Sharam Namdarian Starts a Revolution

120 Empty Seats in my Comedy Show

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THE REVOLUTION IS HAPPENING. What a wild ride.


In this episode we chat about the concept of the podcast itself, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, what is next and also... 

Pirating TV shows, Trump Tarrifs and are you a peasant or a pirate? 


• Performing to only 2 people in a 120-seat venue creates a bizarrely intimate yet challenging comedy experience
• Working a 9-to-5 job while pursuing comedy creates significant time management challenges
• Streaming platforms now treat basic subscribers as "peasants" by forcing them to watch ads unless they pay more
• It's often easier to pirate content than to watch it legally through paid subscription services
• The so-called "Chinese retaliation" through factory workers on TikTok is actually just individuals trying to sell directly to consumers
• Comedy and live performances remain valuable because they can't be pirated - you need the in-person experience
• The future of this podcast may include developing revolution-themed elements like symbols and salutes for comedic purposes


Send me Fan Mail! It could be anything, we are desperate at this point.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to this latest episode of Sharam Namdarian Starts a Revolution, the podcast where you and I we accidentally start a revolution. Now, I figured out how to make this podcast because it's important that this podcast is popular, not because I want it to sustain my life, but also because we're gonna start a revolution. We need it to be good, right? We're going to start a revolution. We need it to be good, right. So if you watched or listened to the last episode, which, to be honest, was the most popular episode I've done, it was literally, I would say, an apathetic, pity party. It was me basically whinging and crying and dealing with the review. I got from the Age for my comedy festival show review. I got from the Age for my comedy festival show which, to be honest, made me a real comedian. Oh, I'm sorry everybody else for getting positive 5 stars all the time 4 stars, so good. Being instantly right out of the gate, good. But you've never been criticised and demonised like I have. Point is, every comedian starts out shit and I've got it in paper. So, yeah, that'll be. Um, that'll be a perpetual knife in my back, I reckon. But this, this podcast, needs to be way more fun. I feel like the last episode. It was good. It went to a level, that, uh, of honesty which is good for this sort of stuff. I think I want to be that honest with you. You know, you, the people but it is important that this podcast is fun. So I've got a lot of stuff that I do want to talk about.

Speaker 1:

Um, okay, so there's about three shows left for my Melbourne International Comedy Festival show. If you are in Melbourne or coming to Melbourne for the long weekend, please, for the love of god, see my show. It's 120 seater venue. I've had up to 15 people in every single show. Oh, I'm almost breaking even. You know, I'm almost not even. Um, let's be honest, people, I'm not breaking even. I'm almost breaking even. You know, I'm almost not even. Let's be honest, people, I'm not breaking even. I'm almost about to pay the venue back. Nothing. That's really where I'm at. I bit off way more than I can chew and I've learned that because it's interesting, right, I've realized what I do is I tend to bite off more than I can chew because I'm so used to telling myself I'm bad at something that, oh, I watch everyone else. Everyone else sold out their shows. It's like, yeah, because they had a 15 seater. They had a 20 seater. If I had that same seater, I could have very well easily told people I sold out my show. So, yeah, it's going to be crazy to be crazy, but it has been absolutely nuts right.

Speaker 1:

The the hardest show I did was to an audience of two people and that was insane. That was absolutely insane. Two people in a auditorium that fits 120 people. That's actually a seminar room. I had to like overact it in order to get people, in order for them to laugh at how absurd their life has become like. It was just absolutely insane.

Speaker 1:

And I also want to shout out to Drew and Tim, two comedians who have been helping me tech the show thank you so much. You guys have been absolutely great. I know Drew listens to this sometimes. So, so much, you guys have been absolutely great. I know Drew listens to this sometimes, so, or watches this sometimes. So, yeah, he's pointed out that I go, yeah, pretty much when I'm trying to remember a joke or I'm stalling because I'm like what's this thing? Yeah, so the festival's been crazy, but oh my god, I'm so tired, so tired.

Speaker 1:

Doing the same show every single night for two weeks, same time, is exhausting, and you might say like no shit, sherlock. But no shit Sherlock, how did I not? I've done it before, but usually the venue would force me to have a break. The venue would force me and be like look, tuesdays, we don't have Tuesdays, or we don't have Mondays, and I'm like all right, two weeks straight, not including Mondays. Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay, yay, but holy crapamole, yeah, yeah, yeah, but holy crap-a-moly if you don't have a break. This is why weekends exist.

