Introducing Hot Mic: A New Column Documenting Live Comedy in NYC
The phone-to-fame pipeline for comedians has only gotten stronger. Which begs the question: Are live shows still relevant? And if so, for what?
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The first time I saw Megan Stalter live was December 12, 2019. This was easy to figure out because my camera roll is full of evidence: pictures of my ticket; pictures of my outfit (a cheetah print coat and a pink newsboy-style hat, for some reason?); pictures from the show; and a selfie of me next to Stalter herself—my cheeks flushed with true, earnest excitement, my eyes still watery from crying with laughter. At the time, I could barely believe she existed outside of my phone. The fact that I actually met her and exchanged words with her in real life? The fact that she took out her phone and followed me back on fucking Twitter? I rode the high for weeks.
That night in the Union Hall basement was not my first comedy show—it wasn’t even my first show at Union Hall. But it’s the first time I remember seeing a parasocial friend perform live. Stalter was somebody I’d come to know intimately—or rather, felt I’d come to know intimately—not through a TV show or a taped special or even a YouTube account, but through my social media feed. My friends and I screenplayed her weird, character-driven, front-facing camera videos to the TV in our college house and watched them over a bowl of popcorn. We treated every new upload like a movie premiere. So by the time I saw her live, I was primed. And onstage, she escalated. She didn’t take for granted that everyone had already seen her videos but she did use it to her advantage. The show was a masterpiece.
In the five years since, Stalter has landed star roles in Hacks, that one Please Don’t Destroy movie, and Lena Dunham’s anticipated new show, Too Much; and I’ve quit DuoLingo French three times. Don’t worry, she shockingly still follows me on Twitter.