Comedian Dan Cummins on leaning into your passion and how he grew his podcast to 4 million downloads a month

Dan Cummins is a comedian and podcaster and the host of three podcasts: Timesuck, Scared to Death, and Is We Dumb? He joins Chris Van Vliet to talk about how he started his career in comedy, the massive success he has found in podcasting, why he moved out of Los Angeles and back to Idaho, where he finds inspiration for his comedy, advice for aspiring podcasters, and more!

On if he identifies as a comedian or a podcaster:

“I’ve kind of questioned that for so long. I was a comic, and then I did a few other things peripherally. I worked on some reality shows in production and few other things. But that was always something I would do on the side. It would be I am doing this but I am also doing stand-up. When I started the podcast, my agent was excited. The mentality was if it does well, more people will come to your stand-up shows. Then there was a big shift because of the pandemic. It was already shifting a bit before that, but then it became a small business. I didn’t have this huge business plan of I want to hire this person, then this person and this person. It was I wanted to keep working on the show and grow it, but I ran out of hours. Now I have to hire an audio engineer. Then I did another show, and I didn’t have time for social media. Before I know it, I have this small team and I became a small business owner. I haven’t done stand-up since March of last year, I’m going to go on tour again in August. Although I have notes, I’m really nervous. I identify now primarily as a podcaster who also does stand-up.

On going back to the stage after so long away:

“Oh I know I am going to be rusty. Everyone who doesn’t do stand-up tells me ‘You’re going to be fine, it’s going to be great.’ But I know how hard stand-up is. The thing with stand-up is that you are making something really difficult look easy. You are telling a story and just telling it off the cuff. But it took a long time to figure out the beats of that story. The only thing that makes me think it might be OK after a few shows is because when things were getting bad in early 2020, I tried throwing out as many new bits in my shows as I could. I didn’t think it was going to last that long, I thought we were going to get shut down. So I recorded them, and I have these recordings from my last show in Nashville. My plan is to listen to it a whole bunch of times, rinse and repeat the notes onstage. With stand-up you can be really transparent with the audience. What I’m not going to do is go up onstage and pretend to be like I was before. I am going to begin with ‘Hey guys, this is going to be weird. This is going to be different.'”

On how podcasting will help his material:

“I’m hoping that I have been able to work those muscles enough through podcasting, especially on the show ‘Is we don’t we do.’ The show is more reactive, my co-host presents information and I try to react to it in the moment, improv style. I try to build little vignettes out of it, which is kind of how you build the beginning of a stand-up bit. With stand-up I am doing all of that by myself, it’s different than just being in the studio. I have worked with guys who are really funny podcasters or really funny radio hosts, that’s actually my favourite. The radio show hosts do a five minute bit on stage, almost every time it’s really bad. They are in their bubble with their producer and their buddies. It’s very frat house and very insider. The they go to an audience of strangers. That’s what is so weird about stand-up, everybody knows that you are there to try and make them laugh. You don’t know what the people’s sense of humor is. It’s weird that it works.”

On if he thought he was going to be a comedian as a kid:

“No not at all. I felt like an outsider in stand-up for a long time. A lot of my peers said how they would watch Conan [O’Brien] late night and say how they wanted to do stand-up because of that. I didn’t have that, I didn’t dream of doing stand-up as a kid. I was happy to do those shows, but it was never that feeling of this is what I have been waiting for. It felt like it was my job and it was what I was supposed to do. My family wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor, because then it looked like I made it. I went to college and studied phycology, but I didn’t really have a plan. My plan kind of stopped at getting good grades. I thought when you get good grades, the universe hands you this amazing career. But I was so naïve. I went to this job interview and it shocked me how much it paid. Looking back I can’t believe I didn’t know the pay. I am doing the job and I asked my boss how I could move up. They told me that there was a ceiling and it was low. Comedy was a total whim. I had done theatre comedy in college. My wife said ‘There’s this amateur night in town, why don’t you do it?’ I did it and it was fun, I had never been to a comedy club before that. I went the next week and I really liked it. It was a very pragmatic thing of doing it on the side and then re-evaluate. It didn’t take much to surpass what I was making, so lets give it a go for a few years.”

On if the rejections affected him:

“You do[feel sad]. It took me a long time to get around that. It was devastating when they don’t want you. It’s not that they don’t want an idea from you, they don’t like you. They don’t believe that your voice is worth hearing. I think what helped me get around it is just how subjective the nature of comedy and art is. I would think that there are so many successful people I don’t resonate with. They don’t do it for me but they have so many fans. When I went to the Montreal comedy festival, I thought the executives knew more about comedy than anybody else. They do not. It’s just someone who likes what they like. If they like you, awesome, if not, well ok.” But you don’t need these gatekeeps anymore. If you have an audience or a YouTube following, it doesn’t matter. But 15 years ago, if they didn’t like you, then you’re done.”

On his decision to make a podcast:

“Initially it was motivated by failure. I couldn’t sell a show. It would have been different if I actually sold one. I worked on so many spec scripts and got close a few times. But second place is still last place. And when you spend all that time on it, no one is going to see it. It’s an all or nothing game. If the show doesn’t get mad, no one will ever see it. So if I make a podcast, and only 100 people listen, it’s better than zero. At least it’s not all or nothing. I got so sick of going nowhere. At least I can control podcasting and something is better than nothing.”

On the best advice he has gotten:

“Life-wise, my dad told me ‘Don’t get so caught up in what’s about to happen that you forget what is happening now.’ Take a second to enjoy what you have now. If you are listening to this, you are alive and it’s a gift. You don’t have the car you want, but you are still alive. It’s a great sunny day outside, I will go outside and enjoy the sunshine. They don’t last forever, enjoy them while you got them. Career wise, I was told that it’s show-business. There are 2 parts to that word and there is no shame in treating it like a business. Do you want to be in a gallery in London or on Venice Beach. There is no shame in getting a couple of bucks on Venice Beach, but if you want to get further, you have to treat it like a business.”

What he is grateful for:

“The love of my family, my health and the support of my fans.”

More information on Dan Cummins can be found here.

Featured image: Vanyaland

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