Ok, much as I am entertained and agree with a lot of what Katt Williams said. We have to talk about the elephant in the room.
TALENT IS NOT ENOUGH. Besides being talented, you have to be easy to work with. Professional. Have a brand. Know how to pitch that brand. Spin it from a standup set to a sitcom to a movie to a game show and so on. Or you can just settle for standup.
These 2 camps exist today. You have comedians like Chappelle or Tom Segura who seem satisfied pumping out one comedy special after another. Then you have the likes of Bert Kreitcher, Bill Burr, Kevin Hart who are now into movies, cartoon series etc.
I think the discrepancy here is Kevin, Steve, Cedric, Big Worm, all the people Katt went after..found a way to market themselves beyond standup. Unfortunately in our industry, that’s usually known as “selling out”. Which is the stupidest idea ever.
When you’re a small time comedian, you dream of a day when you can sell all the tickets for the room you booked which is literally called “selling out” hence the term “sold out” show. That’s literally the goal! Yet when you reach it, you’re demonized for it.
How do you sell out? You sell your product (your standup/your story/your POV) to the biggest audience in the shortest time possible, i.e. a tv spot on a major network, an interview on a major podcast, or the biggest sellout route, a MOVIE. Steve, Kevin, Cedric mostly opted for the movie route. Besides Friday series, Katt seemed to have settled for the pure standup route.
How one person does it, doesn’t take away from how you do it. Yet Katt feels slighted. If you ask him if he wants to host a game show, he wouldn’t want it. Ask him if he wants to do a Capitol One commercial. He don’t fit it and he don’t want it. So this idea that they took out of his plate is false and insecure.
The lesson for us small time comedians is simple, “Do you and let other people do them.” Be talented but that’s not enough. Build an audience, build a brand. Don’t be afraid to sellout – that’s how you pay the mortgage and build generational wealth. You can aim low & just write new standup. And spend the rest of your time berating others for opportunities you didn’t get. Or aim high and write sketches, plays, movies, books to create the opportunities you think you (and your friends) deserve. You’re not just a comedian, you’re a writer. When you get big, don’t stop writing cuz sooner or later, your writers will give you stolen jokes.