If you make a joke on TikTok, you always have the option to delete the video. Not many live on stage at the world’s biggest performing arts festival.
But for a group of acts that have gained a lot on the app, that has not put people to death taking an offline set at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
“Every time I post on TikTok helps me build my confidence,” said Courtney Buchner.
“Having an online platform where I can try and feel safer,” she told BBC Newsbeat.
TikTok bosses are aware that many people like Courtney are trying to take comedy from the feed to the theater this year and the platform has been announced as a sponsor of the festival.
Courtney has more than a million likes on her TikTok videos, which often include sketches about women’s soccer.
He didn’t expect to be at this year’s festival, but when a slot opened up, he signed up.
“Now I am ready to say to the audience: ‘I open this for you and the reaction of life’.
“Instead of reacting in the room, and I can’t see, and you may not like it, and just swipe,” she said.
Although Courtney said it is not something he has personal experience, he knows there is some snobbery about players who have cut their teeth online instead of honing their craft in the “real world”.
“There is an insecurity that you have to prove, you can move the audience from online to fresh and live in the theater space,” he said.
“You hear things like, ‘They only got X, Y and Z because they followed it’.
“My answer is that it takes time, patience and talent.”
Chris Hall says fans online have been blown away by what he’s done for the Fringe so far.
“Some people come and go, ‘It’s not what I wanted, but I really like it’.
“I hope that what people like from the (online) content, they see brought to stand-up.”
Chris started sharing on TikTok during the coronavirus lockdown and, like Courtney, he says it helped build his confidence, and has built up almost 600,000 followers.
The video in which she and her sister Elizabeth pretend to be backing singers has garnered thousands of likes and attracted some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry.
“Shania (Twain) is the greatest,” Chris told Newsbeat.
“That really got the ball — not even the ball rolling. It got the ball catapulted into the stratosphere.”
But he left the backing singers at home, preferring to cater to a different audience.
“It’s great to meet people in real life,” he said, comparing performing on stage to performing online.
“To get immediate, immediate feedback.”
Abi Clarke’s journey is the opposite of Chris and Courtney’s, starting her career in offline stand-up and then moving to social media.
“I don’t want to be a social media person,” he said, but added: “You have to be now.”
Abi now has nearly a million followers on TikTok and over 27 million likes.
Since becoming popular online, he still needs to figure out how to translate his online comedy to a real-life audience.
“It’s scary, I feel like I know my school friends and work friends.
“They are different forms of performance and different vibes,” he said. “But it’s still me.”
With so many opportunities to go viral, Abi feels that using social media to launch a more sustainable live career is a “natural progression” for comedians.
“I think people just want their genre to be respected straight away and people don’t think they can just come and do a show off the cuff,” he said.
For those thinking of making the leap, he says there are some key differences to overcome when adapting your work.
On social media, “you can become more niche”, says Abi, and chances are people with similar interests will find you.
But somewhere like the Fringe, “you never know who’s going to come through that door… you have to make sure it’s funny for – hopefully – somebody”.
“You also have to keep your attention for an hour,” he added, comparing it to short skits online.
Harder “but more fun”.
“Social media is so lonely … it can bring you down.
“Nothing compares to the people who laugh at life and the people in the room.
“A laughing emoji will never match that.”
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