Speaker 1:

Did you ever know that, like weekends exist for a reason? You need the time off to integrate the thing I've been telling people in my regular life, you know, because I am too human and I am too human. I've been telling people in my regular life what it feels like. It's like. Have you ever, like worked out? You know, and when you work out, it's the next day. Often you feel quite tired, like your body is in recovery mode. It's digesting, it's processing the things, it's recovering your nervous system. It feels like that, like I'm waking up the same tired as if I've had a crazy, crazy workout, but the workout is all in the brain, like my brain feels fatigued. Um, yeah, it's a crazy journey and I recommend everyone to do it if you're insane. Either that or you can join this revolution.

Speaker 1:

Now, look, look, I vaguely themed this podcast around me starting a revolution. I don't know if that was the best idea. I'm starting to regret it a little bit. Should it have just been the sharam namdarian show? I don't know, but I've bit off. I think it's a fun premise, because if I ever think, oh, I should just call it the Sharm Darien show, I get annoyed because I think it's a boring concept and there are a million comedian name insert name here shows. So like the vague concept that this podcast is going to get so popular that we start a revolution, or like governments are going to be freaking out because they're like oh shit, sharm announced a podcast. All of his, all of the people that listen to it are just gonna do what he says, or whatever is insane.

Speaker 1:

Like life is pointless, like it's fun, it's exciting, it's whatever, but also like it's the we take everything so seriously. I think and I just I think that's what this thing stands for is the the arbitrary nature of existence, like we never wanted to be born and now we're here and we're like ah, I think I want to be an accountant, like you never wanted to want things, you just were born. Yeah, so the festival's been fun. I managed to do some other shows and stuff like that. Next year I think really what I'll be doing is a lot of random stuff, like so it might be like three days here, four days, this other thing, just a lot of lineups.

Speaker 1:

I need to participate in the um, the comedy scene more, like I've. Yeah, I just need to participate more. I am like I run the dirty secrets comedy. Uh, that's fun, but I do need to participate more. Like I need to connect with more comedians better, more openly, more honestly, like I realize.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes I have my walls up and some people have been pointing that out, like famous comedian Dan Rosario. He points it out. He's like dude, you fucking, you need to open up and hang more. And I'm like I can't. Do you know what it's like? Dude, you fucking, you need to open up and hang more. And I'm like I can't. Do you know what it's like? This is okay, let's get into the meat of it all.

Speaker 1:

I work nine to five, that's right. This is a rags to riches story. You're in the rags section. If you hang out in this show long enough enough, we'll get to the pennies section, then we'll get to the dollars section, then we'll get to the riches section, but right now we're in the rag section. So I'm working nine to five and, to be honest, I like my job. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of stress but it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:

But the last episode I put out, the last episode I put out, the last episode it got so far it's at 400 views on YouTube. Crazy, considering that all the other episodes have got 2 views, 12 views, whatever. 400 views. Now I look at the AdSense on that. That's 50 cents at 400 views. Now I look at the ad sense on that, that's 50 cents at 400 views. If I made this podcast interesting and something people wanted to watch and to carry on with and to connect with every week, holy crap-a-moly. That's a dollar. We skip the penny section, we get straight to the dollars. We skip the penny section, we get straight to the dollars. And if that happens, that happens, that happens, that happens, that happens. That's my life set.

Speaker 1:

Have you ever worked like a daytime job and a nighttime job at the same time? While trying to write like my life is full? People like, hey, you should like loosen up and I'm like I'm trying, I'm trying so hard to loosen up. I'm a man in my own tower that I created. I don't know. This is why people like you're neuro something and I'm like I don't want that I created. I don't know. This is why people like you're neuro something and I'm like I don't want to be diagnosed, I don't care.

Speaker 1:

It is like I have a structured brain. I have such a structured brain I create things and I get stuck in those structures and it's annoying. And then I'm so like people like, oh, you need this morning routine. I'm like, no, I need less routines. You tell me to do a thing, I'll do it. Then I'm stuck and then it's like, oh, why didn't you do this other thing? It's like you told me to do the routine.

Speaker 1:

Like, ah, hustle culture is for chumps. Just have a reason to live. Fuck, oh my God. People who follow hustle culture because they feel like they're lacking. Is that you're lacking? Deal with the lack. You won't need the hustle culture anymore, you'll just be whatever. I don't know if people really have hustle culture anymore.

