Have you ever had one of those “aha” moments where you had a brilliant idea AND it turned out to actually be brilliant? (That is, not a drain on your time, energy or finances?) My epiphany hit me about 30 years ago when I was working at my marketing job, while also starting my comedy career by working comedy clubs and bar gigs on the weekends.
For my marketing job, I had hired the Capitol Steps comedy-singing troupe as the after-dinner entertainment for an optics industry conference (the kind of optics dealing with lasers and telescopes, not eyeglasses). The Capitol Steps performed hilarious songs like “Hubble Trouble” which made fun of the problems the Hubble Telescope had when it first launched. The performance was GREAT and everyone loved them!
When I handed the Capitol Steps their check, I saw the HUGE difference between what I was paying them, and the comedy money I was making in the clubs and bars. This money gap was NOT in my favor!
Jan McInns was a great presenter and the topic was just right. I learned that with injecting funny vibes into any situation, especially change, we can promote a much more harmonious and receptive transition. (a recent client)
Success is putting together 1,000 piece puzzle! Kinda a metaphor for life!
In that instant, I thought, “Well, I could do what the Capitol Steps are doing. . . ” (Okay, not the singing part—if you see me singing, take away my wine—but the entertainment part.) So I started asking my comedian friends if there was a market for entertainment at conventions. Everyone I asked said no; there are only “privates” which are basically holiday parties. No one had given any thought to performing at conventions year-round except me, and I had this nagging feeling that I was right.
Twelve months later, after I quit my day job and was working as a comedian full-time, a comic asked me about the kind of comedy I did. I blurted out that I work comedy clubs, but that I’m also a “corporate comedian.” He said, “What’s a corporate comedian?” and I said that I specialize in shows for corporations and associations at their conventions.
He said he’d never heard of a “corporate comedian” and I admitted that, well, I made it up! The comic looked at me like I had two heads and said something about how he wasn’t sure you can do that. Well, why not? It’s what I wanted to do, even though I had absolutely no idea if it existed and if so, how to do it . . . but from then on I started calling myself a corporate comedian anyway.
The first joke I ever sold to Jay Leno for his Tonight Show monologue. “Comedy Writer” is another thing I didn’t realize I could do!
It’s a funny thing that once you label something and focus on it, you tend to move in that direction. A couple years later, after a lot of starts and stops, I was proved right: there is a market for entertainment at conventions AND I found the path I was looking for to the convention stage.
One of those starts was on the New Jersey Turnpike way back in the prehistoric days before cell phones and apps. I pulled over at a rest area to make some old-fashioned calls from a phone attached to a wall. I happened to call a comedy club in Iowa to ask about being booked, and Keith, the booker, actually answered the phone! (That never happens.) He said he had split from his business partner, and the partner had taken over the comedy club booking, but he had an option: he asked if I had a clean act because he booked corporate parties at Christmas in December and at conventions during the year. I told him I was a corporate comic! I sent him my VHS tape (very hi-tech) for consideration. He liked the tape and said he could book me for a bunch of Christmas parties to get started.
I knew I needed a solid resume to get booked at convention events, so I took Keith up on doing his Christmas parties to earn a lot of good recommendations from these organizations. Every December for three years I flew into Des Moines for a couple weeks and Keith would set me up with his truck, a hotel, and a list of holiday parties each night. I didn’t really care what money I made at each party, I just needed the clients to give me a good recommendation if they liked the show. Then I could parlay that recommendation into future corporate work during the other 11 months. It worked, and I was launched as a “corporate comedian.” And a few years into my corporate comedy career, I moved into being a keynote speaker. . . another job I didn’t even know existed when I started my comedy journey.
Connect with Jan on Facebook: www.JanFanS.com and Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/JanMcInnis
