We were lucky to catch up with Egg Party recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Egg Party thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Doing comedy is one of the riskiest jobs there is. Our lives are on the line every time we put a new video on TikTok, or step out on stage to do live improv. Some people even call us heroes for what we do, because that’s exactly what we are. And no, our lives aren’t literally on the line when we do comedy. And yeah, we aren’t heroes in any technical sense of the word. But anyway, here’s an example of a risk we took that paid off.

One night, we’re in the living room brainstorming TikTok ideas when Lucas is all like, “Hey, you guys know Bunny the dog?” (Quick aside, if you’re not on TikTok, Bunny is a dog that “speaks” by pressing buttons on a soundboard.) So Lucas was all like, “What if we did a video where the girls were teaching the guys how to communicate their feelings using buttons? You know, cause guys can have trouble expressing their emotions?” Then everyone was like, yeah that’s pretty funny. But it didn’t jump out at us as something to do that particular week. So we put it on our “later” board and did something else instead.

Weeks go by, then Lucas pitches the idea again. This time we break it down a little more. We riff. We pitch different ideas on top of it. And in the end, it’s hard to describe why, but the idea just wasn’t landing with everyone in the group. Some of us weren’t sure what the video was trying to say. One of the risks you run doing comedy of any kind is that your audience might misunderstand your intentions. Our taste as comedians has always veered more towards the absurd, silly, or observational. We didn’t set out to make political statements or social commentary. But we also recognized that we shouldn’t shy away from subjects just because they’re more sensitive.

Was the risk here a big one? No, not really. All you can do is make something you think is funny and hope other people find it funny, too. But it still takes courage to put it out there even when you’re not sure it will land (which is most of the time, but this time in particular). In the end, we gave Lucas the go ahead to lead the project. We worked together to make it as funny as we could, watched it, and even when it was done still kinda felt like, “Yeah, I think this is funny, but who really knows. Let’s go for it.” Then, lo and behold, it became our most viewed (7.8 million) and liked video on TikTok, bringing thousands of new followers to our page.

So, reader, the moral of the story is this: you never really know if a piece of content will work until you put it out there. On this occasion, it was worth the risk.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Egg Party is exactly what it sounds like: a group of six roommates and three dogs who make sketch comedy on the internet. But it’s also so much more than that, because we do live improv as well. A lot of people said we couldn’t do both, but if the six of us cared what other people thought, we would have never gone to theatre school.

Ah, theatre school… Things were so much simpler then.

Take out a couple of loans, grab a bowl of spaghetti at the dining hall, and put on performances as the school’s only improv comedy group. That’s where the six of us first got hooked on the drug that would change our lives forever. And no, I’m not talking about black tar heroin. I’m talkin’ about laughter, baby. Our little improv team would perform to a packed house of theatre students who were already in the building, fraternity brothers and sorority sisters with low standards both for comedy and each other, and the occasional parent visiting from out of town.

Egg Party owes a lot to its college education. It’s where we became friends, lovers, friends again, then lovers again. It’s where we learned to collaborate as writers and performers, developed our taste in art, sharpened our skills both in blade and staff… But most of all, it’s where we learned that community is everything.

After college, we spent some time striking out on our own in this big blue marble we call America. What we soon realized is that life after school is hard and painful and we wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. So we moved in together to recapture the sense of community we once had, and to save money on rent.

We called ourselves Egg Party, because after a week of pitching names, we couldn’t agree on anything, so instead we tried sticking different words together over dinner at Chili’s. And just like that, history was made.

The goal of Egg Party was simple: make one million dollars.

The plan was solid.

Step 1: market ourselves like we’re already an established brand (website, posters, merch, etc.).

Step 2: treat ourselves like we’re already an established business (weekly meetings, production schedule, Slack channel we tried to use, but was ultimately not helpful).

Step 3: build a following both online and locally by giving the public that sweet, sweet drug we’d become all too familiar with. Not black tar heroin, so stop asking. I’m talkin’ about laughter, baby.

What sets us apart from other content creators like us is that we care too much. We will burn ourselves to the ground before we ever make a dollar, and that’s a promise. Because it’s not about the money for us. And I know what you’re gonna say, “Hey, wait a second – I thought the goal of Egg Party was to make a million dollars??” Well it’s not, and I don’t know where you got that idea from, because I never said that.

The real goal of Egg Party was simple: be a group that people want to work with.

The plan was solid.

Step 1: be charming, fun, and easy to work with (it’s called comedy for a reason).

Step 2: be communicative and professional towards brands and partners (even when they turn out to be credit card scammers).

