We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Josh Zagoren a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Josh, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?
An agent from CAA once called me because the content I was putting up was going viral and he cautioned me that once you are popular, you can only do what you became popular for to stay popular on the internet (eg you do a dance in front of a fountain, you are Fountain Dancer from now on). Then it becomes about how to please to algorithm. I think this is why what I do has been incorrectly labeled “Internet Personality” or “Influencer” or “Internet Comedian” and while those may be true in specific cases or bookings, the goal has always been celebrating language and human interest stories. Chad the Bird was born out of my love for spoken word performance and creating characters and that’s the focus still. We focus on the live show, the Internet popularity is a big bonus.
Josh, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I write and perform deep dives into human interests/cultural phenomenons/current events as the character Chad the Bird: An avian journalist looking to understand humans better. I’m given a weekly topic and 24 hours to write a ten minute dive on the subject before the performance which happens in Chicago primarily but also on tour.
How did you build your audience on social media?
In the pandemic, all live shows were shut down for a long time so I, like most of the live performers in the world, had to find a way to continue our output. I really avoided social media, opting instead for the live experience (which I still prefer) but in the moment I figured “Well, if there ever was a time to try it” and started posting some old clips to TikTok/Instagram while starting a live stream on YouTube and this ended up catching fire.
The hardest part now is balancing the live shows with consistent content and I think choosing which path to take has been extremely helpful in alleviating a lot of that anxiety. I primarily use the internet content for marketing purposes now, leaning on the live, staying true to the initial vision. So I think that’s the answer (or at least what’s worked for me): Pick your goal and use whatever you can to get there. For me, I want people to hang out with chad the Bird in the real world whenever possible because that interaction fulfills that natural need for connection both in the audience and the performer, so all the posting now is designed to give previews of what you’ll get in the live show.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Financial support is paramount because the artist is often undervalued in this society, we don’t have national theaters here, we don’t have accessible endowments and the Hollywood system is insular. Finding art that you love and kicking them cash is the best way to keep their art going. It’s nice to get encouragement in the comments too, that’s cool, keep doing that ;)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.chadthebird.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chadburd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chad.bird.5
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/chadthebird
- Other: https://linktr.ee/ChadtheBird
Image Credits
Sarah Larson
TJ Sopoci
Lincoln Smith