Comedy In Second Life Is No Laughing Matter

There’s an interesting thread over at SLUniverse asking about comedy clubs in Second Life. In theory comedy seems a decent fit for Second Life, voice is available, streams can be arranged, you don’t need to wake the neighbours with your guitar strumming, as live musicians potentially do, yet, there seems to be a void and that thread points out some harsh realities. These realities aren’t only an issue for comedians of course.

One issue is material, whereas a comedian can tour a country with a set that audiences will only see once, a regular comedian in Second Life has less of a geographical challenge, I mean we can all teleport to where they’re performing and once we’ve seen a set, why would we keep going back to see it again? Basically we go to them, rather than they coming to us. Ok this would work well for one off shows, but it’s difficult to keep it as a regular slot.

Another issue is the sound of silence, or rather the lack of live laughter. Comedians will probably thrive on laughter, that’s an indication that their set isn’t bombing, in Second Life, that’s not going to happen. A barrage of on screen lol’s, text heckling and people telling each other to turn off their animations or gestures is likely to be distracting for the performer.

Then there’s the issue of fees, Second Life is generally a low fee venue, tips might be useful but you’re hardly likely to get rich quick, venues can’t offer high fees to wannabe acts because venues don’t generally get very far with a cover charge, of course mileage varies, but in general, people expect entertainment for free in Second Life. This doesn’t mean people won’t dip their hands into their virtual pockets and tip entertainers, entertainers will often receive pretty generous tips, but many a venue can’t really demand an upfront fee.

There’s a report in the SLU link of a comedian who wouldn’t get on stage because a stripper had been on stage just before his act, this in a virtual world. I wonder if that was a joke gone wrong.

Yet, there is comedy in Second Life and I’m not just talking abut SecondLie, someone actually said they would pay to see SecondLie in action, maybe there will be a comeback tour! There are clubs that offer comedy, but as someone who wondered why it’s not as prevalent as I expected, I can now see a lot of reasons as to why it is problematic. Yet, this is a great shame because the more avenues of entertainment that are avaliable, the more widely appealing Second Life becomes. Music seems far more popular and there are many reasons for that, people like singing for a start, plus there’s a vast array of material available to musicians in terms of tracks.

I’d like to see more forms of entertainment, but costs, technical issues, small audiences and ultimatly tier, are challenges for any form of inworld entertainment.

Another issue of course is that although you can have several avatars in a room, they aren’t actually in the room, the avatars are virtual representations, you don’t get the same ambience, or wonder why that person is laughing, or get caught up in the atmosphere of a comedy club. The virtual beer doesn’t cut the mustard the way real beer does, there are saving graces with this of course, you don’t have to sneak to the toilet and hope the comedian doesn’t see you, but that’s a minor benefit. Virtual technology still has a long way to go, although maybe it’s better that it can’t replace true physical human interaction, unless of course you’re someone who thinks it already has and we’re all avatars. Think along the lines of Versu being real and we’re avatars writing a story ….. this conversation requires beer!

Now I’m going to have to go and listen to Ian Dury and The Blockheads singing Reasons to be cheerful part III, no idea why but it seems a good fit!

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