CROWD WORK: Where comedy goes to die or maybe just annoy you

(LOS ANGELES – December 2023) In an age where the sacred art of stand-up comedy is being reduced to bite-sized, TikTok-friendly snippets of “crowd work,” I’ve taken it upon myself to open a comedy club that caters exclusively to this new, somewhat tragic trend. Welcome to CROWD WORK, the only comedy club in the world where comedians are strictly forbidden from telling actual jokes. Why bother with well-crafted humor when you can just riff off someone’s shirt for 15 minutes, right?

At CROWD WORK, our comedians don’t prepare material. Why would they? In today’s comedy scene, preparation is as outdated as a rotary phone. Instead, they wander on stage, armed with nothing but a microphone and a desperate hope that someone in the first row has a funny haircut or a weird date.

This club is a direct response to the Instagram and TikTok era of comedy, where the art of a well-timed punchline is replaced by the thrill of a quick-witted insult hurled at an unsuspecting audience member. Here, we celebrate the death of subtlety and the birth of the heckle-centric performance.

But let’s address the elephant in the room – or rather, the heckler. In the golden days of comedy, hecklers were a nuisance, a blight on the otherwise smooth fabric of a stand-up set. Now, thanks to the rise of crowd work clips, every Tom, Dick, and Harriet thinks they’re part of the show. At CROWD WORK, they are. Our club doesn’t just tolerate hecklers; it depends on them. Without an audience member’s loud shirt or questionable hairstyle to comment on, our comedians would have nothing to say.

The beauty of CROWD WORK lies in its raw unpredictability, or so we tell ourselves. Each night is a unique blend of awkward pauses, forced interactions, and the occasional genuinely funny moment that happens entirely by accident. It’s like watching a high-wire act, except the performer forgot to learn how to walk the wire and is just hoping for the best.

But let’s not kid ourselves. This isn’t the evolution of comedy; it’s the devolution. In the good old days, comedians honed their craft, laboring over every word of their set. Now, they just need to be moderately good at roasting the front row. The art of storytelling, the nuance of a well-crafted joke, and the satisfaction of a callback – all lost to the ages, like tears in rain.

So, come on down to CROWD WORK, where the comedy is unscripted, the laughs are unpredictable, and the art of stand-up is mourned nightly. Remember to wear your most ridiculous outfit and bring your most bizarre friends – our comedians will need all the help they can get.