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Is being a Comic kind of like being an Entrepreneur?
If you watch Louis CK, his material here could almost be a script for a start-up asking VC’s for seed capital so he can change the world.Now imagine the 1984 Mac television ad launch against IBM (the one that ran once in the Super Bowl yet which everyone you meet seems to remember) and that world shattering message. Then, 25 years later, Steve Jobs tells the next generation to keep on keeping on. “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” 5 years later Apple’s revenues approach $100b per year. Comics and Tech Visionaries – think about the thread. They both have single-mindedness, they’re smart, troubled by the status quo, and they’re brave with a dark sense of humor.
I like it! It takes as much courage to put yourself out there on a stage with nothing to blame but your material if people yawn as it does to spend millions of dollars and lots of sweat to produce a new business. So are comics entrepreneurs? Are our best entrepreneurs comics deep down inside? You can’t look at Steve Jobs present and not feel as if there is a showman in there someplace. Successful start-ups recognize that you need to know your audience and every comic will tell you that reading the room is critical to a good show. Great start-ups will put ideas together in original or unexpected ways. Isn’t that a key to all the best jokes you’ve ever heard?
I think Eric’s on to something here. What do you think? Are VC’s going to start asking for monologues before funding? Is there a high-tech comic circuit waiting to happen?
Consult Keith 