How YouTube is like vaudville

Like the guy who did regurgitation on command. He’d swallow kerosene, then water. He’d first vomit the kerosene on to a fire, then vomit the water to extinguish the fire. When film came along, guys like this, who were merely freak shows, would lose out very quickly. Their bosses would film them doing their shtick, then fire them. No need to hire a guy day after day, road show after road show, to do the same thing when you can use a new kind of media to do the same thing and only pay for it once.

I told Neel that that pattern reminded me of the current woes in journalism. Newspapers aren’t in control of their products as much as they used to be. Many on the business side of the newspaper industry are blaming new media, like Google, and sounding the tones of fatalism, like they too have a fever. Journalists and critics are unable or unwilling to adapt are finding themselves furloughed or retiring early. Others are saying that those who adapt to the changes are the ones who will succeed.

Then Neel says that YouTube is just like vaudeville. There have always been people out there who have a talent at something and they want to share it. Like the vomiter. YouTube is spreading these unique talents the way that vaudeville did in the pre-digital age. The difference is that at one time, people would pay to see that kind of thing. When the media changed, they no longer did. Performers had to change as the media changed. It took a long time to figure but eventually they did. Perhaps the same will happen in journalism of the 21st century.

(above Brian Neel after Wednesday’s performance at Lance Hall at the Circular Church. You can tell he had a fever, but he performed his guts out anyway)