Twitching For More Paid Stage Time?
Here's At Least One Potential Option
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He started playing cover songs on Twitch during the pandemic.
Today, comedian Rob Paravonian is still Twitching after all these years.
“It turned out to be a lot of fun with Twitch, with the live comments from people who were tuning in,” Paravonian told me by phone. “It was fun to see their comments while I was covering songs and getting requests and then people in the chat room began to know each other,” he explained.
Paravonian said people on Twitch would create their own hang outs, and that people from overseas were tuning into his shows.
“We had people from all over the county and one person from Spain, and I liked that location became not a big deal to connect with people.”
After some time passed between Paravonian hosting a show, he got a request by members who met in the chat at his show for a reunion.
“One reached out to me and said they had a hang out and if you want to do it again let us know, and I thought that’d be a fun birthday activity,” he said, explaining that there is a group of 12 of them that keep in touch.
Rob will be doing a reunion show of sorts, Tuesday, Sep 24, at 8:15pm East Coast time on his Twitch channel.
He said he doesn’t make a ton of money broadcasting on Twitch, but that it was a nice bonus.
“They had revenue sharing thing and a couple times I got checks every 6 months or so, maybe $80,” Paravonian said, adding that his audience on the platform “never broke 30 or 40 live,” and the show would stay up for continued watching.
Regardless of the paycheck attached, he said it did help him connect with new fans and people who were fans of his music but had never seen a live show.
“Because I haven’t gone on the road as much as I used to, it helped them get in touch with what I’ve been doing now.”
The FuMP, which stands for The Funny Music Project, is a comedy music outlet that has a community, a channel where people can hear comedic music, much of it parody style, and other events. Paravonian first heard about Twitch through their FuMP Fest, which took place in Chicago a few years ago.
“They were broadcasting everything on Twitch,” Paravonian said. “So I got an account so I could watch things that were going on during the fest without having to be in the room.”
Carla Ulbrich, another comedic musician, has been using Twitch now for about two years.
“The chat room is great,” she said. “For people who have monetized their channels, it game-ifies tipping, which is huge,” she explained, adding that at the end of your stream, you can “raid” another Twitch streamer and send all your viewers to their stream. “People tend to reciprocate that sort of thing,” she said.
Twitch viewers also buy subscriptions to a channel to avoid having to watch ads, and can purchase subscriptions for friends.
Ulbrich explained that you must have 50 followers and stream for at least 8 hours a month in order to monetize the platform.
“I’m not yet streaming 8 hours a month,” she explained. “That’s a lot of comedy.”
She said that it can be helpful to have a moderator on Twitch, because “there are more random weirdos and bot followers that need to be dealt with,”
“I don’t have those issues,” she said, “but I see others who do.
Twitch didn’t strike me, personally, as terribly user-friendly when I tried to stream from my new account. In fact, I couldn’t figure out how to do it, so I gave up.
But some comedians are taking big advantage of the platform, and of streaming as a stage, in general.
An article on esports.com makes the process sound like a finger snap, in a way.
“It takes very little effort to build a top streaming setup and get started on your journey,” the columnist wrote, “but to come across as a genuinely funny streamer can be quite tough.”
Are you a comedian on Twitch? If so, comment below with your link and get some free PR for your channel.
Daily Musings:
Who Are The Funniest Twitch Streamers | eSports
Rob Paravonian’s Twitch account | twitch.tv/RobPRocks
Carla Ulbrich’s website | Carlau.com
The Virtual Comedy Show | VirtualComedyShow.com
Etc.:
Catch Poconos Underground Comedy Sat Sept. 28 | EventBrite
Meet our new bunny Carrots | TikTok.com/@TheJessDelfino
Buy a friend a subscription | Museletter
I wrote about cartoonist Bob Eckstein’s new book | Times-Tribune