SHECKYmag hit: WALL STREET JOURNAL

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on July 24th, 2006

From today’s Wall Street Journal, Technology Section, Page 11; SHECKYmagazine is included in a boxed item, “Blog Watch” by Keith Huang; one of six blogs featured:

There’s a long standing tradition in standup comedy that before a comics starts his set, he asks the audience to applaud the comic that preceded him. In standup, this form of support among fellow comedians, which often includes repeating the comic’s name so the audience might remember it, is crucial since there’s really no one else who’s going to do it for them. In a similar spirit, standup veterans Brian McKim and Traci Skene created Shecky Magazine seven years ago as a “glorification of standup comedy.”

Most of the site’s content is written for and by comics, which gives comedy fans a rare, behind-the-curtain glimpse into the amount of work, travel and failure that any standup who embarks on a professional career can expect to endure. Fans also get a sense of these comics’ voices through their writing; after all, most comedian’s bits first take shape as a few words jotted down on paper.

Mr. McKim and Ms. Skene started the blog portion in 2004, and recent posts have included open calls for comedians to network with club owners and booking agents, while another entry contemplates pop musician John Mayer’s recent turn at the craft: “Of all the Hollywood standup dabbler types, Mayer could actually make a go of the standup thing.”

Here’s a link to the online version, if you’re a subscriber.

We’ve been called “the Wall Street Journal of standup comedy” on one or two occasions, so this is pretty cool. We don’t think we’ve ever gotten a hit in the MSM that “gets us” like Mr. Huang’s capsule description does.