Tune in Saturday May 10th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

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.

Matthew Ramsey is the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of Old Dominion. This is his story from backwoods Virginia to Nashville. He was in Music City for over a decade before he had any real success! It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll (and that’s what today’s country music is!)

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matthew-ramsey/id1316200737?i=1000706788961

 

 

 

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/b296d80e-7db8-4840-9e59-effd94a47ce7/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-matthew-ramsey

I was mesmerized by the vibe.

I won’t say we haven’t had that spirit here in music since 1969, but it’s been gone for quite a while.

You didn’t know what to expect. When it comes to a music show of an established act… The set list is online, as are YouTube videos, and it’s a rare act that delivers unexpected songs. If you want to succeed, you give the public what it wants. As for jamming, exploring…that was a thing in the late sixties and early seventies, but it was killed by MTV, with worldwide hits by acts who felt they had to replicate the sound, if not the look, of the video. And sure, you’ll get experimentation in clubs, from some of the jam band acts, never mind the EDM acts, but major stars? The more major, the more calcified. At these costs and these ticket prices, you don’t want to take any risk.

Not that the Queen Elizabeth Theatre is huge. Research tells me there are 1,250 seats, although it felt a bit bigger than that, but it definitely didn’t feel like a club. Comedy clubs are small and intimate. But tonight’s show was very intimate. I wondered how it would play in an arena…I felt the jokes would translate, but really playing big halls like that negates the essence, it’s one of the reasons Steve Martin gave up standup. Comedy is not broad… Well, there are broad comedians, although a lot of them died with the Catskills, but what I’m saying is it’s one to one, from the performer to the listener. There’s no talking during the show, and no taking videos either, because you had to put your phone in a Yondr pouch. Primarily so Dave’s routines will not show up on the internet, so they can be fresh when aired as specials on Netflix.

But this show was very different from any Netflix special I’ve seen from Dave. In the specials, there are longer breaks, Dave cracks up at his jokes even more. Tonight there was more of a flow, it was continuous. He was playing for us, but…

He knew who he was.

At the end he referenced that he was the most famous comedian in the world. Dave is confident in who he is and at this point he’s transcended the gatekeepers. Dave can be himself, because Dave is bigger than…

All the musical acts. The new ones, anyway. Because the new acts don’t reach everybody and are usually selling artifice, whereas Dave specializes in truth, he’s an equal-opportunity offender. You’re left wondering whether you’re offended or not. Certain jokes can be interpreted in multiple ways.

But that’s the genius of Chappelle.

But who is Chappelle? I don’t mean where did he come from, but more how did he make it?

Yes, yes, he had that sketch show on TV, and that boosted his popularity, and he took off for Africa rather than work himself to death and O.D., but how do you follow this path?

I mean he talked about coming up in New York’s comedy clubs. But you can’t exactly slot Chappelle, there’s no one exactly like him. He’s basically a storyteller, but not like those of yore, maybe because of the constant digressions. How did he develop this persona?

And it is a persona.

Last week we watched Bill Burr’s new Hulu special. Thinking about it, I felt it was more attitude than jokes. Bill’s got a persona. Angry guy removed from everybody else who points out the insanity of life. But Bill puts himself down here and there, Chappelle does not.

And Chappelle tells more jokes.

But watching him tonight you realized that the laugh is almost always a throwaway at the end. Which made me wonder how much was pure delivery/timing. Jokes are one thing, being a comedian is quite another.

And a lot of comedians work fast, fearful of dead spots, expressing their anxiety about acceptance. But Chappelle works slowly with complete confidence. He knows you’re going to laugh… It’s like an elite sports star, give Steph Curry the ball with no one on the court and he knows he’s going to sink it.

So how do you do this?

We all grew up with funny people, maybe you’re funny yourself. What does it take to make it on the stage?

Of course you need punchlines, but you can buy jokes. How do you let your personality shine? So many who try freeze on stage. God, you have to work for years to get over the stage fright, to feel comfortable, to believe it’s your stage and you set the mood and you’re in control.

So I’m watching Chappelle tonight and I realize he’s bigger than any musical star. And he too is rich, he told us so. What are the odds he flew here commercial? ZERO! But that’s just how much money is in it, there are almost zero costs, but he does travel with a deejay.

And being Black… He’s successful, but still feared. He’s rich but giving us the perspective of a…sometimes rich Black man and other times just another Black man. This is not Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan shying away from race.

And Chappelle’s star will never fade. Do you axe your friends? Of course not, you evolve with them. Sometimes you like them more than others, but you don’t cut them loose.

So we’re looking for a truth sayer. And Chappelle says we’re living in a  conspiracy theory but then undercuts this later. That’s a feature of his act, he has you convinced of one thing and then he contradicts it long thereafter.

So what are we looking for?

Humanity. Dave is very real. He hangs with the rich and famous but he doesn’t evidence airs. You really feel like you’re in his living room listening to him. And it’s not blind listening, Chappelle makes you think.

It’s both an amazing and confounding experience. Because on some levels he’s just telling stories, and he’s got his smoking shtick for pauses, but then he drops truth bombs and you realize this is more than entertainment.

I felt like I lived through something. It was a sensation more than laughs. It’s not like I left the building feeling good, rather a bit numb floating in my own bubble. An elusive feeling that I’d love to experience again. Kind of like sex. You can’t have it all the time, but you’re always on the lookout for it, and when you can’t get it, it’s oftentimes all you can think about.

So tonight’s show is in the ether. There are no recordings. You had to be there. And if you were not, you completely missed out.

It’s kind of like pre-internet shows, then again if they have Yondr pouches at a music show you don’t leave with the same feeling. The acts and their music are all over the web, you need this to be successful. That bond with your fans. But Chappelle keeps his fans at arm’s length at the same time he draws them in. That’s one of the elements of the offending material. Sometimes you snicker along with him, other times you’re saying wait a minute here, let me think about this, I’m not sure I’m down with that.

I felt like comedy was the only place I could get this feeling. Being at a standup show. There was a visceral quality absent from the music business. And the audience knows this. They’re riveted, along for the ride, anything but bored. In fact, they’re tingling!

And all this from a guy who lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio?

There’s more to America than Trump.

But in order to learn that you have to listen to someone like Chappelle, who can divide the word of truth.

Yes, that’s a Bob Dylan reference. We used to hang on the words of wisdom of Bob. Who do we listen to today? Sure, there are some rappers, but too much hip-hop has become a cartoon, whereas Chappelle isn’t playing a character, you know it’s him, and it’s deadly real.

It was an amazing experience.