Speaker 1:

It's a bit of a joke these days, to be honest. Uh, ah, shit. And my show is called from brunswick Love and I finally learned how to address it in the show. But did you know and this you'll think this is very obvious. But naming a show From Brunswick With Love means that some people think the entire show is just me ragging on Brunswick. Who would have thunk? I should have thunk. Who would have thunk, I should have thunk. It's interesting because when you do that it is very much like a like. When people come to the show and I finally do do the Brunswick joke and those people were from Brunswick their hearts open up like a flurry of diamonds opening up to receive the birth of the universe. That is this one Brunswick joke. Like it's insane.

Speaker 1:

So I've got to think more about the ramifications of the titling of comedy shows, because it is it's more of a sticky wicket than you think. It's more of a sticky wicket than you think. Hey, here's some stuff that we could start arbitrary revolutions on. Why is it easier to pirate shows? This is a premise, but fuck it. Why is it easier to pirate shows than it is to actually like stream the show from the relative platform? I think we're in a weird world now where for a while people pirated shows, we downloaded them, we torrented them. We did all this sort of stuff with them. I've been thinking a lot about this, but nowadays it's actually easier to pirate the show than it is to pay for the show.

Speaker 1:

Pirating was overall less because we ended up, because they just made it easier. Like, why would you fight your way through a million ads, have to download or fight? You know, like, download the thing if Netflix, you could just pay like 10 bucks a month and have access to all of this stuff? I found that really interesting because you know, cost of living, oh shit. We had this thing where we were like, oh, the last episode of White Lotus is here, but we don't want to pay for binge anymore. Like we don't, we're not going to be using it after White Lotus, and we paid for it for months. So we're like, fuck it, we'll just get off it. And Binge has ads, or at least the shittiest, the peasant version. The peasant version of Binge has ads. And so it was easier for us to then just be like oh, the last episode, we'll just pirate it, whatever, we've paid enough. And so we did, and it was actually easier to watch it as a pirate, as an R, and it was actually easier to watch it as a pirate, as an R, than it was the actual streaming platform, because the pirate doesn't have ads.

Speaker 1:

Binge is basically punishing people for being peasants, is what I'm trying to say. We're all peasants and we're trying to survive, and binge and all the other streaming platforms is like hey, you want to watch this? You're a fucking peasant, your money is no longer enough. We have to stream ads while you watch the show because you are not enough. That to me, we're starting a revolution. We're starting with that. That's why I'm doing stand-up comedy.

Speaker 1:

You can't pirate a show. You can. You know, you can obviously like pirate a special or whatever, especially if it's on like a platform, and that's. That's different. But the in-person experience, the spontaneity, the liveness of it all is interesting. You cannot, you cannot pirate a live show. You will not get that experience. So, live show, you will not get that experience. So but binge Netflix eventually or if it does, it probably already has it. Disney started doing this, but Disney makes you, allows you to skip it.

Speaker 1:

I don't know all the other platforms, but they probably have it too. Prime. They're basically saying, unless you give us more money, you are a peasant. And you know what peasants do? They revolt, they revolutionize, they take down the fucking kings and queens, the Jeff Bezos's, I don't know. It's just interesting. It just seems like a counterintuitive thing. That's what companies do, and fuck it. If I'm rich, that's what I'll do.

Speaker 1:

You know, you try and squeeze the things to try and get the most out of people that you can, and then you realize you've squeezed too far and then you go oh, this isn't the peasant version, you know, because there's like the tears right, if you want no ads, you can pay us more. And it's like but it wasn't, it wasn't. You decided that I was a peasant. You decided that I was suddenly not good enough for that, that my money was no longer good enough. What are we paying for? I don't want to pay to be a peasant anymore. It actually feels better to just be a pirate than it is to be a peasant. What do you want to be?

Speaker 1:

So we started, we streamed the final episode and it like oh my god, this is so much nicer. There's no ads, we don't have binge. Being like hey, peasant, you want to watch this? You want to watch rich people hate each other on this show called white lotus, season three, that was surprisingly the best season. Yet admit, admit, you're a peasant. That's what they're basically saying. I think it's crazy. I think that you know supply and demand right. If they're supplying it and there's no demand for it, because the supply is filled with ads, and why, then they've got to change the supply? That's it. We're in a weird economic place right now and I think that's insane.

Speaker 1:

On the other hand, trump tariffs let's talk about that. I want to talk about that because I spend a lot of time. I'm chronically online. It's a problem. That's why I think that I only exist unless I do a podcast. I'm chronically online. It's a problem.

