MATT: When I go see stand-up comedy, I don’t want to see all crowd work. Comics always say it’s the hackiest thing on earth to just do a ton of crowd work. “Where are you from? What do you do?”
I want to see a rehearsed act that you’ve got in your bones. But audiences love it when someone breaks out of that and acknowledges the weird laugh, or the fact that a guy shouted and you go with it, and the performer goes back into the act, right? The performer is aware of the room and aware of the people that are here. People love that.
That happens when you go see a band and the lead singer takes a break and says, “Hot in here, right?” Or just uses the correct town’s name when they say, “Hello, Cleveland!”
Now, that said, we go see ballet, we go to see opera. We’re not getting any of that. And that’s OK, because magic is a different form. Magic is about right now.