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Comedians' acts turn into airports
Comedians' shrinking world
As comedians get bigger, they tour nearly every weekend, play two or three shows, and spend their time with friends who work in the same industry. Their material shrinks to what they know: airports, dinners, shows, and hotels.
The marketer's version
The same drying up hits a marketer who spends every conference talking to other marketers about marketing. If everything consumed is derivative work by people discussing the same thing, the next insight for a campaign has nowhere to come from.
Musicians too
Musicians face it as well. A songwriter used to be the fan he was writing for, hoping a song was something he would love. Success moves him away from where he started, and the time to get back to ordinary life has to be found on purpose.
How do comedians find new material?
Comedians work out new jokes in front of audiences, often at small clubs where a set can be tested and revised the same night. Well-known comics such as Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Dave Chappelle have been known to drop in unannounced at small clubs to try new bits. Material is judged by laughs, so a joke that fails gets cut or reworked. Most hours of material take months or years to reach a special.
Why does a closed circle run out of ideas?
Sociologist Mark Granovetter published a 1973 paper called The Strength of Weak Ties. He found that people tend to hear about new opportunities and information from acquaintances rather than from close friends, because close friends share the same sources. Researchers Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and James Cook reviewed the tendency of similar people to cluster together in a 2001 paper titled Birds of a Feather. Groups that talk mostly to each other recycle the same information.
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