I discovered her on social media. I can’t tell you whether it was TikTok or Instagram Reels…I think it was the latter, although you have to know the two services are different. Instagram Reels repeats videos, TikTok does not. It all comes down to the algorithm, that’s TikTok’s special sauce. And if you’re looking for serious, you’re much better off on TikTok. HOWEVER, you can turn off the sound on Instagram Reels while you listen to music or something else and you can’t do this on TikTok. Which means I end up looking at Instagram Reels while I do my back stretches. How can you watch clips if there’s no audio? Well, seemingly all Instagram Reels have a concomitant spew of subtitles, which are actually usually centered in the screen. So…

If you’re selling, I’m out. I’m not interested. I can go to the Wirecutter or “Consumer Reports” or even Amazon to find out if something is good, I never buy on impulse and it does not make me feel good to fill the coffers of these “influencers.” Oftentimes they’re little better than beggars on the street.

No, what I’m looking for is entertainment.

There’s a slew of people replicating legendary hits. What they don’t get is playing the song is the least important element. Coming up with the idea, writing it? Good guitar players are a dime a dozen, as are people with reasonable voices. We’re looking for songs.

Then again, everybody is so busy trying to be famous that they haven’t got time to write songs, it doesn’t work on camera so they don’t do it. They need to be famous, quick.

Which Sophie Buddle was not. She started in comedy in Ottawa at fourteen, and that’s sixteen years ago. She won some award and eventually got up the gumption to move to Los Angeles a couple of years back to try and make it.

Yes, yes, you can make it from your bedroom. And sometimes this works. But in many strains of entertainment you need connections, a team, and that happens in the big city. And Sophie said she chose L.A. instead of New York because in the latter the comics were depressed and on the verge of suicide.

So Sophie goes on the road and starves. Or, as she called it, “The Break Even Tour.” There was no money in it. The clubs were sh*tholes. She was in America, but America was not taking notice.

Then she started posting clips. SHE DIDN’T WANT TO! She felt they were cringey. And you don’t want to use up your best material, and when people come to the show the material must be fresh, as if you made it up on the spot, and we all know that is not the case.

And within a matter of months she had six figures worth of followers.

This is what most people don’t understand, or refuse to understand. We are hungry for great, and we can skip right by average and good with no problem. That’s actually what you do on social media, you flick to the next clip, unless you’re intrigued you never watch all the way through. But if you find something that catches your interest…

There was something about Sophie’s sensibility. The way she was intimate, as if you were in the same room together, with a snicker at the end. It’s different from standing there and doing a Henny Youngman quickie. What works best on social media is if we see YOU in the clip.

Her clips were funny. And the algorithm showed me more, and then eventually I followed her, I wanted to see everything she made.

Now just recently I’ve noticed her appearing in clips with Taylor Tomlinson. On TikTok I believe. I wondered how this happened.

Sophie said as a result of the success of her online clips, she got better live bookings. And at these bookings she met a better circle of comics. And she  made friends and enemies with the top tier. She’s not afraid of enemies, it goes with the territory.

And at the Comedy Store she bonded with Taylor Tomlinson, who asked her to open for her after her original opening act got too big for the slot, and then Taylor asked Sophie to audition to be the writer of her monologue for her new late night TV show and…

The instructions said if writing this takes you more than an hour, you’re not the right person for the job.

That’s another thing amateurs don’t get. It’s a muscle, you employ it and you get not only strong, but quick. You’re not afraid, creating is  second nature.

So Sophie instantly got the gig, where she wrote the monologues alone, and if you’re a student of the game you know that Taylor Tomlinson just walked away from her late night show, which I thought was a mistake to begin with. TV dumbs you down. The goal used to be to have a sitcom, but Marc Maron worked his way up to one and it promptly failed.

No, you want to be a star online, you want to generate enough heat for guest appearances here and there, and then people want to come see you. After all, I woke up earlier than I wanted to to hear Sophie this morning.

And she wasn’t great. Because she was reading from a script. She was constantly checking her notes, which breaks your flow. It wasn’t as natural as it should have been.

But still, there was great information. Like how crowd talk works on social media. I’ve been noticing Taylor Tomlinson doing a lot of this online recently, interacting with the audience. And what people say is AMAZING! Usually having to do with dating/relationships. Even Chappelle interacted with the crowd the other night. It breaks the wall, it bonds the audience to you. And it doesn’t always generate laughs, but…people want to watch these clips online.

And Sophie said she could do a whole presentation on her clip philosophy. That I would have liked to hear. If you’re not a student of the game, you can’t win in today’s marketplace. And she said to pin your hate comments to the top, because that will engender defense by your fans and ultimately argument, i.e. heat.

Now I was dying to ask Sophie what she was going to do now that the TV gig was done, but…

They popped out another comedian with much better credits, he’d appeared on Conan and had a special and…

I had to walk out. The guy wasn’t offensive, but I’d seen his routine before. As in talking about your upbringing, putting down where you lived, throwing off asides to make you laugh that don’t.

We’re looking for originals. And there are very few originals out there.

And you can’t teach someone to be an original.

This is what musicians don’t understand. If you’re not original, if I’m not following you of my own volition, like I did with Sophie, either change your act or give up. Preferably the latter.

You grew up wanting to be a professional athlete, but you got over that. Most college athletes, even successful ones on successful teams, can’t go pro. But everybody who picks up an instrument believes they deserve to be rich and famous and bitch about streaming payouts. You’re good at something, maybe even great in something, but chances are it’s not music. And there are so many other ways to become rich and famous today. Look at Scott Galloway… He’s a businessman who teaches. Sound like a road to mainstream stardom? But his analysis is good as is his delivery. Ask him to be a musician and I’m sure he’d fail. But he knows what he can do, and he didn’t find this public niche until decades into his life.

I know, I’m putting musicians down. Why does everybody say you can’t criticize those trying to make music when you can criticize a car, or people’s intelligence or sports skills… What makes attempting music so special?

And that may not resonate with you, but I’m constantly inundated with blowback. Listen to my music, I’m undeservedly unfamous. My kid is thirteen, they’re on the verge of breaking through.

OH YEAH?

And here comes the part where I engage with the oldsters, telling them discovery is made on social media, because that’s where the stars are, if you’re waiting for them to come to TV or print media…not only are you way behind the curve, many don’t even cross over there.

And oftentimes this is because the gatekeepers are calcified… The new talent doesn’t fit a specific niche, they’re too dangerous, their act is not broad enough…

But on social media there is no gatekeeping, just like on SPOTIFY!

But not everybody who posts on social media believes they deserve to be rich, but those who post on streaming music services believe they do!

I guess I’m the opposite of everybody else. I don’t want to give you hope, never ever. Nothing I say or do can affect your inner tuning fork, your inner strength. Either you need to do it or you don’t. And believe me, if you never get any bigger…

The fault is you.

Sometimes your act is so outside or so ahead of the game that this is untrue, but very rarely.

It’s a tsunami of crap. Even worse, it’s hyped crap. Which most people want out of their feed. Believe me, TikTok would not be a success if the algorithm didn’t work. Who wants to see stuff they don’t want to?

But when you come across stuff you do want to see…

You can’t get enough of it.

Like me with Sophie Buddle.