Step 3: have such a good time doing what we love that the people who watch us are like, “I want what they’re having” (‘Inspire others, so also as unto us, hath we been inspired’ – Egg Party Manual 6:22).

Making a million dollars isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. Our shared ambition for success comes from a desire to play with the best of the best one day, so we take even our most unserious work very seriously. Ample thought goes into the writing and production of our videos, and we’re disciplined in our rehearsals for live performances. From the design of our show posters to the copy on our website, to the timing of a fart joke or the opening shot of a TikTok, we discuss all these details together as a group.

Aside from the obvious filming and editing, our days also consist of a lot of emails, networking, and hunting down opportunities. It also takes several hours each day to sift through the constant influx of fan mail, with messages like, “Egg Party, you’re doing absolutely groundbreaking work in the comedy scene,” or “Egg Party, you are the funniest, coolest, sexiest TikTok house in the world – maybe even in the country,” or “Egg Party, what are the odds we’d try to scam you twice? You can trust us this time!”

If you’re reading this, here’s what we want you to know. We will make comedy content for your business, brand, or mobile game, so please hire us. If you make movies, please cast us in your movies, we are all professional actors who desperately want to work. If you like to laugh, follow us on social media and we promise it will be the most you’ve ever laughed, borderline dangerously so.

And finally, if you live in Austin, come to our shows, hang out with us after, be our friend. We think the exchange between creator and audience should be more than parasocial. We genuinely want to connect before we become so famous that the illuminati doesn’t let us.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

It takes a village to raise a child, and the same was true for Egg Party.

The year was 2020. You know, 2020? One of the worst so far?

Well one day, future Eggs Tiffany and Gabe were watching TikToks from their depression nest in Spokane. When out of nowhere, future Egg Lucas McCutchen pops up on their For You page. They couldn’t believe it. Keep in mind, TikTok wasn’t cool at this point (some say it still isn’t). Seeing their friend put his creativity to use in these dark times did something to Gabe and Tiffany.

It made them laugh.

It made them proud.

It also made them wildly jealous because the videos were doing really well.

Next thing they know, Caroline’s making videos, and Noah’s making videos, then Kolby, Lucas, and Noah are all making videos together. Then Dylan, Megan, James, and Kalyn are making videos in LA, while Garrett’s making videos in Chicago.

Before there was ever an Egg Party, friends of ours around the country were proving that you could have fun making comedy on the internet and people would watch it. The creativity was spreading, and I can’t say like a wildfire or like a virus because 2020 was tragically full of both.

Once we realized that you could actually build an audience on TikTok, the spark was lit, the bug was caught.

But it wasn’t all roses. After a year of creating content, everyone ran into the same problem. Burn out. It’s hard to keep going. It seemed like the creators who turned their content creation into a career were the ones that stayed consistent. And you can’t be consistent unless you can manage burn out. This became the impetus for moving in together and starting Egg Party.

We knew we’d be stronger together.

We could share in our successes and failures alike.

We could balance each other’s weaknesses and encourage each other’s strengths. And you know what we discovered after doing Egg Party for 10 months? You can still totally burn out. Turns out doing anything is hard. But when you do it with friends, even the valleys can feel like peaks.

The most important advice we’ve been given and really believe in is to be authentic. Make things you like to make. Make videos you would want to watch. And let yourself be vulnerable in the art you create. Seeing people’s perfectly curated lives captured in posts and tied up with a bow is so 2016. The internet is starved for authenticity. The latest social media app is literally called “BeReal.” If you like the content you’re making and it’s true to who you are, people will appreciate that.

As a content creator, you can go crazy trying to figure out what other people like. It’s much easier to figure out what you like first and hope other people like it, too.

But there’s an important caveat we’ve also learned. Your taste in content might not match your skill level when you first start. In the beginning, you probably won’t do work that’s as good as your favorite stuff. It’s hard to make videos that you don’t like at first, but it’s the first step to making ones you do.

Our first video on Egg Party got 800,000+ views not because we’re amazing, but because we spent years leading up to that point making bad stuff better and better.

So if you feel the urge to make content, we say do it. You might feel like it’s bad at first, you’ll probably feel embarrassed, but push through that feeling to the other side and you might discover the same thing we did back in 2020: this shit’s really fun.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eggpartycomedy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eggpartyhouse/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EggPartyHouse
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/egg-party/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/eggpartyhouse
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEsRW6l8zcrVEBnNu6JveNg
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@eggpartyhouse Fanhouse (Subscriber Supporter Platform): https://fanhouse.app/eggparty/fanwall

Image Credits
@kylie.the.kid (photos) @gabelipton (drawing)