If you’re a comedy lover, then you’ve undoubtedly noticed the astronomical rise of crowd work videos in recent years. People love seeing their favorite comedians shocked, horrified, and occasionally delighted by the real-life stories of their fans. Watching a beloved standup struggle to kindly—but appropriately—respond to the news that an audience member brought their secret paramour to the taping makes us feel like we really know them, like we could be friends with them in real life.
That insight is what led Dropout—the indie comedy platform created by the comedic minds behind College Humor (you know, the producer of YouTube sketches you’d email to your friends back in the days when the internet was still fun)—to create a competition show based entirely on the art of crowd work. I originally joined Crowd Control as part of the production team—vetting and coordinating the participation of hundreds of audience members—but ultimately ended up stepping into a writing role as well.
What exactly is written on show built around unscripted interactions between comics and their audiences? That’s a great question. To lay the groundwork for tons of excellent (and ideally viral) crowd work moments, we vetted every single audience member in every single episode and made each participant a shirt with a personalized prompt that gave the comic a hint about one of their most interesting stories. Like “Accidental Arsonist” for a person who set their next-door neighbor’s lawn on fire the day after that neighbor closed on the house. Or “Dungeon Master” for the person who professionally monitors sex dungeons for safety. Other written elements of the show include the host’s script and episode-specific games (such as “Torture the Comic” where each comedian is given a challenge designed to expose their specific quirks and idiosyncrasies).
Crowd Control has been a resounding success for Dropout and has been picked up for a second season—with more episodes and even crazier stories.
