Deadgood’s Unique Lens on the Dallas Comedy Scene
"I take them with an 11-year-old Canon T4i using a 10-18mm lens. The reason I mention this is to show I'm not using fancy equipment or anything special. Hopefully, this encourages people to try more creative stuff because the barrier to entry isn’t that high."
This is my favorite quote from a recent messaging session with Scott Bedgood of Deadgood Productions. Scott has recently combined his love of photography and journalism with his monthly Deadgood Comedy Show, "The Melting Pot."
With much of social media being highly filtered, meticulously posed, and endlessly curated as a promotional tool for fame and notoriety, Scott’s photography of his "Melting Pot" shows has served a more interesting purpose. One show at a time, he is creating a time capsule of the current players in our comedy scene in Dallas.
Is he also promoting his show and Deadgood Productions? Of course. However, I appreciate this more authentic angle more than the typical promotional effort.
Scott has been posting a series of black-and-whites featuring comics hanging around the green room, the hallways, and bar areas of the Dallas Comedy Club, and, of course, on stage during the "Melting Pot" showcase.
So, a comic producing his own show is taking photographs of it and putting them online. What’s the big deal?
That’s just it. It isn’t that big of a deal... for now.
Many of us have been in the scene long enough to see the slow and steady evolution that has been happening in Dallas comedy. We’ve watched new clubs open, new independent shows grow larger, and seen wave after wave of new comics come in.
Most of them don’t make it, but more and more are sticking around each year, getting better with each performance.
This is why Scott’s style of show documenting and promotion is so much fun. As I swipe through each month’s new series, showcasing familiar faces as well as new ones, I always wonder: “Which among these comics is going to make it? Which one of these photographs is capturing the early version of the next comedy genius?”
Inevitably, one of these comics will succeed on an epic level, and these old black-and-white photos will become an incredible memory of the early days.
Dallas has been a powerful comedy scene for years but, in many ways, has always been overlooked. Many comics have risen to success and fame from here, but there’s always been a sense of them “getting out” and becoming famous elsewhere, rather than this scene being recognized as the catalyst.
As those of us who have been watching the scene can attest, there seems to be a growing energy here. The whole world is in a comedy boom, and our friends down south in Austin are helping to create a boom in Texas as well. But even on a more granular level, Dallas seems to be growing at an exponential rate in terms of the number of quality comedy shows available on any given evening.
What gets me even more excited is that when I’m swiping through Scott’s pictures, all I see are talented and funny comics. Many of them are at the beginning stages of their careers, still discovering the finer points of writing and performing, but they all share something in common.
They desperately want to be good. They want to be funny. They want to make the audience laugh. And most importantly, they’re all consistently working at achieving those goals.
While Scott’s photography is certainly, in part, a promotional tool, it’s also a great way to remind us that we don’t need to wait for our comics to reach fame and notoriety to promote them.
We don’t need to wait for them to become known by the larger comedy world and then only come back to larger venues with higher ticket prices.
Instead, we need to attend the smaller shows now and be a part of the growth that’s already happening. Buy the cheaper ticket now, talk to the comic at the bar after the show. Get to know the people in this scene and become a part of it.
If you live in Dallas and enjoy comedy on any level, I hope this article inspires you to look up a local show and buy some tickets. If you’re a current stand-up comic or show producer like Scott, I hope this article encourages you to find your own fun and artistic way to document what you’re working on these days.
I, for one, would love to see it now and reflect back on it again decades from now.
Travis Wright is the host of the “I’m a fan of…” podcast. If you enjoy music and comedy, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and check out the You Tube Channel. Thanks!