So I’m looking through the midyear issue of “Pollstar” and there’s a chart for “Venues With Capacities Of 5,000 Or Less.”
Now if you’re a dedicated follower of the main “Pollstar
chart (if not fashion), you know it tends to be dominated by the usual suspects, mostly acts with years under their belts, playing big buildings. But it’s the smaller venues where acts break, so that’s why I was interested.
And I’d be lying if I told you I knew every act who appeared.
Now let’s be clear, these are not anomalies. This is a six month chart, you needed to do consistent business in order to triumph.
So starting with the 2,001-5,000 capacity venues…
Number one is Jerry Seinfeld, which is not surprising.
But I’d be lying if I told you I knew number two, Subtronics. Turns out he’s a deejay. That’s a world unto itself, based on word of mouth, a veritable underground scene when it comes to mainstream publicity. But people want to party. So, they’ll come to see the deejay du jour, in numbers.
#3 was Bert Kreischer, not exactly my cup of tea, but he’s a well-known comedian.
#4 Another act I had not heard of, Josiah Queen. Google tells me he’s a Christian contemporary artist, and that’s a world unto itself even more than deejays/EDM, one that would not normally fly on my radar screen.
#5 was Def Leppard. This act goes out seemingly every summer, I didn’t think they were even playing buildings this small. They represent an era, good for them.
#6 Mannheim Steamroller. An annual holiday event (this chart runs from November 13, 2025 to May 13, 2026).
#7 K40S. Now the funny thing is if you Google you end up getting results about a Xiaomi smartphone, they fill the entire first page. K40S, who I was unaware of, turns out to also be an EDM artist, but you have to Google ” K40S music” to discover this, the act doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page, never mind press, but they pulled in in excess of 3,000 people an evening, for a nightly gross of $142,412, and that’s not chump change.
#8 At this point legendary comedian Jim Gaffigan.
#9 Michael McIntyre, another person I’d never heard of. Turns out he’s a British comedian, and he’s 50!
#10 Josh Johnson, another comedian.
So if you’re doing the math, five of the ten highest grossing acts in what we used to call theatres are COMEDIANS!
Whoa, whoa, whoa… How about all those acts in the Spotify Top 50, aren’t they supposed to be driving the culture, isn’t music everything?
NOPE!
Now if you’re on social media…
On my TikTok and Instagram Reels I get a plethora of comedy clips. And in about two-thirds of the cases, I’ve never heard of the person. And almost all of them are funny to a degree. But I’m thinking how competitive it is. Anyone can do it, kinda like music, but building a fan base and earning a living?
Now comedy acts complain, that’s part of their routine, including about the travel and club owners, but I never encounter anyone protesting that they’re being screwed by the system, that they’re entitled to attention and a living, that’s the domain of “musicians.” How can the perspectives be so different? They both live and die on attention, and that delivers remuneration. And to make it in comedy, you must work live. I don’t see people posting clips from their bedrooms, sans audience. You’ve got to get out there. But there are a ton of people who make music who never work live, they can’t get the gigs.
Then again, there are fewer places to play.
But does that have something to do with the music?
I’d say so. People are willing to pay for entertainment, but it seems to be comedians who they want to see. And a comedian can’t bomb on a regular basis or they will no longer be able to work, they’ve got to succeed most of the time.
The bottom line is comedy has usurped music’s spot on the bleeding edge.
Sure, there are chains of clubs, and Netflix specials, but it’s still the wild west compared to music. In music everyone rails on about the labels and Live Nation and Ticketmaster, but in comedy, the acts know they must earn their success.
And I see the equivalent of open mic videos on social media. There are a slew of people who will do standup locally, but won’t go any further, because the response is not solid enough and they’re not willing to do the work. And you have to do the work if you’re a comedian. Even if you theoretically purchased your material, that’s only half of it, you need to know how to deliver it.
And comedians know no bounds, they’re unafraid, they don’t go on stage worried about alienating sponsors, they don’t think of clothing lines, they’re selling their identities, anything that compromises their identity will ultimately hit their bottom line, shortening their career.
If you want the truth, you go see a comedian.
That’s rarely the main feature in music. How could it be, with the music made by committee? Comedians are singular. You need to have a personality and a point of view to have any success at all.
The bottom line here is the numbers do not lie, the public is responding.
And when you go down the chart to smaller buildings, comedians continue to punch above their weight.
It’s not like comedy is new, but fifty years ago when it came to hip comedians you had George Carlin and…maybe Robert Klein. And a bunch of Borscht Belt hangovers.
This is not the comedy of yore.
It’s comedians who are skewering politicians, and the excesses of the public too. That’s part of the act, ridiculing nincompoops with a profile and things that just don’t make sense. This is not Fox vs. MSNow, there’s not an underlying corporate agenda, comedians are outsiders, commenting on the happenings of the day and life in general. Sure, they want to get paid, but they harbor no dream of going inside and taking over the jobs of the people they’re making fun of. Scratch that, we did have Al Franken, but you get what I mean.
In other words, comedy has usurped music’s power. And it’s so hot that it’s getting wannabes to participate. It’s exciting and it’s anything but fake.
And there’s no equipment and entourage necessary, if you make it, costs are low and you get paid quite handsomely.
But you’ve got to be good.
No, you’ve got to be GREAT! And competition is fierce, upping everybody’s game.
And the public is riveted.
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Originally published by Bob Lefsetz at the Leftsetz Letter
