What is a Stand Up Comedian?
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a stand up comedian. For example, did you know that they make an average of $24.57 an hour? That's $51,101 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Stand Up Comedian Do
There are certain skills that many stand up comedians have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed speaking skills, creativity and physical stamina.
How To Become a Stand Up Comedian
If you're interested in becoming a stand up comedian, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 71.9% of stand up comedians have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.9% of stand up comedians have master's degrees. Even though most stand up comedians have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Stand Up Comedian Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of writer you might progress to a role such as editor eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title marketing manager.
Average Salary for a Stand Up Comedian
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Stand Up Comedian
There are several types of stand up comedian, including:
Actor
Role:
Becoming an actor has always gotten a bad rap. Everyone would love to become a famous actor, but not everyone wants to take the time to work on their skills through formal education and long-term training.
It's definitely a profession that you want to be working on a lot so you continue to grow. Actors find jobs in production studios, theaters and even theme parks. So if you don't mind attending audition after audition and a little bit of disappointment, then acting may just be the career for you.
- Average Salary: $53,376
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Cast Member
Role:
Cast members are employees seen at the theatres. In most cases, cast members are actors that entertain and perform in a movie, televised production, or in a theatre. However, more than acting, cast members have different roles. For example, they are usually in charge of security and ensuring that people adhere to the rules.
You may also be in charge of welcoming and serving guests and providing a clean and safe entertainment environment. Your responsibilities are to provide customers with exceptional entertainment, assist customers with special needs, address customer's complaints or concerns, replenish condiments and other supplies at the table and other serving areas, clear and clean tables, trays, and chairs. You are also to balance cash and record sales
For this job, you need a bachelor's degree. More than that, you must be team-oriented, energetic, friendly, and outgoing. You should possess superior skills, enjoy working in a fast-paced guest environment and be available to work late on weekends and some late weeknights. The average annual salary of a cast member is $34,763.
- Average Salary: $29,039
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Double
Role:
A double, a stunt double, or a stunt performer, is a trained individual who performs stunts for television and movies. Their duties include following safety procedures, studying scripts, ensuring that safety gear is functional, and actually performing the often dangerous act instead of the regular actor.
- Average Salary: $51,745
- Degree: High School Diploma
States With The Most Stand Up Comedian Jobs
Number Of Stand Up Comedian Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maryland | 3 | $67,943 |
| 2 | West Virginia | 3 | $60,586 |
| 3 | Texas | 3 | $55,870 |
| 4 | New York | 3 | $59,073 |
| 5 | Georgia | 3 | $49,785 |
| 6 | Florida | 3 | $51,108 |
| 7 | Virginia | 3 | $49,321 |
| 8 | Tennessee | 2 | $50,432 |
| 9 | Arizona | 2 | $46,889 |
| 10 | Colorado | 2 | $48,265 |
| 11 | Ohio | 1 | $60,841 |
| 12 | Illinois | 1 | $57,891 |
| 13 | South Carolina | 1 | $51,706 |
| 14 | Oklahoma | 1 | $49,832 |
| 15 | North Carolina | 1 | $43,110 |
| 16 | Alaska | 0 | $86,959 |
| 17 | Rhode Island | 0 | $69,451 |
| 18 | Delaware | 0 | $69,391 |
| 19 | Connecticut | 0 | $70,396 |
| 20 | California | 0 | $74,072 |
| 21 | Massachusetts | 0 | $68,038 |
| 22 | New Hampshire | 0 | $66,085 |
| 23 | Michigan | 0 | $62,948 |
| 24 | Nevada | 0 | $63,052 |
| 25 | Vermont | 0 | $62,639 |
| 26 | North Dakota | 0 | $58,840 |
| 27 | Mississippi | 0 | $56,961 |
| 28 | New Mexico | 0 | $56,625 |
| 29 | Utah | 0 | $56,122 |
| 30 | Nebraska | 0 | $55,792 |
| 31 | Missouri | 0 | $56,213 |
| 32 | New Jersey | 0 | $59,096 |
| 33 | Kentucky | 0 | $53,508 |
| 34 | Iowa | 0 | $53,884 |
| 35 | Louisiana | 0 | $54,482 |
| 36 | Oregon | 0 | $53,552 |
| 37 | Kansas | 0 | $51,054 |
| 38 | Arkansas | 0 | $49,456 |
| 39 | South Dakota | 0 | $50,492 |
| 40 | Montana | 0 | $48,912 |
| 41 | Hawaii | 0 | $50,386 |
| 42 | Maine | 0 | $46,843 |
| 43 | Wisconsin | 0 | $44,220 |
| 44 | Pennsylvania | 0 | $43,687 |
| 45 | Indiana | 0 | $42,845 |
| 46 | Minnesota | 0 | $41,689 |
| 47 | Washington | 0 | $40,379 |
| 48 | Alabama | 0 | $38,586 |
| 49 | Idaho | 0 | $38,423 |
| 50 | Wyoming | 0 | $36,762 |
Top Skills For a Stand Up Comedian
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 36.1% of stand up comedians listed comedy on their resume, but soft skills such as speaking skills and creativity are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Stand Up Comedian Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Stand Up Comedian templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Stand Up Comedian resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Stand Up Comedian diversity
Stand Up Comedian Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among stand up comedians, 11.3% of them are women, while 88.7% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among stand up comedians is White, which makes up 57.4% of all stand up comedians.
- The most common foreign language among stand up comedians is Spanish at 41.7%.
Online Courses For Stand Up Comedian That You May Like
1. William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: Comedy, Conflict, and Community
This course introduces and explores William Shakespeare’s classic comedy, Twelfth Night. Interviews with actors who appeared in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s 2019 production of Twelfth Night, as well as lectures by scholars and theater professionals who work and teach at the University of Colorado Boulder, offer students insight into Shakespeare’s artistic vision and its applications. Exploring Shakespeare’s language, his characters, his humor and his world view, the lectures, interviews,...
2. Scale Up Your Startup
This specialization is intended for anyone who owns a startup or who has an interest in learning how to scale up their business exponentially. By the end of the specialization, learners will be able to:\n\nDescribe the key elements of a scaleup mindset Determine how ready they are to scale up their business Understand key best practices in scaleup, gained from industry insights and applicable to their own businesses Learn how to scale up a product successfully by addressing the key concerns of...
3. Ultimate Beginner's Class to Learn Stand Up Comedy
Quick and easy online class about learning how to make people laugh!...
How Do Stand Up Comedians Rate Their Jobs?
Top Stand Up Comedian Employers
Most Common Employers For Stand Up Comedian
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nationwide | $102,859 | $49.45 | 1 |
| 2 | Independent Contractor | $63,819 | $30.68 | 1 |
| 3 | South Jersey Industries | $58,419 | $28.09 | 1 |
| 4 | Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce | $57,574 | $27.68 | 1 |
| 5 | giggle | $55,170 | $26.52 | 1 |
| 6 | *n/a* | $54,320 | $26.12 | 4 |
| 7 | Funny Business Agency | $54,087 | $26.00 | 3 |
| 8 | Rock Bottom Carpets Inc | $53,051 | $25.51 | 1 |
| 9 | Grin | $52,988 | $25.48 | 1 |
| 10 | The Entertainer | $52,901 | $25.43 | 2 |