The (Lack Of ) Power Of Television

Bill Maher can't play arenas.

I'm not sure if you're listening to Bill Maher's "Club Random" podcast. Unfortunately Bill too often makes it about himself, when we're mostly interested in what the guests have to say, but there are some good episodes. Like the recent one with Jerry Seinfeld. Who was aloof yet analytical, he doesn't take himself too seriously, and when Bill was stunned that Jerry had a contrary opinion Seinfeld said he just likes to argue. I laughed at that. That's east coast, that's Jewish. Let's lay all the issues out on the table and try to illuminate the situation and come to a conclusion. If everybody agrees there's nothing learned.

So at one point in the conversation, Bill says he's retiring from the road. BECAUSE HE CAN'T SELL ENOUGH TICKETS! Bill can't play arenas like the big comics, he does not sell out everywhere he goes, why do it?

Now Bill has been on TV for three decades. First on Comedy Central and then on ABC four nights a week. And for the last two decades he's been on HBO. "Real Time" is one of their flagship series, one of the only ones that has sustained.

But people don't want to leave their houses to see Bill live.

Maybe they don't realize he's primarily a comedian. Then again, the same outlet that hosts his show, HBO, has aired a number of Bill's comedy specials.

Maybe they don't find Bill that funny. It's subjective, but Bill thinks he's one of the best out there, he's said so multiple times.

But it's not enough to bring the masses into the building. Bill plays theatres, and doesn't always sell out.

But it's even worse. At the end of every "Real Time," Bill announces where he'll be appearing next. I always thought this was a cheap shot, that fans would know to go to the show, but it turns out he needs the ad, he needs to tell people, otherwise how many people would show up at all?

Now it's hard to reach the audience today. To let them know you're even playing in their town.

But numerous comedians can sell out arenas. Interestingly, for most it's not a sideline, but the main line. Sure, Chris Rock has worked in film and TV, but no one sees him as an actor. They see Chris as a comedian, and need to go to connect with him live.

This is not the way it used to be. If you were on TV at all it paid dividends. People fought to be on TV. Now it's nearly meaningless.

Then again, this is not what the mainstream media tells us. They keep repeating the jokes from the previous evening's late night shows. But the savviest of those on at the midnight hour know that it's really not even about the show itself anymore, but creating viral moments. That are viewed on YouTube.

So you can appear on a late night TV show but... You're going to reach almost no one, unless you're featured in a moment that is clipped and goes viral, and that's almost never the case with musicians. The shows all reach fewer than two million people nightly, that's piss-poor in the YouTube world, and YouTube is all pull! If you're watching, you're probably a fan. How many people watching an act on late night TV are watching for that act? Very few.

Now in the old days, an appearance on TV translated into instant results. Sales. Of both recordings and tickets. But TV is the new terrestrial radio. Sure, it's got the largest number of viewers/listeners in one place, but it's far less than it used to be and the most active fans, the youth, are hardly participating at all.

But it's easier to be on TV than to figure out how to truly reach the audience. No one knows how anymore. They keep trying the old methods to failing results.

If Bill Maher wants to work live, and it seems that he's happy just doing his New Rules monologue at the end "Real Time," he'd have to work more and change his act. He'd have to find a way to connect with the audience that he isn't doing now. It would require something edgy, something that resonates, it might even require a personality transplant. Yes, Bill is talking down to you, you don't feel like you're in it with him, like you do with Hannah Gadsby, who is a gay woman on the autism spectrum, i.e. most people can't identify with her on the surface, but at the core we're all people, and she finds a way to connect.

TV is broad. Which is one reason late night talk shows have declined. We don't want to sit through some celebrity bloviating to get to the musical act, we want the musical act immediately. And we're certainly not going to tune in just to see an act we're unfamiliar with.

Too many acts are playing to the Fortune 500. They've become brands, they're not artists. Whereas the best comedians exist outside the law, they say the unsayable, they're truth-sayers like musicians used to be way back when. Music is too often just entertainment, whereas standup is life itself.

We keep being hammered by the media on Taylor Swift setting records, but for the past two weeks there's been much more spontaneous conversation in my world over the Tom Brady roast. It was live, on a wire, and you can debate ad infinitum whether lines were crossed.

Then again, the Brady roast was on Netflix, which keeps pushing the envelope.

You can tell everybody about it, they can even be aware of it, but that does not mean they'll partake. I don't think there's anyone who is unaware of "Tortured Poets Department," but did you listen to it? Were you driven to listen to it?

That's the challenge.

How do you create work so interesting that those who were not previously interested now are.

It's about being authentic, taking risk, not trying to hoover up every dollar, not telling us how great you are but just being great.

It's a buzz in society, it's bottom-up, not top-down.

Never before have so many been aware of something yet shrugged their shoulders. There are too many options. You can beat me over the head all you want, that doesn't mean I'll pay attention.

My attention is the most valuable thing to me. You've got to earn it.

And that's very hard to do.


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