7 Success Tips From A Stand-Up Comic

The road to success is usually paved differently for everyone. But if we pay close attention to those around us, there are some common tips we can glean to get ourselves on the path to success. Comedian Andrew Schulz and his recent success leaves many clues.

For the past few years, New York City-based standup comic Andrew Schulz has quickly risen through the ranks to the top of the comedic totem pole, on his way to earning himself a spot among household names such as Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and Bill Burr. His success, however, has taken on a different path than his predecessors. While the traditional path to success for a comedian in the industry takes years of auditioning for sitcoms, movies and vying for TV specials from television networks such as HBO, Comedy Central, Netflix, and more recently, Amazon, Schulz has managed to cut through the noise to get to the position he is in today. And along the way, he’s left lots of clues, lessons, and a blueprint for comedians and other creatives to follow in his wake. “Everything that I’ve done is for comics. Don’t think that you’re copying or anything like that. It’s for you — look at the blueprint, copy it, improve it…empower yourself. That’s what this is for.”

His early struggles finding fulfillment on the traditional path and the unanimous rejection of his first breakout, self-produced special 4:4:1 by major networks influenced the philosophy upon which he is building his legacy today. To get a better sense of how he has been able to rise to the top and how you can replicate his success in your own field, below are seven principles and tips to follow.

1. Identify Your Ultimate Goal/Desire

What matters most to you? It’s not uncommon to devote years to the work we do without strategically giving enough attention to the why of it all. It’s easy to get so busy following the prescribed methods and standards of the industry we operate within that we fail to consider where those actions are leading us, and if we’ll eventually be satisfied with that destination. Before you get too deep, pause and ask yourself: “What are my broad and specific goals and desires, and what do I hope to accomplish in my field of practice?” Once you have the answer(s), you can use that to navigate the decisions you make from here on out. If you’re a photographer, is your goal to work as a representative of photo agencies, media publications, etc. or is it to create original stories about issues you care deeply about to be distributed to a tribe of people and organizations that care about your type of work?

“I realized I didn’t care about a special on HBO or Netflix, I just wanted people to see [my comedy],” says Schulz while reflecting on his decision to pivot away from auditioning for TV shows and going all-in on comedy. By quickly identifying his North Star, the actions that followed were strategically geared toward resolving the problem of not being in front of as many people as possible.

2. Develop an Acquisition Strategy

If you don’t yet have name recognition for the type of thing that you do, then your focus should probably be set on an acquisition strategy. How can you provide the people who care about the thing that you do with accessible entry points? Simply put: What is the simplest way to make sure people can see the thing that you do and engage with it? If you’re an unsigned musician, maybe releasing a full-length album is not the most strategic way to make sure people can discover your work and engage with it. Releasing 3-4 minute singles over a long period of time would probably help to cultivate a loyal following. And if you’re a designer looking to be hired, perhaps designing a new logo or poster every day for a year and sharing that on your social media platforms would quickly build up your resume, refine your skills, and garner the interest and following your work deserves (There are so many examples of this on Instagram and Behance — Roy Cranston, @roycranston, is a recent favorite). In any case, having an acquisition strategy is necessary to build an audience around the thing that you do.

Schulz’s acquisition strategy early on put him over the top. “I [was] still in the marketing phase. [The question for me was] how can I get new people to see me?” he says. Instead of releasing his first hour-long special as a comedian with no name recognition, he cut the special into topical 15 minute long clips and distributed the material via Youtube over a few weeks, garnering more attention week over week. It’s easier to engage an unknown comic for 15 minutes than to gamble on being entertained for an hour by an unproven talent. This strategy is the reason why his content quickly dominated and continues to perform: consistent and digestible 2-10 minute standup bits that have no choice but to spread by word of mouth or click of a button. The best part: it’s free!

What could your own acquisition strategy look like?

3. Create Noteworthy & Remarkable Material

This is the part that can’t be taught. You’re either gifted or have built up enough tenacity to learn the skills to make you a competitive player. Either way, the thing that you do should be spectacular and outstanding enough to make the people that engage with it during the acquisition phase want to share it. As author Seth Godin says, if it is isn’t worth remarking about, it’s not remarkable. So consider the value you are bringing to your audience with the thing that you do. Is it of the highest quality? Is it relatable? Is it shareable? Is it worth remarking about? And is it occupying a gap that people need to be filled?

A strategy is important, but without the talent and unique perspective to match it, it’s a waste. Schulz’s success is owed to his knack and knowledge for comedy, culture, and the continued ability to iterate and push the boundary for what is possible for 21st-century comedians. In this way, he is not operating strictly as a comedian but as an idea merchant with groundbreaking insight and viral-worthy concepts.

