Welcome to the Virtual Antics podcast, where we help entrepreneurs streamline their business to six figures and beyond. These short, sweet and info packed episodes will inspire, educate and leave you feeling motivated to take one more step forward in your business. So put down your never-ending to-do list, because in this podcast, we are interviewing the best of the best in the entrepreneurial world as they spill their secrets to success. This podcast is sponsored by Nandora, the all-in-one software for entrepreneurs to grow their business, with unlimited landing pages, automations, emails and text campaigns, and so much more. I'm your host, natalie Guzman. Now let's get into it. Hey y'all, welcome back to another episode of Virtual Antics. I'm so excited because I have Leanne on the call. She is a comedian turned entrepreneur. She's the founder and CEO of the new online comedy club Possible. I'm so excited because she's so serious about comedy and the industry, with live online stand up comedy shows, open mics and podcasts. So artists can get paid, which is so cool.
Speaker 2Welcome Leanne. How you doing today? Thank you, I'm great. I'm excited to be here and talk all things comedy.
Speaker 1I'm so excited because I actually have an entrepreneur friend that I told you who is a comedian and I'm like this is so cool because especially this is another business. I believe that came out of COVID, Is that correct?
Speaker 2Yes, but actually before COVID I was solving my own problem well before the pandemic. Then the pandemic happened and everybody was like of course, we'll do this online. I'm like great, this really helps validate that people are willing to do this. But it's continued to grow even after the pandemic, which is exciting for me. That's awesome.
Speaker 1Tell us a little bit more about Possible. I know I mentioned it briefly in the bio, but could you go a little bit deeper into what it? Is and what it offers comedians.
Speaker 2Possible is like you said. It's an online comedy club. It's basically an online marketplace for comedians and their fans. Think of Etsy. We have shoppers looking for homemade products and then we have the creators. In Possible, we have comedians who are the independent creators and then fans looking for their types of comedy. When you log into Possible, you can see a directory of all of those comedians and you also see show listings that you can choose from to see All of the shows happen in real time.
Speaker 2It defaults to whatever time zone you're in, so you know when to show up. You don't have to do all the math. If you look at it, it's like you think TV guide. Or when you log in to see your live TV at what's happening at such and such time, it goes in the order of what's most happening now to later and go through that. A lot of it is free and a lot of it is paid, depending on the comedian and the level of production that they're putting into it and things like that. Comedians have all the scheduling tools, the virtual stage, the ticketing services and everything that we provide to them and they can set their own schedule, produce the kind of shows and comedy events that they want in their own time and at their own price. Then comedy fans can come in and select from those and also it gives fans an opportunity to see comedians maybe they wouldn't otherwise have known existed.
Speaker 1That's awesome. We were just talking before this call started, that we were so cold. Right, I'm cold for Florida, which is like 40s right now, so it's pretty cold for Florida. You're up in Seattle and we're freezing, right. It's a bit better way to have a really cool date night than to join in the plausible to watch comedians. I think that would be so cool. I've actually been about doing that with my husband tonight. It just popped up. I was like that'd be an awesome date night idea, right, because you don't have to leave your house where it's freezing. Finding a sitter is harder when it's cold because no one wants to leave their home. You just smoke up drinks and hot cocoa and watch a good show.
Speaker 2That's so cool. It's true, and we do have people who do that and it's just exactly the scenario you just described. So that makes me really happy to hear. But especially people with kids. Once you put the kids to bed, you know like it's expensive to get a sitter. It's a lot of money nowadays to go out and spend you know that extra cash on a couple of cocktails and tickets and things like that. So this is an opportunity where we make entertainment more accessible, yet it's live and it's more active rather than passive as we see on other streaming services.
Speaker 1Yeah, another really cool thing is like so we always live in remote towns because of my husband's shop and so going to a comedy club is like a minimum one hour drive and then so you got the gas to drive to it, you have to park into a usually pay for parking into some type of garage. Especially going like Tampa or Orlando, that's usually like pay for parking. And then you, you know, go in, you pay for the food, you pay for your drinks, you pay for your ticket, and then all these you know you may get merch or something, all these different things that it definitely becomes super, super costly and then you have the sitter.
