Making money from your stand up

One of the biggest challenges facing a stand up is getting well known and respected enough on the comedy scene to get regular bookings sufficient enough to earn a decent living.  For every successful stand up, there are many more struggling performers who are subsiding their performances in the hope of one day making it pay.

Some choose to continue to do this by retaining an alternative source of income, usually through some kind of paid employment.  This however can become more difficult if you need to travel to perform.  So, is there an alternative way to make an income from your stand up if you are still not at the point of getting regular paid bookings?

One method is to consider hooking up with a cruise line to perform as a stand up in their entertainment shows.  This will guarantee you work and usually is relatively well paid.  In the U.S, there are a number of cruise ships operating out of Florida and the West Coast.  Usually you will be required to perform either one or two shows a night, with the second show consisting of different material than the first.

I’ve mentioned the positives, now for the negatives.  Some performers have said the routine of the daily performances and having no escape from your audience can become tedious.  Most cruise liner recruit via auditions following recommendations from an agent or booker.

Another alternative way to bring in some extra bucks is to consider pursuing writing comedy articles.  This is an ideal opportunity for aspiring comedians as your working hours and place of work is totally flexible and can easily be fit around your paid performances, whatever time or location they are.  The pay is not usually high, but will supplement your income a little as well as increasing your exposure in the comedy world. 

Greeting card companies are also always looking out for new material in the form of humorous verses or captions.  This will definitely not help buy you a new Ferrari but as with comedy articles, can be another interesting addition to your resume.

The last option I’m going to propose is to write material for other comedians.  This is probably the most difficult alternative employment to get initially, as those few comedians who chose to use writers instead of writing themselves, will want to work personally with the writer and get to know of them through word of mouth or recommendations.