He noted on the “Funky Friday Podcast” hosted by Cam Newton that in Los Angeles, CA, it was common for stand-up comedians to get paid, if at all, between $25 and $50, or sometimes in the form of a drink ticket. He mentions several staple destinations for stand-up comedians that maintained those rates but, in exchange, offered the chance to be discovered by an agent or studio executive.
“The idea is you have the Laugh Factory, Comedy Store, The Improv. There might be an agent in there. There might be some studio executive like, ‘We’re putting you in front of the people that going to change your life.’ Problem is that ain’t the game nearly as much. Post pandemic, those agents ain’t really sitting in there like that. They at home being sent Instagram clips, TikTok clips, but the money hasn’t really changed,” Fredrick said on the podcast.
With his show, “Keep Your Distance,” he vowed “to do better than that” and committed to pay his comedians $500 per person.
“If we paid like what SAG recommends us to pay, it would be like $98 based on our budgets. We still pay $500 because I just feel like I can’t pay you at the top, but I don’t have to pay you what SAG does because it’s still your time. And I feel legit guilty if I can’t even give you the five,” he mentioned on the podcast.
“Doing the right thing as often as possible is just important to me. Even if nobody else is doing it, even if you can charge that, even if I can pay you this, I sleep better at night knowing I did right by people. And I sleep good,” Fredrick added.