Speaker 1Oh man, I got the dog and I got the two kids, so that's costing me quite a pretty penny right there. So we love, you know putting the kids in bed and then snuggling on the couch and watching something. So I think this is such a cool thing and it's different. It's not your regular movie or your TV, which gets so boring, especially when you're binging shows and that stops you're on the laptop, so you're like what are you doing now?
Speaker 2So that is awesome.
Speaker 1So tell us about the opportunity that this has given comedians, because I think this is super cool.
Speaker 2Yeah, well, just like you, you know, living in an area that you're not really close to a comedy club of any sort is you know so many people comedians also are in that situation.
I mean, when I was doing the research, just looking at open mics where people can go and try to do comedy, 40% of them are in California, New York alone. So the rest are kind of dispersed in these more rural areas and that's not a lot of opportunity for people. And there's also a lot of challenges that people face with, you know, since the pandemic, that have really come to the forefront of autoimmune, you know, challenges, things like that where people aren't able to go out and be amongst a larger crowd, and also accessibility for persons with disabilities and things like that. So we're seeing a lot more diversity on our platform that we don't always see in a club because of the access. So it's giving access to people from all over, and we even have people internationally, which I think is phenomenal. I love to see people log in from other countries and yet here we are all bonding and laughing about relatable topics, you know.
Speaker 1Yeah, and you know, comedy is just so good for the soul. Whether you're the comedian or you're the listener, I feel like it gives joy on both ends. I always see my friend, whenever she's doing comedy, she lights up Like she loves trying new lines and watching on the audience, reacts and adjusting things and, like you know, putting on that show and it's such a cool thing to watch. So for my side I get so much joy watching her having joy, but also from the jokes, because the jokes could just be hilarious, where you could just be dying laughing.
Speaker 1And you know, laughing is just so, so good for the soul that I think everyone should. You haven't seen a comedy show ever. This would be a really easy way to do it, because you could just sit in your living room and try it out. Try to become comedian, but also try multiple, because every different comedian is different. They have different types of jokes. I feel like there's even different, would you say there's different categories of comedians, because I feel like to me there is.
Speaker 2There is, in fact, when a fan creates their account, implausible. We'll ask what your preferences are. So we'll ask what type of comedy like? Do you like clean, moderate, you know, which is a little bit edgier. Club comedy, which obviously you know what have it. You know kind of comedy is clubbed. And then what we consider blue, which is more shock value, obviously you know very adult.
Speaker 2Um, so there's a range and everybody has their own you know taste bud for a comedy, if you will right. Like, not everybody likes the same food, why would we like the same humor? Um, so you kind of pick and define what that is and think that through. And then we ask, like what kind of topics? Because some people, maybe you went through a breakup or you know, or maybe you just you're married and you like relationship and situational humor, and or maybe you like word play and dad jokes, those kinds of things. So you can pick and, and some people may not want to hear about anything about you know, current events or politics, so they won't check those items. But you can sort the comedians by those kind of things to see the pop stuff.
Speaker 1Yeah, I was going to ask you about the filters because for me, that's my favorite way to find things is I filter it down to like every last desire that I have. I have a filter hog, um. I love checking all the boxes, so that is awesome that we can filter by our tastes and what we like what we don't like.
Speaker 2That is awesome.
Speaker 1I absolutely love that and then make it like really easy to find. You know creators that we might like. Uh, what are some of your favorite? Um, do you have any like stories or things that have happened because of plausible that you really enjoy talking about?
Speaker 2I I love all the people that I've met on here. Like I said, well, we have people from other countries, we have people, uh, you know, in between the coast that maybe wouldn't normally hop on. I think some of the really cool things that I've been seeing is how people are uh meeting and networking uh within that community, and I'm also enjoying so on the on the comedian side, of how the collaborations and things are happening and new friendships are made, but also the the way people are using it and uh, they're starting to explore and experiment with the technology that we provide to maybe try podcasts, but with a live audience, so that that changes the vibe and like, if two comedians are talking, then you have people actually laughing in real time, right and and maybe doing Q and A's afterward. But people also have the opportunity Um, we have a new show coming out that the comedian uh from Canada and uh she's collaborating with uh local musician in her area and they're going to do a midweek late night show. Um, so totally kind of different take on on that and I'm excited to see that coming about.
