What's the deal with producing a comedy special?

Secrets of Specials

How do you record a comedy album or special? Are you ready? How much does it cost? How much can you make? I sit down with Katie Boyle, Candi Clare, Mike Finoia and Andy Fiori to discuss the ins and outs, lessons learned, and different styles of producing an album and special.

Here’s a few of the highlights and top tips from that conversation

Have the right team

You want to be able to relax and have fun the night of your recording, so be sure that the label, venue and producer you are working with are communicative and supportive.

And make sure you find a team that matches your level of hands-on - whether you like to know exactly where each chair will be placed, just wanna just show up and tell jokes, or (most likely) somewhere in between. Make sure you are working with folks who will be able to give you the amount of control you want while still taking care of the details you don’t want to stress about.

Have an actual hour

If you don’t have an hour you’re proud of, don’t do a “special” just for the content. EPs of even 20 minutes are becoming more common and are a great way to put out longer form content without creating a poor (and lasting) impression.

You need a label to make money

Your most profitable platform will be plays on Sirius, and they only accept submissions via label. So no matter how DIY you are, you’ll want to work with a label for audio distribution.

Or do you?

Katie shared some great tips on packaging BTS footage for your Patreon, monetizing your clips, and engaging fans to sell live show tickets. You may also just want to think about the project for its artistic merit, marking a career and personal milestone.. that just happens to also be good marketing. The money you make from the album/special may be a much more indirect, longer term proposition.

Check out the finished products!