Breslin on contests, XM, the future

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on February 4th, 2006

Jim Slotek, writing in Jam! Showbiz, interviews Yuk Yuks Grande Fromage Mark Breslin on his Laugh Off comedy contest and the implementation of new technology in the promotion of Mark Bres… er, the promotion of standup comedy.

The conversation turns to the vagaries of contests.

“In this case, since everybody’s competing randomly with 10 minutes of stage time, it’s conceivable a relative newcomer could defeat a really well-known and well-versed comic. The new guy could have just as strong a 10 minutes as a headliner. It’s when you make people do 40 or 50 minutes that you see how it stratifies. But on the level of a 10-minute set, it’s kind of democratic.”

Breslin is the programmer of XM’s latest new channel, Laugh Attack, which features the comedy of Canadian comics. Some folks are saying that the rotation is too tight. (We can attest to that!) But Breslin attributes this to the relatively small number of Canadian comics. “Here, there are only 400 comics in the country. You’re going to hear things over and over.” On this, we must disagree. We attribute the tightness to the paucity of digitally recorded live standup featuring Canadian comics. Hell, up until just a couple of years ago, many Canadian comics we would encounter were still checking their email from coffee houses. It seemed as though our compadres up north were the victims of high computer prices, exorbitant internet access charges and oppressive taxation on each. We suspect that similar impediments prevented digital recording as well. (Although, what do we know? We’re just doltish, bloodthirsty, imperialistic Americans. At least that’s what we learned from listening to just a couple hours of Laugh Attack.)

On the overarching issue of live standup, however, we can all agree with Breslin when he says:

“People will always want to go out. Watching or listening at home is not the same. Nothing beats the spiritual connection of laughing with strangers.”

Amen, Brother Breslin, amen.

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