Virtual Hilarity
New technology has created an infinite number of places for you to highlight your sense of humor. You need very little money to get started in these areas, and they can lead to huge successes if you use them to your best advantage.
Blogging
Sure, there are more than 100 million blogs out there, but if your voice is unique, yours will get noticed. You can be very specific — blogging your own movie reviews — or you can safely hide behind an outrageous character. There are plenty of free blogging sites such as
Keep it short. A blog longer than 300 words is too long. The subscribers to your blog want quick information. Keep your writing economical and you're more likely to have people read your stuff on a regular basis.
Give them somewhere to go next. Provide links to news stories and other websites, or embed videos from YouTube and other services into your blog. For example, if you're commenting on a politician's or celebrity's statement, give your audience the chance to see that video clip, so what you're talking about will be clear.
Make it personal. Don't hold back on your opinion; that's what people are looking for. Also, keep the style of your writing consistent from post to post — this will help you develop your comic voice.
Update your posts on a regular basis. Whether it's every day, once a week, or once a month, don't disappoint your fans by being lazy and inconsistent. If they check out your site a couple of times, and there's nothing new — they won't come back.
One more thing — just remember that once it hits the web, it's there forever. So be careful what you say!
Podcasting
Most podcasts are weekly or monthly programs, usually anywhere from two to sixty minutes in length. Users subscribe to them, so if you maintain the quality, you'll quickly gain a loyal audience who wants to hear your comedy. You can do anything with a podcast — interviews (real or fake), audio sketches, soap opera parodies — the sky's the limit. If you're ambitious, you can also create video podcasts that feature your stand-up, sketches, road diaries, or pretty much anything you want. This is a low-cost option to get some valuable attention. The iTunes store offers customers more than 100,000 different podcasts to choose from. Comedies like The Onion Radio News and Ask a Ninja are some of the most popular. Lots of popular podcasts have sponsors, so it can become a profitable venture if yours catches on.
Start slow. Start out with a short podcast and increase their length as you get more confident with your podcasting skills.
It doesn't cost a lot to get started in podcasting. You can get a decent USB microphone for about $100, and many come bundled with software as well. Apple's Garage Band application comes with the basic software and allows you to easily record your podcast and add professional quality music bumpers and sound effects to make yourself sound like a pro. If you're on a PC there are lots of recording options (many for free) as well. An free, easy-to-use program to get you started is Audacity (
Animation
If you have a talent for animation, why not create short films? Inexpensive animation software such as Adobe Flash is simple to use for budding animators. If you are a good artist (or know someone who is) you can inexpensively create your own animated shorts that can become Internet sensations. Charlie the Unicorn has millions of hits on YouTube.
In 1995, Trey Parker and Matt Stone created an animated Christmas card called “Jesus versus Santa.” It got passed around from person to person until it found its way into the hands of Comedy Central's president, Doug Herzog, and became South Park. Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, and Office Space started his career with just a $200 camera and a desire to be an animator. Today's technology makes animation easier and cheaper to create, and allows you to instantly upload your work for the world to see.
