Comedy Inc.: The Big Business Of Laughs

The business of discovering and developing new comic talent is hardly a laughing matter. It is a multi-billion dollar industry, yet many in the audience may not realize that.

"One of the things of comedy is that, if it's working ... you don't feel anybody's working too hard," comedian Denis Leary told Sunday Morning correspondent Serena Altschul.

At the movies, comedy is the genre-of-the-moment. Last weekend, the top three box-office grossers — "Borat," "The Santa Clause 3" and "Flushed Away" — were comedies.

TV offers a 24/7 smorgasbord of standup, sitcoms, animation and spoofs. The same goes for the Internet and beyond: Make them laugh and you can find an audience.

You can even find comedy in the most unlikely places — just flip open your cell phone and you can get a standup routine beamed right to your little screen.

Whatever the medium, there are big bucks to be made: Last year, film comedies, TV shows and live performances generated an estimated ten billion dollars - not bad for a profession that, in the words of Rodney Dangerfield, gets no respect.

"Groucho Marx once said, 'I would never want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member,' and I think that's the way comedians feel about themselves sometimes," President of Comedy Central Doug Herzog said. "And they're a very particular lot. They've got a chip on their shoulder, they like to be the underdog."

Comedy Central, a cable channel that was once itself an underdog, has recently enjoyed a string of unexpected hits like "The Daily Show," "South Park," and blue collar comedies that have proven there's a loyal audience for laughter.

"The success of Comedy Central all comes from point of view," Herzog said. "Jon Stewart has a very particular distinctive point of view. Stephen Colbert does, Carlos Mencia does, Dave Chappelle does. We think that's what succeeds. We're not looking for the guy who appeals to everybody."

"I think that everyone responds to someone being on the edge," standup comedian Kathy Griffin said. "I think when we go to a performance or when we watch a comedy special on television, we want to see somebody go out there - we want to see something that we don't quite have the nerve to say around the water cooler, but we kind of wish someone would."

According to Griffin, there are many reasons why comedy seems to be everywhere these days.

"People are dying for a laugh and comedy is unbelievably cheap to produce," Griffin said. "I make up everything that comes out of my mouth. I'm producing the show because it's based on my life, and there're no writers."

It's clear: when it comes to comedy, the bottom line depends on just one thing: talent. Stu Smiley, one of the producers of "Everybody Loves Raymond," said that it's not difficult to tell if someone has what it takes to do well in comedy.

"You know, I'm pretty basic about it," Smiley said. "I say you don't have to be a genius to see somebody who's great. When you see somebody who's extraordinary, it hits you right over the head. And if you're trying too hard, it's usually not there."

Smiley helped prove the traditional TV sitcom could still be a blockbuster. Now, he's developing new series for HBO.

"There is a natural process like professional baseball or professional sports where there's the first tier or the farm team or the minor leagues, where people learn their craft and the pressure isn't on for the big stakes network TV show, or the cable TV show," he said. "So they come up through the clubs, the improv — classes or school — basically the live performance world. And it's through that world that people discover the people that can graduate to the next level."

For students at an improvisation workshop at New York's Upright Citizens Brigade theater, the basics of comedy improv are laid out by performers like Charlie Todd.

"Take a look at all the people who are succeeding in the comedy world today, and see how many of them have roots in improv — and it's a huge percentage," he said.

Improv groups everywhere have been inspired by the trailblazing work of the Second City in Chicago. For decades, its alumni have found their way to Saturday Night Live and beyond.

But in some minds, the question remains: can comedy really be taught? In fact, comedy education has even made its way into the academic world.

Boston's Emerson College has produced more than its share of comedians and writers — Denis Leary, Jay Leno and Norman Lear, to name a few. The school has classes not just in the study of comedy, but in its performance as well. Even still, some Emerson alum remain skeptical.

"You can't teach somebody to be funny," Leary said. "It's like music. You're either able to play an instrument or keep a beat or sing, or not."

Leary may be a tough judge, but the comic, whose verbal onslaughts raised eyebrows in 1992's "No Cure for Cancer," knows first-hand that comedy can be unforgiving.

"You know, if you've seen a standup comedian bomb," he said, "there's no worse feeling in the world, because you cringe."

But even when it works like clockwork, there's no sure guarantee of success.

"You know, to a certain extent it's like an enigma wrapped in a riddle," Herzog said. "I just know what makes me laugh. It may not make you laugh, or these guys laugh, or maybe it does. You know, it's hard."

But it's well worth it because when it works, a comedian can get the laughs, and something else: respect.