Why Comic Andrew Schulz Is A Marketing God
Andrew Schulz is a New York comic who has worked his way through the ranks over the last couple of decades to become one of the most prolific talents in the comedy world.
His meteoric rise to fame is anything but an accident.
I want to share with you the marketing genius that is Andrew Schulz.
Let’s rewind 5+ years!
At this point, Andrew is in his grind.
He was getting up on stage a minimum of 5 nights a week.
Quick sidenote…
What comedy is Schulz drawn to? ??
“What’s the worst thing I can defend in a comedic way”
A tough intellectual challenge to take on but one you can only win by being at the top of your game.
* Disclaimer* His comedy is outrageous and is not for everyone *Disclaimer*
However, there was one problem...
The traditional TV networks didn’t want to let Schulz on air.
They would continue to cut him out of recordings, stopping him from breaking through and getting onto the traditional networks.
For those who don’t know what the traditional comedy career route looked like:
At the time Andrew Schulz was a host (still is) of the podcast Brilliant Idiots co-hosted with Charlamagne the God, who was also the host of Power 105.1’s radio show, The Breakfast Club and one of the most prolific names in the world of Hip-Hop.
Andrew Schulz saw the tectonic plates of the industry start to move...
People that had podcasts were starting to see their audience translate into live-show ticket sales ??
On the Colin & Samir show (a podcast dedicated to the creator economy) Andrew told a story of a time he was at his Uncles house and he asks the son to change the channel to ABC.
His response…
“What channel is that”
It was at this point Andrew Schulz knew the tide had already shifted and he had to rethink his whole strategy.
Schulz started posting comedy clips to Instagram and YouTube.
One clip managed to reach virality on Super Bowl Sunday.
This is without doubt one of the hardest times to break through the noise of social media you can possibly have
What did Schulz do next?
Schulz posted a comedy clip every week from there on out.
“Between 2018/19 Schulz uploaded 125 bits of live comedy.
Contrast this with the comic that puts out one special a year.
100 clips is 100 ways of discovering me. An hour on Netflix is one.
And who wants to listen to a stranger for an hour?
But you'll listen to a 2-minute clip if a friend sent it to you.
In two years his channel grew from 140k to 840k.”
What’s the secret to being able to create so many clips?
Crowd work!
He couldn’t give away the jokes he was carefully crafting on the road but by documenting each show he was able to capture moments other comedians weren’t.
For those that haven’t been to a comedy show, crowd work is….
“Talking to one or more audience members and making jokes out of the conversation”
Andrew Schulz is so good at crowd work he’s even released his own comedy special wholly made up of his best crowd work moments.
I’m not exaggerating when I say this special is better than the majority of comedians’ greatest work (In my opinion) and it’s completely off the cuff.
Andrew Schulz describes why a clip is so powerful for getting people to show up to a live comedy show:
“People only know you from what you give them.
A lot of people didn’t know I did stand up at a high level until I showed them.
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(Andrew then gets into the mind of a potential ticket buyer)
”Why would I put on clothes, get a babysitter etc… if I wasn’t 100% sure he is going to be funny and dedicate my night to you”
But if I show you that I'm funny via a clip, then that is way less of a risk.
Meaning you can show your friends and not be that dickhead who dragged them to an unfunny comedy show.”
This is in essence what traditional marketers would call “social proof”.
What is even more interesting was that due to the size of the social media platforms Schulz could now access infinitely different niche audiences.
By complete accident.
Schulz had jokes that went viral amongst:
And the list goes on and on.
Schulz realised he had gone from being limited to the audience of one network, to the entire world.
THE BIG BREAK.
The moment that every entertainer & comic hopes for.
The call-up to the Joe Rogan Experience.
Joe Rogan for those who don’t know runs the biggest podcast in the world getting billions of downloads a year and quite literally has the ability to shift culture.
After Andrew Schulz goes on the Joe Rogan experience for the first time he gets what’s been dubbed…
‘The Joe Rogan Bump’
A Tedx Talk Schulz did previously skyrocketed from 50k views to over a million in a matter of weeks.
Schulz makes an interesting statement surrounding the bump in demand for this content:
“All these people existed on the internet that liked my stuff but didn’t know I existed”
Because Schulz had been putting out video content at a MONUMENTAL rate.
When the Joe Rogan bump came, Schulz was ready.
YouTube was filled with hundreds of hours of world-class comedy content ready for people to soak up.
DOUBLE DOWN ON YOUR WINS.
What did Schulz do once he realised the power of creating these vast pools of comedic content?
He launches the…
Flagrant comedy podcast in 2019 with
The Flagrant podcast is described as:
"The greatest hang in the universe"
The channel has over 1 Million subscribers landing star-studded guests such as Russel Brand, Mr Beast, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson & Andrew Huberman.
Flagrant through their epic content has converted over 18,152 fans into paying Patreon subscribers where they get access to behind-the-scenes content and gated episodes.
However, no journey to greatness comes without challenge.
The coronavirus killed the dreams of many comics & entertainers due to live performances being closed off for the first time in recent history.
Marketing examples explain how Schulz pulled off one of the quickest and most successful reactions to adversity the comedy world has seen to date:
“March 2020. Schulz was midway through his first worldwide tour. Then Coronavirus hit.
Most comedians were screwed. Schulz built a studio and started doing?*Late Night-*style monologues.
Except, the jokes weren't watered down to please network execs. Schulz was unfiltered. And people resonated.
For instance, contrast a “network” joke about Joe Biden with a Schulz one.
Schulz put out 17 monologues in 17 weeks averaging 2M views. That's more than the comedy networks who'd ignored him for 5 years.”
Let’s just do a quick recap:
If you liked this breakdown please reply and let me know if I should make another one?
There is so much to Andrew’s story but I’ve got a funny feeling that if I wait another few years he will be one of the biggest names in the world and the story will be that bit more interesting.
Marketing Director, Go To Market @ Bloomberg Media
2 年Great piece Nick Horton!