Resource Guide for the Classroom: "Rock Out with Your Schnoz Out: The COVID Play"

Stand-Up and Sketch Comedy

As a result of the pandemic, stand-up comedians were forced to move their performances from in-person to online mediums. These mediums included streaming sites like Youtube, Twitch, Instagram Live, and even Zoom as well as short videos released on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. In a New York Times article by Jason Zinoman entitled "It's the Golden Age of Mugging," Zinoman describes how many stand-up comedians have struggled to adapt to online mediums. The main struggle comedians seem to face, according to Zinoman, is not being able to hear their audience laughing. Stand-up comedy is generally a medium focused on crowd work and playing into an audience's laughter. However, it's difficult to achieve that degree of interaction over the internet, when comedians often cannot even see their audience. Nevertheless, some stand-up comedians mastered the art of online shows during the pandemic. 

Lane Moore, a stand-up comedian known for her show Tinder Live is introduced in a New York Times article entitled "Music, Theater, and More to Experience at Home This Weekend." During the pandemic, Moore's show How to Be Alone, was broadcast over Twitch. This show included short Tinder Live segments among karaoke, and, "emotional status check-ins." As Moore's performances didn't focus squarely on the pandemic, it can effectively be said that one of the goals of the show was to distract the audience from the day-to-day horrors of the pandemic. The show's "emotional status check-ins" were meant to check-in on those experiencing the isolation that came with the pandemic. Moore describes her show as an attempt to "have fun, even though we’re in hell." 

The San Francisco Chronicle article "Helping Ensure Laughs Live On" by Scott Thomas Anderson introduces Jon Allen, the owner of "Cheaper Than Therapy," a comedy theater in San Francisco. Allen recounts an encounter with a police officer who asks when COVID-19 restrictions will allow "Cheaper Than Therapy" to re-open, signaling to Allen that the police officer "could really use a dose of comedy." Allen discusses how once he re-opens “Cheaper Than Therapy,” he intends on using his comedy as “a catharsis that comes from an empathetic place of mocking our shared sorrows, or putting them in context.” In other words, Allen intends on using dark humor in order to cope with the trauma of the pandemic. However, comedian Lisa Geduldig feels that the pandemic is too close to make jokes about it. Geduldig has instead been trying to use stand-up comedy to “ bring people a boost from their bedrooms” in her live show Lockdown Comedy, which is performed live on Zoom.

Like much of comedy during the pandemic, stand-up and sketch comedians are divided between using dark humor to cope with the pandemic, and trying to use their shows as a way of distracting their audience from the pandemic. 

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