Speaker 2And people talking about teaching classes and offering opportunities for people who maybe have always considered doing comedy but haven't yet dipped their toes in. And then on the flip side of that, from fans but I love hearing and like it. You, you, you I'm prompted even shared your own scenario of like oh, I have kids in that. But once people come into the virtual room, you know it's our own um, our own platform, or not using zoom or something else. It's designed specifically for comedy and online audiences. What people are saying wow, this feels really intimate. It doesn't feel like a work conference or something, but I feel like I now know the comedians on a different level or intimate than even an in-person setting, so that's also very exciting to see too. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1Um can the audience interact with the comedians?
Speaker 2Yeah, they sure can, oh cool.
Speaker 1So how is it?
Speaker 2just text or voice or explain that.
Speaker 2Audio and video. So the comedians are larger than everybody else on the left-hand side of the screen because obviously, if we go into a gallery, view right, we've experienced that who are we watching? The person who has the coolest background or is walking around their home, and we're like what are they doing? And then completely ignoring the speaker. So in this case, what we did is we made the performer always dominant and anchored in position, but the audience, similar to when we're in person, if we're in a theater, a club bar, whatever we can only see actually a handful of people while we're watching the performer right, unless we're panning the room. So what we did is we created a similar experience where you see a handful of the audience but instead of having to click through or anything like that, you use the wheel on your mouse and they carousel through just as if you were turning your head in the room and you can see everybody. Yeah, that is so cool, so it makes it really cool.
Speaker 2And then you know, obviously, if maybe an audience member or somebody has dogs barking in the background or something and they wanna mute themselves, they can still participate. Obviously we have a chat, but we encourage people to have their audio and video off, because our audio doesn't have cutouts, it's not one-way audio. So when you hear people laughing, you hear multiple people laughing and the comedian still speaking as just like you would if you were in real life. You hear multiple things at the same time, and we created that so it has a little bit more vibe and energy and it's not oh, what, what, what, and then you miss the punchline. But for people who do, let's say, have that background noise and have to mute themselves, we have sound emojis. So we have little custom emojis just for comedy, with like a rim shot, you know, like tsh, tsh, tsh or like yeah, and then laughter and applause and things like that. That make it really fun.
Speaker 1Oh, that's so cool. So it's super, super interactive. That's awesome, oh very interactive.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's meant to be interactive and they've done studies, years ago I guess, where they tested audiences. And if we hear other people laughing, we're more likely to laugh. And that's why sitcoms started incorporating all of the laugh tracks and everything, because it gives people permission to laugh out loud.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's so cool. I absolutely love that and I love the interaction portion probably the most, because we all especially if you are someone that has to stay home a lot right, and you have to do things like this to have any type of entertainment or create community it's really cool that it can be interactive, because you're not just feeling alone anymore. Now you've got a whole connection of people and you have other people that are doing the same thing as you watch this comedian.
Speaker 2That is amazing.
Speaker 1Well, where can we find more about plausible? Because I need to go tonight and watch that.
Speaker 2Yeah, you would go to plausiblecom and that's P-L-A-U-Z-Z-A-V-L-Ecom, and you create your account and, of course, like I mentioned, when you create your account it's gonna ask you for your comedy preferences, a little bit about yourself so that we get to know you, and then it'll ask you to follow at least one comedian so it can help populate your dashboard and then you can check out the show listings and the comedian directory, play around with the site. I don't think you're gonna break anything. So explore, check it out, attend some of the open mics and the shows and things like that. And you asked about another experience example Some of the comedians are actually doing fundraisers for their favorite nonprofit organizations and so they'll put together an entire show and then the net proceeds will go to that charity of their choice, which I think is a really cool thing.
Speaker 1That is so cool. It's another way to build your community and also raise money for a good cause. I absolutely love that. Well, I'm so happy that you came on today. So, it's all about plausible, and I cannot wait for more people to hop on and experience all the joy that comedians bring. So thank you so much, leanne, and we'll talk to y'all next time on the Virtual Index Podcast.