Comedian's Guide to Avoiding #ZoomFatigue

When I first found out all my live comedy shows were canceled, I went down for the count for awhile. I even binge ate dried garbanzo beans until the roof of my nouth shredded.

Then through divine inspiration, I found all things funny about quarantine that unite us, and have since entertained over 800 people through Zoom shows. Here are some tips to make your work or personal video calls fun for everyone!

How to Avoid Zoom & Gloom 

1) Dance Party! Dance Break!  or Break Dancing!? 

Break up the talking head monotony and get circulation, endorphins, health blah blah blah. You know this!

2) Show n' Tell: "I'm so curio-s!"

I’m distracted by what a newscaster broadcasting from home is saying because I’m want to know the story behind the things on their shelves. And I'm curious about your curios! 

We all have something collectable, unique, or funny that we share with our dinner guests (except I don't show my Nana my Cards Against Humanity deck).  Let's see what everyone has got! 

3) "Never work with children or animals"

Truth is, you're already being upstaged by your pet so just let them have the camera for a minute.

I got invited to a Zoom Pet Pageant where folks who like to dress their animals could show them off. I don't dress cats, I just collect them. Even if people don't want to dress up their pets (or rather the pets don’t want to be dressed up), we still want to see 'em!

3) Let him tell his story, Bob!

Nearly everyone has an unforgettably entertaining story. Why not let them tell it? Of course it has to be appropriate for your audience, and relatively short. I recommend the participant write it out, rehearse it and time it (at least three times). 

4) Hire Liz Grant for a Happy/Funny Hour

5) Someone Celebrating a Birthday?

Have folks share a fun, funny and/or sweet memory about the birthday person. 

Or

6) Did an Employee Get a Promotion?

Probably a good time to roast them lightly. A light roast, with cheesy undertones, can be appropriate for a corporate environment. I'm not sure when roasts got so brutal (ah hem, Comedy Central?) but it can be kept classy and fun. 

I recommend collecting intel from the roastee's significant other, family and friends. Work quirks and Idiosyncrasies are the funniest. Attacking people's personal features, significant others etc. is not (in my opinion). I have written and performed several of these if you'd like some professional help (not that kind;) contact me.

More helpful tips to a make the experience better:

To Mute or Not to Mute

I highly recommend that some key people are unmuted, as SILENCE is one of the most painful and stressful interactions one can experience (there's some research on this but I'm too busy to look it up but you can if you want to:)

The people to unmute are:

People who are engaged and want to be interactive. They LOL not LI (laughing inside). They won't heckle.

They're aware that any noise they make will be picked up and interfere with what's happening.

Tips for unmuting

Remind everyone to turn their cellphones off.

Have a Host and a Moderator

The host knows how to introduce people and keep the show moving. Ideally, the host should not be the moderator.

The moderator will be muting/unmuting, identifying the next people in the line- up to unmute. It's difficult for one person to be both host and moderator.

Remember to HAVE FUN EVERYONE!!

Sending you all so much love, light and of course LAUGHTER!

XO,

Liz Grant

Next show is Saturday, August 29th at 7:30 PM!