4. Disrupt the Standard

The benefit of doing business in today’s digital landscape is that every creator has the power to start something noteworthy from the ground up. A set of skills, online savvy, original ideas, and the channels to market them are all it takes. Just because things have been done a certain way for many years does not mean there aren’t other ways to do them, it just takes the right person daring enough to be the outlier who breaks away from the pack. Issa Rae’s hit HBO television series Insecure would not exist without her initiative years prior to write, shoot, and produce the critically acclaimed, crowdfunded, web series The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl. If you want to get attention around the thing that you do, consider how you can do it yourself or disrupt the way it’s always been done.

Schulz’s trajectory was possible because while facing rejection from major television networks, he took inventory of the comedy industry, the untapped digital media landscape, and the gap waiting to be filled with his brand of comedy — “authentic material for how we know the world is, not how we want the world to be”. He slowly built an efficient and economical ecosystem with personnel of a filmmaker, producer, and writer who would create and release comedy content that matched the production level of the big players and networks in the industry. What’s more? He released and distributed all the material for free on Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, a phenomenon that was not entirely common practice in the comedy industry.

In just a few years, Schulz and his team have dominated the landscape, creating an immensely successful comedy/sports podcast (Flagrant 2), original Youtube comedy & travel shows Inside Jokes and Droppin’ In, respectively, a weekly and topical talking-head show, 3 different comedy specials, and hours of comedy content, all available on Youtube. If that’s not disrupting the standard, then consider this: he’s managed to bypass the gatekeepers in the industry, retain creative control from ideation to production and distribution, and consistently sell-out shows and theaters all over the world.

5. Be Consistent

You are probably tired of seeing this seemingly arbitrary advice crop up on every list out there, but it’s constant because it’s inevitable. Without consistency, all the work you put into the thing that you do falls flat. So if it’s once a week, share what you do with your tribe every week. If it’s once a month, consistently share every month.

Schulz leveraged his written and off-the-cuff talent on the stage for a year by sharing 52 weeks of standup comedy material (2-5 minute clips) and saw a return in sold-out shows and a rapid growth in his audience base.

Whatever frequency you choose, adhere to it. It’s how you slowly build evangelists—people who will share and promote your work for free—around the thing that you do.

6. Go to Where Your People Are

Where will you quickly discover the people who love the thing that you do? Instagram? Facebook? Twitter? TikTok? Youtube? And how seamlessly does sharing your work fit into any and/or all of those platforms? Remember: if your goal during the acquisition phase is to find the simplest way to make sure people can see the thing that you do and engage with it, then you have to decide to make use of the proper channels that allow for this to happen.

If you have a contemptuous relationship with social media, consider exploring other avenues that allow for a similar level of engagement when people see the thing that you do. This is a bit more challenging, but with some research into organizations and agencies whose mission correlates with yours, it’s only a matter of fostering relationships, finding collaborative opportunities, and building a network (including a newsletter) from there. However, you can strike a good balance between the two.

To disrupt industry standards, Schulz utilized Youtube as the home base for all his content and employed Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Patreon as channels to distribute the weekly materials being created. To occupy these channels is one thing, but to continuously innovate and redefine how content is presented uniquely across each platform is noteworthy. Today, when you see comics who are sharing bite-size social content and making use of closed-captioning to punctuate the material, you’re forced to think of the person who made it a staple—Schulz.

So, find the proper channels, consistently innovate how you share content, and engage your audience.

7. Leverage Your Experience

If you’ve already begun to implement the previous tips and are wondering, “how do I see a return if I’m making all this substantive content and sharing it for free?” This ties in well with the very first tip in this article, which is to identify what your ultimate goal is. If getting the thing that you do in front of as many people as possible is what matters most to you, then it’s in your best interest to keep delivering what your audience deems valuable. The more you deliver, the more they spread the word about that thing you are delivering (i.e. design lessons, pick-me-up messages, entertaining comedy clips, etc.), and the more your community of loyal fans and evangelists grow. When you have the people, you can leverage that into bigger and better opportunities.

Within a span of 2 years, Schulz created and produced hundreds of podcast episodes, comedy bits, standup specials, original Youtube comedy & travel shows. All for free. His content is now in high demand by the very same networks that once rejected him. The upside now is that he retains all creative control, has an in-house production team and a creative studio, and gets to do things on his own terms. As he wittily remarked following a standing ovation at the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal in 2019, “the price just went up!”

Update: Schulz’s latest special Infamous, released July 17, 2022, is now available for viewing on Moment House.