Poll Results! Data Analysis!

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on September 14th, 2004

We have results from our “How Long Have You Been Doing Standup?” poll. And we don’t quite know exactly what to make of them. Of course, the poll was wildly unscientific. But we can derive something of value from the numbers.

This much we can say about the respondents:

Half have never done it or, if they have, they’ve only been at it less than a year.

One quarter have done it between 1 and 5 years.

One quarter have done it 5 years or more.

Is there anything further that we can speculate? Perhaps ask a few questions? What do the figures say about our readership? What do the numbers say about the magazine and what it offers/doesn’t offer?

What is with the 3- to 5-year people?

Why don’t we attract them? (Maybe we do– they just don’t like answering polls!)

Should we care?

We’re not statisticians. We’re comedians. And we’ve tried all along to produce a magazine with somewhat broad appeal (within the universe of standup comics/standup fans/standup business). We’re of the opinion that we’ve done just that. If the numbers seem a tad lopsided (More fans than vets, more >1-year people than 3- to 5-year people, etc.) that’s only because it might just reflect reality: There will always be more people watching it than doing it! And, let’s be honest, there aren’t going to be a whole lot of people continuing on with this crazy standup thing for longer than 10 years. Who do you think there’ll be more of: People who do it for a few years and then quit– A writing gig? A family? Hit the lottery? Or people who continue doing it for 20 years? We think the numbers are just about right.

We have a sub-theory about the 3- to 5-year people: While it may appear that we’re not appealing to them, or that we’re not doing enough to attract them, we have a different opinion. People who’ve been doing it for 3 to 5 are a curious lot–having been among their number at one time,, we know firsthand! They’re making the transition between Newbie and Pro. As such, they’ve finally gotten “good” at this comedy thing, but they’re nowhere near as good as they probably will be in the future. They’re an ornery lot. They’re at the point wheere they must make a serious commitment. This requires a certain amount of cockiness, bitterness, negativity. It’s nothing personal, it’s survival. As a result, nobody can tell them anything! Least of all some dopey internet magazine about standup. How do we know this? We were there once. Had we produced an internet magazine about standup when we were at the five-year mark (and had there actually been an internet back then!), it would have been the most vile, the most vicious, the most depressing mag ever. We got over it. They’ll get over it, too.

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