Modified On September 20, 2006
So begins the joint pitch from Sierra Mist and MySpace.com as they seek to find “the next superstar of comedy from within the MySpace community.” Click the above link for details.
Submissions begin September 25th and end October 6th. Voting begins October 18th! FIVE lucky winners will perform on a nationally televised special on TBS and one winner will walk away with $50,000 in cash, a TV development deal and their own DVD!
They want “performance tapes” up to five minutes in length. We would surmise that they want VHS (no Beta, please!) and that DVD’s would cause smoke to come out of their ears. (Actually, we’re just going on what happened last month in relation to the Bud Lite/Maxim search for contestants for their promotion when they specified “DVD only.”– not enough folks out there in Comedyland had DVD’s, so they relaxed the rules, extended the deadline and solicited VHS tapes in addition to the discs.)
And, since this is the internet, there will be INTERACTIVITY!
…if you prefer to laugh rather than dish out the comedy, this is the contest where you’re in control. You decide…who stands up and who sits down.
Also: In order to be considered as a contestant (or to vote on who wins/loses), you must have a MySpace profile and you must add the standuporsitdown entity as a friend. (It’ll all make sense when you get there, trust us.)
No word on where to send the tapes yet. We suppose that, soon enough, standuporsitdown will let everyone know what’s up.
For all of you who find it odd that we would help promote something so vulgar as a contest (after what transpired last week in Boston), let us stress that we never said contests were uniformly bad or tawdry or poisonous. Besides, from all indications, this one seems like it will be easy to enter and free. (At least we think so. We figure MySpace is in this whole thing to bulk up their membership and increase awareness of MySpace Comedy. And Sierra Mist is in it to reinforce their association with standup.)
Disturbing sidenote: MySpace Comedy’s tagline is, “Find the funny only at MySpace.com.” (Emphasis ours) Hmmm… We are troubled by the use of the word “only.” Ah, but who among us has not indulged in such bombast?
While you’re there… Don’t forget to make SHECKYmagazine a MySpace friend.