“If you are a talented comic, how do you build enough of an audience to one day actually make some money out of being hilarious? You can grind away on the live circuit, slowly cultivating your following in tiny increments. You can make a splash at Edinburgh, win some awards and wait for the occasional boost from an appearance on a TV panel show. Or you can take a short cut by broadcasting your flagship live performances on Periscope so that anyone in the world is able to watch it.
This is the future for the sort of fast-rising comedians looking to widen their exposure and take things to the next level. This summer, I will be helping Canadian comic Bobby Mair do just that by making his Filthy Immigrant show the first at the Edinburgh fringe to be live broadcast on Periscope.
While many performers who made their name in old-media and are now lamenting the loss of BBC3 from the electronic programme guide, Bobby is someone who understands that if you’re trying to speak to a young audience, then online is the place to do it. The people whining about BBC3 going online are showing an embarrassing misunderstanding of the audience BBC3 exists to serve.
I’m collaborating with the production company Colour TV to bring his Edinburgh show to the entire world this summer via Periscope’s reach.
Periscope is being harnessed to fulfil the only two human urges even more powerful than anonymous sexual interaction: selling things and courting attention.
Whether it’s Adidas broadcasting contract signings with their top stars or Red Bull giving followers a behind the scenes glimpse of Miami Music week, Periscope is helping brands reward their audiences with extra special content that is completely raw and unedited. And on social media, particularly with young audiences, a lack of choreography is key to building credibility. In that sense, Periscope is the anti-Instagram. There are no filters; the provider cannot spend hours carefully manipulating the content before publication. It offers direct, real-time, exclusive access to people and events.
The practical point of this is to build an audience far more broadly than 23 nights at Heroes at the Hive could, even if it sells out every night (which it probably will). Live performance is the best way to see comedy and seeing it through Periscope, with its unvarnished, point-of-view-type execution, is the closest you can get to that experience without actually being in the room. Plus, Bobby’s Periscope followers will get to see real-time behind the scenes coverage from immediately before and after the shows.
Yes, it involves giving away free content for now but in the long run could prove very lucrative. Exposure is the key and exposure is what Periscope is now offering comics like Bobby.