Speaker 1:

Now, I don't know if you've noticed this, but people have been talking about. So there was the Trump tariffs, which apparently ooh has rumored to go up to the Trump Chinese. So the Trump, the, the it's not even American, it's the Trump tariffs. That's the dumbest part about it. Trump has done tariffs on China that could go up to 245%. Now, on my own Instagram, I posted saying something like I reckon the tariffs are going to go above 200. Who wants to place bets? Guess what? No one took my bet because you all chump bastard wannabes who can't handle that. I can predict the future.

Speaker 1:

It's interesting because what happens now is factory workers in China have started to produce their own content on TikTok and other social media platforms, basically trying to sell their products direct to consumer. Now they do not have online stores. You have to talk to what they call an agent, someone who's an import, export agent, basically someone who's working for them, who can export the product. But obviously the news likes to spin it like China's retaliation. Tiktok is now pumping algorithms and trying to undercut whatever. No, they're not. I love the phrase. If you read only headlines, you will get a headline mind. I did five minutes of investigation, therefore, I have a five minute mind.

Speaker 1:

But there was even one guy who basically started this trend of trying to sell luxury bags. I can't remember his name, but he was talking about how your luxury bags aren't actually luxury. They are made in China, then they're shipped to, say, italy, where they're finalized, and then they're basically shipped all over the world. So they can say made in Italy, because it was partly made in Italy, but the materials that were maybe not necessarily from Italy, that were maybe not necessarily from Italy. But that guy why would that be Chinese retaliation through TikTok, trying to flood TikTok and social media with their factory workers selling their product direct to consumers because they need to make more money. When that guy, who's the person who started the trend while talking about these luxury bags bags he was banned. He was banned multiple times and had to start multiple different accounts. Unless it's an amazing chinese cover-up, in which I love that they're going ah, if people look into it, they'll see this guy was banned. So they won't think it's us, they'll think it's individual people. Dude, it is just people trying to make money online, just like me.

Speaker 1:

Watch this podcast, share it with your friends. It's, it's insane, I do think. I do think that conspiracy theories are indicative of some truth, like I think, as a society and as a collective hive mind, we know when people are lying to us. So if so, basically if I think a conspiracy theory is not necessarily true, but it is indicative of a lie that there is some form of cover up happening. You know like, oh, did we go to space? Yeah, I reckon. I reckon we did go to the moon, but I reckon there is some lie somewhere else that people are feeling Like no one objects to that. Plants need water because otherwise plants won't grow. You know what I mean Like, no one's objecting to that, we've all accepted it. But if someone was to lie about it, we would all fight it because we would know, as a collective hive mind, we root out the problems.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, what's next for me in this thing? First of all, I've got to figure out if I'm sticking with the idea of Shara Omdurian starts a revolution, because I've got to figure this out now. I've got guests coming, guests coming on the show. We've got good guests who've said yes, I don't want to say names, these are good guests, like Australian icons, or almost Australian icons when it comes to comedy, right. So you will look at these names and you go, wow, how do you know these people? Yeah, that's right. Dumpster fire comedian Sharam Namdarian. The quote from the age is refreshing. That's not the full quote. Oh, I've got to get over it. The point is is I've got to figure that out. So if you've listened up to this far, please let me know Do you like this thing? Because in the future, if we do stick with the Shonandarian starts a revolution, right? What will happen is is we'll do. We'll do like fake, not like fake protest, you know, we'll come up with a symbol, we'll come up with a salute. We'll come up with a thing like all the attributes of a full-blown revolution, but for no point, just for comedic purposes, because I wanted this to be a diary. I wanted this to be talking about whatever's going on in my life and connect with other people, and maybe at the end, maybe to be a diary. I wanted this to be talking about whatever's going on in my life and connect with other people, and maybe at the end, maybe we start a revolution.

Speaker 1:

But today's revolution is figure out whether or not you want to pay for the streaming platforms if they give you ads. I think it's so dumb. Prime, amazon Prime. They're like you're paying for Prime. The way they see it is not that you're paying for prime video, that they just have a library that you get access to only, and you can buy more from them if you want to do. You know what prime? Here's the truth. All right, here's the truth, all right. Here's the truth. Any prime movie here's the truth. Any prime show TV show, any Amazon prime TV show or movie that is locked behind a paywall on Amazon Prime is going to be available for free at the same quality the day, if not the next day, on all these other platforms. That, to me, is very interesting. If you want to support the arts, make the people who supply the arts better. Make them realize that they are fucking everybody up by making it harder to watch their shows. Join the revolution. Thank you for watching or listening.