The world of TV stand-up comedy specials has been dominated by HBO, Comedy Central and Showtime — but some new players are throwing their hats into the ring.
Case in point: The Netflix original special “Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive,” premiering on the streaming service Friday and featuring the star of NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.”
It’s just one example of the increasing options for TV exposure now available to stand-up comedians.
“There’s definitely more buyers [on TV] of all levels of stand-up than there probably ever has been in the past,” says Judi Brown-Marmel, a partner at the talent management firm LEG.
In addition to Netflix, the premium cable network Epix, which launched in 2009, has aired comedy specials featuring the likes of Sherri Shepherd, Lewis Black, Tom Papa, Jim Norton and Jim Breuer.
AXS TV airs “Gotham Comedy Live” Thursdays at 10 p.m., featuring live stand-up performances from New York City’s Gotham Comedy Club.
And Nuvo TV, the English-language network backed by Jennifer Lopez — and targeting Latin American viewers — is in its second season airing the series “Stand Up and Deliver.”
“It’s a good thing for comedy. The more buyers there are, it gives comics a variety of different platforms for their careers,” Brown-Marmel says. “There was a time where unless you were Bill Maher or Chris Rock, there was no way to gain that platform.”
Netflix called the genre “under-distributed” when it first announced its interest in developing original stand-up comedy specials in a letter to shareholders last summer; its first original “Russell Peters: Notorious” premiered earlier this month.
“I’ve actually picked up a lot of new fans from people watching my older specials on Netflix; “Red, White and Brown” and “The Green Card Tour.” It’s brought a lot of new people to my shows in the States especially,” Peters says. “I like that Netflix is different and outside the existing broadcast opportunities for comics. I’ve been self-financing my specials and working outside the system for the past eight years now, so Netflix was the perfect fit for me.”
Though Netflix and Epix both say they put significant marketing support behind their original comedy specials, an upside to being in business with stand-ups is that they often don’t need much help drawing a crowd — crucial for networks and platforms trying to build their subscriber count.
“A lot of these comics have a very robust, loyal fan base that can drive some pretty impressive numbers to these platforms without traditional marketing and publicity,” Brown-Marmel says.
“It’s important that comedians we work with have pretty significant online footprints because we are a young channel,” says Ross Bernard, VP of programming at Epix — which, on Dec. 6, will premiere the “The Improv,” with Twitter-friendly comics like Jimmy Fallon, Judd Apatow and Sarah Silverman paying tribute to the legendary stand-up stage.
Stand-up specials also work as a natural complement to theatrical titles on Epix and Netflix while attracting a slightly different demo.
“Comedy plays really, really well on all platforms, people like to re-watch it,” Bernard says.
“It’s definitely a younger audience with the comedy [than with movies].”