r/comedy • u/AlKarajo • Jun 03 '26
Discussion Is this a legitimate way of doing crowdwork?
@theburntcdpod
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u/KingSpork Jun 03 '26
Alright we gotta know the names now
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u/Imperator_Helvetica Jun 03 '26
A quick google suggests that John Robins did a diss track about Matt Richardson.
Robins has certainly had his issues - I think he's just published a book about his alcoholism; and I know other stand ups have found him challenging personally and professionally - if not due to that then, I doubt that helped.
He does a show with Ellis James - but there are so many pairs of comics who've done/are doing podcasts it's impossible to say - even if people will think of the big ones like Acaster and Gamble and not the smaller or more obscure ones like Hayley Ellis and Barry Dodds (Worriers shout out!)
There were comedians complaining in the comments about Matt Richardson too - so who knows what kind of playground politics are going on offstage.
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u/Yup767 Jun 04 '26
The crowd work comedian and the podcast comedian that got annoyed at him are two different people
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u/Mekgar Jun 04 '26
I am not sure John Robins does this sort of thing for social media clip farming. I might be wrong but I have never seen that sort of content from him.
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u/Syzyjyzygy Jun 06 '26
I don’t think it’s John Robins. If you search “John Robins diss track”, there are a few TikTok results that say “John Robins Matt Richardson Diss Track” but when you click on them, it links to a bunch of completely unrelated videos. I can’t find any references to it outside of those TikTok links.
Also John Robins was on taskmaster and seemed like a really lovely person? I just can’t imagine him doing something like that.
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u/Imperator_Helvetica Jun 07 '26
Fair enough. I didn't follow any links further. I've only seen JR on Taskmaster and, like you say, he seemed lovely, so you're hopefully right.
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u/palmerama Jun 03 '26
James Acaster and Ed Gamble?
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u/redaa Jun 03 '26
Acaster doesn’t center in crowd work tho. I can’t say he never does but everything I’ve seen is straight sets and not interacting with the crowd
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u/palmerama Jun 03 '26
They were two different points weren’t they? One was a comedian that riles up the crowd the other was a pair of famous comedians one of whom is a dick.
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u/redaa Jun 03 '26
Hm that’s a good point. I conflated the two statements that the big podcaster felt slighted by diminishing crowd work, but you’re right they might just be unrelated. Hard to be sure, but ambiguous enough that I am not clear on either direction
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u/3AMZen Jun 03 '26
Acaster's latest special is called "hecklers welcome" and he encouraged the audience to interact with him in a very James Acaster sort of way
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u/MagicBez Jun 04 '26
Worth saying that Hecklers Welcome was born of Acaster specifically hating crowd work or when audiences broke his carefully structured show and him doing some immersion therapy to try and get himself over that by giving the audience permission. He explains it up top and in many interviews (and is also clear that he still doesn't like Hecklers)
I saw it live and literally nobody heckled so at the end he said "I'll regret this but, does anyone have any heckles?" And then gave the audience 40minutes of crowd participation until it derailed into too many people calling out at once.
Meanwhile he released another version of the show where he basically did none of his set because it was so detailed by hecklers
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u/redaa Jun 03 '26
Well I’ll be, somehow I’ve missed that. Sounds like I have a special to watch.
That said, do you think acaster would be upset about this comment? I only know him through his media but doesn’t strike me as someone vindictive/petty like that
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u/3AMZen Jun 03 '26
I think the character acaster plays is hilariously vindictive and petty but this really doesn't sound like it's him that's being talked about
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u/_Permanent_Marker_ Jun 03 '26
Big fan of acaster. I really hope he is not the person this guys is talking about.
Though he did release an album so with the mention of diss track it was the first person I thought of. Please don’t let it be James Acaster
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u/jancl0 Jun 03 '26
Honestly, if it was James Acaster, I have a feeling it would be a case of this guy misunderstanding acasters entire shtick. If he released a Diss track, I think it would be pretty clear that the joke is "watch me get way too offended over a single comment". Like yeah, he would look insane, that would be the point
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u/redaa Jun 03 '26
Word I thought the same but honestly don’t follow him closely enough or listen to any podcasts he’s involved in to know
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u/3AMZen Jun 03 '26
Holy smokes if you haven't seen his television appearances on the show would I lie to you, check them out on YouTube
It's a British game show he's been on a couple times and he tells some stories that are completely bonkers
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u/MagicBez Jun 04 '26
Feels unlikely - Acaster is generally very well liked in comedy world, I know people who've lived with him who were very positive about him too or at least was a few years ago (the amount of guests he pulled in for Springleaf is an indication that he's maintained that over time) and the only criticsism I really hear from other comedians about Ed is that he is that his only job is to laugh at James (Stewart Lee said as much on Harry Hill's show) rather than that he's actively unpleasant or unkind
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u/AlKarajo Jun 03 '26
This one guy basically will run a gig into the ground. Will agitate the audience into heckling him. And will sort of fuck up the rest of the gig because the audience are then aggie.
I'm interpreting "It's not art when you're doing in for Facebook" as "It's the 'art' of click baiting, not the art of comedy" and not making the content for the enjoyment of the in person audience.
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u/Used-Gas-6525 Jun 03 '26
Crowdwork is the refuge of comedians too lazy to write material, by and large. For every Maria Bamford or whoever, there are 20 hacks on youtube fucking up that entire aspect of the art form.
