John Rathbone

In the past 26 years, John Rathbone has performed nearly 6,000 comedy shows. More than a million people have seen him live. His travels have taken him from New York City to California; from Alaska to the Caribbean. He has been hired to entertain for Fortune 500 giants, including: AT&T, General Electric, Honda, Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble, and The American Heart Association.

How do you build a name for corporate gigs?

Corporate work is great work. A lot of it is word of mouth, so you can build your name that way. You need a clean show. You need to be comfortable in a corporate setting. Some comics want to be able to say whatever they want, but if you’re in a corporate setting, you can’t. You have to work within the parameters of what they want you to do.

Do you research the companies before a corporate gig?

No. I do my show that I always do. There are different kinds of corporate comics. Some will tailor their acts, [but] you really can’t write very much material in a short amount of time. I stick to my act, typically a half hour to an hour. Sometimes it’s just 20 minutes.

How do you negotiate the fees? Do you have an agent?

I use agents. I use different agents that do corporate work. It’s more expensive to hire me as a corporate comic. Basically I work the clubs now just to keep sharp. This is where I practice, and the corporate shows are where I do all the things you need to do. Consequently, they pay me a lot more.

What advice do you have for an up and comer—especially someone who’s interested in corporate?

If you want to do corporate work, you have to be appropriate for corporate settings.

Get the wardrobe. You have to look nice (nice suits, etc.). Make sure your show is very clean. Then just start putting yourself out there to agents. Just say this is the kind of work I’d like to do…eventually you’ll get referrals and experience.

What kind of clips do you choose for your website?

I have a firm that specializes in that kind of work. They’re professionals. I think the money is well spent on having a professional website—not your buddy. [Hire] somebody with real graphic experience and real computer experience. A lot of my clients go to the web and look at each of these choices. My website sells me. It’s geared for the corporate client. It’s not a funny site…it’s all informative.

You try and present an image…for corporate clients you have to be pretty conservative.

How do you keep it corporate clean?

I’ve always been clean. I’ve had to make my act dirtier for the clubs. When I got started, if you wanted to be the emcee or the middle act, you had to be clean. Now that’s changed, [but] I recommend everybody be clean. You can always make it dirtier. You can’t take dirty material and make it clean.

I stay away from topical…political…anything that smacks of a timely reference…I don’t like to throw that into my act because three months down the road the joke is no good anymore. I like to write a line that I can say over and over and over for 25 years. Those are the lines that I’m striving for. That way the material is able to serve me for a long time.

What advice have you received that’s been most helpful?

The best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten is have fun onstage. If you’re not having fun, it’s very tough for your audience to have fun. Being a comic is a scary thing, but if you don’t go up and have fun, you’re making your job a lot harder. If you go up and have fun, the audience will follow you generally.

It seems easy…it looks effortless, but there are a lot of things that go into making it seem that way. It’s a very complicated process, you just kind of have to come across [techniques]. Have fun.

How do you keep it fresh?

I interact with the crowd. I have to pretend like I’m having a good time, and almost always I am actually. Keeping it fresh is my job; if I can’t keep it fresh, at least make it fresh to the audience or go get another job.

Is it important to stay away from polarizing subjects such as politics and religion?

I have my own personal politics, but you’re basically preaching to the crowd [with] whatever opinion you have to say. Half the people are going to agree with you and like you, and then half the people are going to disagree with you and not like you. I’m a comic, I’m not a social scientist, and even the social scientists—their opinion is just their opinion. I’m not trying to tell people what’s right and how to live their lives and how they should think. I really dislike political comics. Whatever, you’re so much smarter than me. Please tell me how to think.

I feel that when people come to my show, they’re going to laugh, and I’m not going to burden them with my little petty issues. I don’t take my issues up on stage. I got divorced the first time…they always say write about what you know. I thought maybe it would be cathartic to write about this and take it on stage. I wrote some stuff, and it wasn’t too bitter or angry—I thought. I realized people weren’t interested. They want to laugh. They don’t want it too real. It’s supposed to be a good time. It’s not a sociology lecture.

Everybody has their opinions—valid or not. Comedy is about having fun, and politics is about whining and complaining for the most part.

Sometimes you do get groups that are very uniform, especially in corporate. At a comedy club you’re going to get people of all different strides, but when you do a corporate show [they may have similar opinions].

What are the differences between corporate and stand-up shows?

The corporate world is different from the stand-up world. [At the club] we have a beautiful stage, fantastic lights, perfect sound…when you go do a corporate show, you’re going to have bad sight lines, bad sound, and bad lights…nobody can see you or hear you. You don’t know when you’re going to go on. Everybody’s tired and wants to go home…and they’re like “Okay, now your turn!” [It’s] anything but the ideal setting.

[At the club] everything is geared to just making it perfect. [But in corporate] you have to be ready for your show not to be its best. You have to be ready for the audience to not laugh very much. Doesn’t mean they’re not enjoying themselves—it’s just a different animal and it takes some getting used to. A lot of comics do a corporate show and it’s not like their club show. They start whining about it on stage, telling the audience they’re stupid. It can just go south real quickly. You really have to be tolerant and understand what kind of role you’re going to play in their evening’s events and really be a gamer. If you have an attitude [like] “I’m an artiste!” then maybe it’s not the best place for you to be.

There are all kinds of places to work as a comedian. You don’t have to go into corporate work. I do it because it pays very well, and I feel very comfortable in corporate settings. I don’t mind putting on my Brooks Brothers suit and my fancy tie, looking nice and minding my manners and giving them the best show that I can within their parameters. Even without the sound and the lights, etc., I try and make the most of it. That’s the kind of attitude you need to have if you want to do corporate work.