for the stealing/hack example since these comics essentially cease to be artists when they engage in this kind of behavior.  Art is about creating - one can't be an artist without generating or creating anything.

I think a strong conceptualization of this spectrum is helpful in thinking about stand-up comedy.  Such issues as joke selection, playing to an audience, developing abstract material are all really art-commerce issues, so I think a greater understanding of this scale will lead to better, more well-informed choices.

Anybody want a cheeseburger?