Is Amazon Prime Video Ready To Challenge Netflix’s Stand-Up Supremacy?

For the past few years, Netflix has dominated the stand-up comedy field like nobody else’s business is the comedy business any longer.

In both quantity and quality. Almost every week, another new hour —or collection of half-hours or quarter-hours, even— shows up showcased on its home page. The past two years, Netflix has reigned supreme as the only streaming platform or TV network with stand-up comedians nominated for Emmys (Outstanding Variety Special) and Grammys (Comedy Album of the Year). Netflix released four of this year’s five Grammy nominees.

The exception? Jim Gaffigan’s Noble Ape, for which he kick-started a new trend in 2018 by releasing that hour via Comedy Dynamics On Demand to platforms other than Netflix for sale or rent. It’s now “Included With Prime,” as Amazon likes to say. What’s more, Gaffigan’s newest hour (Quality Time), his seventh, will debut Aug. 16 exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.

The first trailer just dropped online, although it got taken down shortly after this story appeared!

“I am so honored to be Amazon’s first original stand up special. This is going to be exciting,” Gaffigan said back in January.

Ilana Glazer has joined him as the second comedian to record a stand-up special exclusively for Amazon. She filmed The Planet Is Burning last week in Houston. One of her executive producers, Comedy Dynamics CEO Brian Volk-Weiss, already is hyping it as “one of the greatest specials of the decade….wow.” And he would know. His company has produced and distributed the vast majority of stand-up during this decade’s digital comedy boom.

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And that’s a wrap on one of the greatest specials of the decade….wow. #ilanaglazer #amazon #comedydynamics #broadcity #comedy #standupcomedy #standup

A post shared by Brian Volk-weiss (@brianvolkweiss) on Jun 12, 2019 at 10:16pm PDT

After ceding the entire genre for years to Netflix, Amazon finally seems ready to challenge for stand-up supremacy. Following a similar blueprint.

Amazon Prime Video announced itself as a player to the comedy industry last summer by making the docuseries Inside Jokes, which followed aspiring stand-ups to the prestigious Just For Laughs festival and confab in Montreal.

HBO, long considered the original crown jewel for stand-up specials, has pivoted toward more unique voices for hours (see Drew Michaels perform without an audience, for instance, or the upcoming Julio Torres hour featuring the Los Espookys star and his Favorite Objects of furniture). Comedy Central, meanwhile, is trying to lock up its existing talent with development deals.

But that didn’t stop Broad City‘s Glazer, currently developing three potential series under her first-look deal with the network that made her an It Comic to begin with, from bolting Comedy Central for her first-ever solo project. Which means Amazon must have made it worth her while.

At the same time, however, Comedy Dynamics this week has announced two more new comedy specials this summer — Joel McHale in August, and Marina Franklin in July — that won’t be Amazon Originals. Rather, they’ll be available for rent or purchase on multiple platforms, including Amazon. Jeff Bezos and Co. apparently have a strategy, then, choosing to be picky rather than rushing into bulking up on content labeled as Originals for the sake of having more Originals. But they’re tight-lipped on how soon and how often they’ll be buying more comedy talent.

So what really makes Amazon Prime Video stand out from any other platform looking to take on Netflix?

Its platform already has a wealth of content. Including hours previously seen on HBO, Showtime, and networks that have come and gone (we still see you, Seeso!). In fact, if you searched Amazon for “stand-up comedy” and limited it to “Included with Prime” this week, you could find 917 viewing options.

Even if you revised that search to look only for comedy specials uploaded in 2019, you’d find dozens of new hours to choose from on Amazon Prime.

I counted 20 stand-up specials added to Amazon Prime this year alone, with another 10 new specials that you’d have to pay extra to rent.

The rentals include household names such as David Cross and Howie Mandel. The free with Prime offerings include Christopher Titus, Matt Braunger (whom you may recognize as a recognizable supporting guest star on all sorts of series), road dogs such as Chad Daniels, and up-and-comers such as Andy Sandford and Gastor Almonte.

And then there are tons of names even comedy nerds have never seen before. All ready to watch in a click on Amazon Prime. How’s that possible?

Self-publishing, baby!

Yes. You, too, could have your very own “Amazon special” thanks to Prime Video Direct, an option available since 2016.

Jo Koy, who released his second Netflix special this week, said he had self-financed his Live From Seattle hour before selling it to Netflix in 2017. For the countless other comedians, however, who cannot convince Netflix to buy or produce their content, Amazon provides them with a painless option. And viewers, at least for now, don’t know the difference.

Despite the 917 Amazon specials available to watch today, none of them are “Amazon Originals.” And none will be until Gaffigan and Glazer and whomever comes after them.

What’s a comedy lover to do in the meantime? Trust the algorithm. (The algorithm!?)

“The best way is the stand-up carousel, which can be reached from the amazon.com/primevideo main page. You can browse directly in the carousel, or clicking on the link takes you to this page,” Amazon suggests. “The other way is to let the recommendations work for you – that is, select a stand-up special and check the ‘customers who watched this’ or the ‘you might also like’ carousels at the bottom of the page for more titles.”

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Stream Jim Gaffigan: Noble Ape on Amazon Prime Video