In recent years, Netflix has ascended to stand-up-comedy domination, and RobbiePraw is the person largely responsible. He spoke with JesseDavidFox about his approach to bringing comedy to at-home viewers
Photo: Adam Rose/Netflix Earlier this month, Netflix put on its first-ever comedy festival in L.A., and it was a big one. Spread throughout the city, from the smallest, hippest comedy venues to Dodger Stadium, the Netflix Is a Joke Fest featured some of the most exciting up-and-coming talent alongside the streaming platform’s biggest success stories, from Nate Bargatze to John Mulaney to Taylor Tomlinson to, yes, Dave Chappelle.
Comedians attend a brunch hosted by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos at the Netflix Is a Joke Fest in Los Angeles. Photo: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Netflix How did you get the Netflix job in 2016? There weren’t a ton of huge comedy specials when you started. It wasn’t really a thing many comedians were aspiring to before 2000, and even until the mid-2010s, only a small number of comedians were getting them. I had heard that Comedy Central would give a comedian around $15,000 just to keep them in the Comedy Central orbit.
People do watch our specials — often all the way through. But you could go to any club around the country right now and see a big headliner do 90 minutes or you could see somebody do seven minutes, and those are two very valid versions of the art form. Sometimes you like a shorter version of something. Sometimes, rather than a comedian constructing an evening for you, a comedian’s take on a specific thing may be a vital, important piece of comedy. We’re striving to do both.
We would never … I mean, if we felt like we were putting something onscreen that was causing real-world harm, we would not be putting it onscreen. That being said, content of all kinds elicits reactions and that’s why we all love art. This is a special that, obviously, had a lot of reactions to it. But in the end, I was fairly proud to work for a company that would allow important artists the ability to have creative expression.
I don’t think we have any dedication to that. We have comedy for everybody, and certainly some stand-up comedy is on that bleeding edge. But we have tons of different types of specials in any given week. We have a special coming out from different artists that I don’t think would be categorized in that way. It’s a testament to our members and people generally having different tastes; that’s what that is.
It’s obviously a tough question. Every situation is different, and we do an appropriate amount of due diligence on making some decisions. We try not to be reactive. What makes it a special is the artists that we’re choosing to work with. That’s usually the place it starts. Giving our trust to them to make an hour something that is truly special. But it’s not really a process that I feel like we own. It’s really very artist-driven. Ronny Chieng shooting his last special in that restaurant — that’s not something that we suggested. We want artists to be performing in a context that they’re excited about, and it’s a process that they lead.
First of all, Mo’Nique broached a very important conversation that deserves to be talked about, and I’ve been a huge fan of hers forever and hope I get to still work with her at some point. Every negotiation with every artist is a snowflake, so it’s very rare that we have a negotiation that ends on day one. They typically take some time to figure out.
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