SCENE REPORT: Emerging Showcases

To celebrate the release of NEWCOMERS (on VEEPS today!), Zach Schiffman is talking to two comics with multiple early career credits....

This is SCENE REPORT: conversations between Zach Schiffman and other comedians about the trends we all notice in the comedy scene but no one on the outside is privy to. 

Over the past few years, official spaces to showcase new comics have dwindled. Clusterfest is no more and Comedy Central Presents sets are few and far between. After a quiet summer of 2024, JFL New Faces is allegedly coming back. Sure, it’s easier than ever for a comic to generate a following independently online. But not everyone’s comedy is tailor-made for the algorithm, and those following can often be spread across the world, leaving some comedians with massive followings unable to sell out shows and missing out on industry connections. Centralized showcases are, in my opinion, a necessary part of the comedy ecosystem. If the algorithm is the only tastemaker, everyone’s comedy will end up looking the same. 

There are bright spots, like Don’t Tell and Netflix Introducing. Starting today, Newcomers, the evening of Bell House debuts produced by this newsletter’s own Carly Hoogendyk, is available to stream on Veeps. Newcomers has become a hallmark in the New York scene in its offline form, but it’s a huge deal that Veeps is giving a lineup of comedians who are early in their careers this big of a platform. I was personally on Newcomers in June of 2023 (you can watch my set here), and it definitely made a difference in my career. I was unrepped at the time, so it was extremely valuable to get in front of an audience of industry and peers and distill my best material for them. Newcomers is especially valuable in the Brooklyn scene, which lacks the traditional structure and gatekeepers of the Manhattan club scene. I firmly believe it’s unsustainable for a comedy scene to exist where the comedians are all each other’s own gatekeepers, so having showcases that have fair and open submission processes like Newcomers helps younger comics level up in the industry. I still use my Newcomers tape to submit for shows and other opportunities (I probably need to swap it out soon… it’s been a year and a half…sorry…). Plus, these festivals and showcases mean something to industry. It’s a real-life blue check (although those have lost all value online now) that allows industry to instantly identify a comedian’s stature. 

I hope that Veeps’ deal with Newcomers ushers in a new era of comedy showcases. I think they have real value in uncovering new, underrepresented talent. To understand the value of these showcases more, I talked with Nico Carney (Netflix Introducing, JFL New Faces, Newcomers), and Ibhan Kulkarni (JFL Unrepped, Newcomers) about how the parenthetical credits next to their names have shaped their comedy careers. 

When did you do your showcases?

Nico Carney: I did Newcomers in February 2022,  and Netflix was in May 2022, right after that. I did JFL last year in July of 2022. 

Ibhan Kulkarni: I did Newcomers in January of 2023 and JFL Unrepped in August of that same year. Unrepped is just a straight-up tape submission. I personally give a lot of credit to Newcomers for helping me get JFL because Allison Cohn, who books JFL, was there and saw me at the Bell House. The other people that were on it didn't have that same experience. I think a couple of them were just like raw tape submissions. There was no callback; you only get the call saying you got it or an email saying you didn’t.