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Editors' Note: Since we asked Ms. Soro to write this piece, the alt.comedy.standup newsgroup went through horrific changes that rendered it virtually useless. "Trolls," malicious people who post messages that are either cruel, pointless, nonsensical or off-topic... or all four. After gamely fighting against all the nonsense, a significant number of a.c.s. newsgroup regulars abandoned the newsgroup altogether. Some months later, a montired version of the group was started. After an initial flurry of enthusiasm and a healthy number of member signups, the new moderated.alt.comedy.standup has fallen largely into disuse.
We suspect that it has met this fate because of several factors.
MySpace has exploded in popularity. The new "social networking" has supplanted the m.a.c.s as a way to communicate, to promote, to get questions answered. Indeed, newsgroups in general are probably going through very similar changes. The new technology replaces and demolishes the old. It has been ever thus in the short time the WWW has been around.
The cost of creating and hosting a website has plummeted in recent years. Website hosts and bandwidth re-sellers have exploded and the concomitant drop in the cost of "space" has meant that even up-and-coming comics can have their own attractive and functional websites.
In the past three years, local newsgroups have sprung up, catering specifically to comics who reside in such markets as Portland, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and elsewhere. These groups are far more specific and therefore far more immediate and useful to the comics who post, comment and lurk there. Quite often they are monitored.
SHECKY! asked Suzy Soro to hold forth on the UseNet newsgroup alt.comedy.standup. It's attracted a sometimes loyal and sometimes fluid group of standup comics with its information, commiseration, inanity and flame wars for five years now. And that's an eternity in internet years. What is it that attracts and holds people to it? Has it been used to its potential? Ms. Soro gives us some insight. If there had been a newsgroup like alt.comedy.standup back in 1983, when I started as a comic, I would not have become a comic. I would have read about why a club owner will never tell you that you did well (to avoid paying you more when you come back).I would have read about driving to a gig (only to find it canceled). I would have read about why a bachelorette party has the worst hecklers. And I would have learned why I should avoid the mayonnaise jar in the comedy condo fridge. And then I would’ve picked a more lucrative and satisfying career, like living off my parents. alt.comedy.standup is known by its three-letter acronym ACS. It was started back in 1995 by Steve Silberberg and initially attracted only a handful of participants. Today, as the popularity of the Internet soars and more and more people are logging on to UseNet, ACS boasts about seventy regular posters. (Either that or it’s just ten people with seven AOL screen names apiece.) There are probably about four times that many lurkers. More men than women post, reflecting the field of standup, which is male-dominated. ACS consists mainly of comics, bookers, club owners, aspiring comics and standup comedy fans. There is also the occasional lawyer and troll. (At least I think that is two separate categories.) Watching the daily activity in ACS is like watching a Yankees victory parade in New York City after a World Series win. There's screaming, there’s high-fives and there's a drunk on the curb yelling, "You suck." If you're interested in the day-to-day life of a standup, or if you’re thinking of becoming a standup, this ACS is the one to read. If you’re looking for a video of your favorite comic or if you’re wondering when Emo Phillips or Ellen DeGeneres is going to be in your area, again, ACS is the place to be. It also serves as a clearinghouse of information for standups. You can find the best and cheapest places to order headshots or get CDs and T-shirts reproduced. You can learn where gasoline cost the most and the least across the country. And you can find some of the best sexual advice anywhere in the world. (Okay, that last part isn’t true but I can dream.) When ACS is good, it is very, very good. Some bookers post availabilities. Comics passing through a particular town (or country!) will solicit info on a place to crash, a recommendation for a new club or a good place to go for eighteen holes of golf. ACS serves as a place of solace, as we have lived through car accidents, divorces, marriages, births and deaths (not just the ones onstage). It’s the neighborhood bar without the alcohol, but if any of us could think of a way to serve drinks online, believe me, we would. One of the best things ever to come out of ACS was Wired For Laughs (WFL), the first international online comedy festival. The idea had been kicking around for years and it finally became a reality in 1999, at the insistence of Indianapolis comic Kevin Burke. It was comedian Steve Marmel who lined up the Los Angeles Improv as the host club for this event, organized the shows, and even entertained at a barbecue held at his house. Eighty comics participated over two days, some flying in from as far away as Scotland and Australia to showcase their talents. A second Wired for Laughs is planned for this fall. (Going back to the same hotel might be a problem, as some hotel managers apparently frown on public nudity.) But when ACS is bad, it is horrid. Like all newsgroups on Usenet, net rage is alive and well here. If you think comics could scare up some imaginative comebacks to insults from amongst their own, you’d be wrong. The height of the riposte game usually comes in the form of the F-word. Our trolls tend to be regular posters who attach themselves to ACS like that bee that follows you around on the beach. You swat and swat and eventually you run away with your arms flailing. Of course, this is all highly amusing in a very 5th-grade kind of way. Comics are smart but no one said we were mature. And we wouldn’t be a real news group if we didn’t have our share of inane flame wars. The fastest way to start a flame war is to accuse someone of stealing a joke. Another way is to try to defend the merits of performing while reading your jokes from a notebook. (Even though Richard Lewis and Janeane Garofalo have made that work for them--in ACS we alternately hate this or love this--it depends whether or not Mercury is in retrograde.) Or try opining that a performance artist is not really a comedian. Get valium for that one. If you’re really a masochist, ask if Andy Kaufman is or is not a genius. We haven’t decided which--the argument has only been going on for a few years. And you will need the name of my shrink afterwards. Where ACS misses like Shaq on the free-throw line is when it comes to any real discussion between performer and booker/club owner. What could be a forum for a relevant exchange of ideas deteriorates to both sides defending their own position. Many club owner lurk, a few even post regularly. None are up for discussing the real issues that plague today’s standup. Some ACS comics have offered new and improved ways to freshen up the business. Club owners are not interested.
But the quickest way to incur the wrath of ACS is to post a joke. Your joke,
someone else's joke--it doesn’t matter. We’re comedians. We don’t want to hear jokes. Would you ask a doctor to use a rectal thermometer to take your
temperature at a cocktail party? Only if it’s a really good party. |
 Suzy Soro spills the beans on the comedy world's best kept secret.UseNet short for "users network," a system by which messages on a specific subject are shared between networks via a newsgroup.posters people who "post" items of interest to the members of the grouplurkers people who read but don't posttroll person who posts crazy things just to anger the groupavailabilities a standup comic's open datesnet rage see "flame wars"flame wars nasty back and forth between posters, usually gets personal and viciousoff-topic a posting that isn't germane to the newsgroup, good way to incur net rage and flame warsHow do I post/lurk? Any browser has a simple newsreader application. Follow the directions and in no time, you can subscribe to alt.comedy.standup and download the messages...or click this |
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