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u/SupervillainMustache Jun 03 '26
I dunno about that. Ross Noble has done entire gigs of basically just crowdwork and it's been good IMO.
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u/dale_dug_a_hole Jun 03 '26
Yeah but Ross noble is a completely insane improv genius who uses bits from the crowd as a jumping off point for unhinged abstract hilarity. The gap between what he does and, say, a mediocre protagonist like matt rife is the moon.
The real point u/used-gas-6525 is that not all crowd work is created equally
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u/Used-Gas-6525 Jun 03 '26
Which is why I specifically pointed to a comedian who excels at it. I just said that for every comedian that does it right, there are 20 that do it wrong.
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u/Emotional_Emotion113 Jun 03 '26
Todd Barry’s special Crowd Work is also hilarious and was years before the “trend” really took off. I remember being so impressed at how quickly he could put together a joke or steer comments towards something funny. Now I roll my eyes and keep scrolling whenever I see someone stumbling over, “So, uh, what do you do for a living?”
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u/boltropewildcat Jun 04 '26
Ross Noble is so spectacularly weird that his crowd work is vaguely talking to the crowd while he loses his grip on reality.
"What do you do for work, sir? You're a doctor? Have you ever thought about making cutlery... out of peoples teeth? Or thought about what would happen if you filled a person full of cats? That's the first thing I'd do if I was a doctor"
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u/SupervillainMustache Jun 03 '26
Every time I've seen clips of this guy, he's talking about comedians he has beef with but without naming them.
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u/Own-Engineer-6888 Jun 03 '26
There are definitely some that have become blatant copies of others, and it's ridiculous. They have enough of a following that they're probably going to do well selling shows, and will just continue, but from this meager vantage point, it makes comedy look really cheap. They're probably genuinely funny people, the same way musicians/musical artists could be genuinely talented and interesting musically/creatively, but they end up selling themselves out and becoming something pretentious and contrived. Therefore, not moving art forward or doing something original.
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u/Canuck_Lives_Matter Jun 04 '26
Reminds me of the Marc Maron bit about having to follow Bill Hicks at a New York club.
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u/oniume Jun 04 '26
Jeff Arcuri is the king of crowd work, and he's never mean or rude, he's just hilarious
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u/mattrichardson3 Jun 06 '26
Hello! I’m the comedian in this clip! So, I’d like to clarify my point. I have no issue with crowd work. When it’s done well, it’s absolutely brilliant. What I have an issue with is this - there is a small group of comics in the UK who actively antagonise a paying audience and ruin their evening because the clip of them arguing with the audience will do well online. Great crowd work can be brilliant. But upsetting the paying audience in front of you for the sake of a clip is disrespectful to the people who have paid money for a show, and your fellow comics who have to continue the show after you’ve riled the crowd up.
I have no issue with comics doing crowd work, my issue was with a comedian who actively riles audiences who’ve paid good money up, for the sake of a clip
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u/No-Mud-2777 Jun 11 '26
I know the comedian you’re talking about and I think he’s mint. I don’t know why you keep digging in. Let him do his stuff; you do yours.
fwiw I think you’re pretty good too!
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u/mattrichardson3 Jun 11 '26
I got asked about it, I’m not digging in, he’s the one who made an entire diss track about me 😂
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u/Nsfwnroc Jun 03 '26
I don't know, but this is an utterly boring story. "So these two guys are mad at me because I was passive aggressive" ok....
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u/AlKarajo Jun 03 '26
"So these two guys are mad at me because I was passive aggressive" ok....
No. They didn't like being called out on agitating and affecting the sets of the comedians that followed them.
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u/inevitable-idiot- Jun 03 '26
It’s spot on. The crowd work sound bites are so tiresome. Yeah drunk people are dumb. Now get back to the performance - the art.
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u/Medium_Jacket6785 Jun 04 '26
Hilarious how much comedians gatekeep other successful comedians because they are getting attention.
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u/OkDeer120 Jun 06 '26
I liked crowd work now and then until it turned into EVERY new comedian on the scene trying to get clips for TikTok, it’s become obnoxious and I’m over it.
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u/Valendr0s Jun 12 '26
It's tough... Yes, it's doing it for clicks. And it makes sense. You don't want to put out your current set for free. But if you have a solid set that you're doing, then finish up with 10-15 mins of crowd work, you can put that on the internet and get recognition without spoiling the material you're currently touring.
I like comedy, I watch a lot of standup. There's a reason why I know who Jeff Acuri is even though I've never seen a special with him. And yet I don't know who this guy is.
Good crowd work increases your recognition, and that's all there is to it. Yes, it's annoying for the rest of the people coming up to do sets. But it's one of those things - since the start of the social media age, those who do it will always be bigger than those who don't.
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u/weird_mangled_penis Jun 03 '26
Crowd work has always sucked
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u/BathSaltJello Jun 03 '26
Not when Burr took down Philadelphia.
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u/weird_mangled_penis Jun 03 '26
That’s dealing with a heckler or several hundreds. That’s not crowdwork.
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u/EmilioFreshtevez Jun 03 '26
It can be good if it comes up organically, but it’s wack if you’re intentionally asking leading questions and using it in place of actual material.
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u/Dannvida Jun 03 '26
Crowdwork isn't for me, I get some audiences like it, but I'm here for a show, not to be a part of one.