Snapshot · The a16z Show
Photographer and fine artist Richard Prince spent two decades in New York without selling a single piece before his re-photography work eventually sold for up to $60 million.
Where this was said
At 1:04:35 · chapter starts 1:02:30
The conversation reaches its most concentrated philosophical moment when Andreessen presses on the obvious critique: isn't the 'follow your creative truth, ignore the audience' advice just a sophisticated justification for narcissism? Rubin's answer is elegant. [1] — Rick Rubin "I believe that the audience comes last. And the artist should be true to themselves. And that ultimately is in service to the audience. The…" 1:08:44 You are the audience. Make your favorite thing. People who like what you like will find it. Anything else is mind-reading. You cannot taste food and say 'this tastes terrible to me but I think you'll love it.' The Blazing Saddles story crystallizes this: Mel Brooks' film received stunned silence from Warner Brothers executives and howling laughter from the secretaries. The right audience and the wrong audience produce completely opposite results — which means the test screening result is almost meaningless without knowing who's in the room. The conversation also wrestles with the word 'narcissism': we have no positive word for self-knowledge, yet it is, Ben Horowitz argues, an extremely deep concept that takes a lifetime to develop.
The artists who connect are the ones where the audience feels what the artist feels. The moment you start changing what you do to chase the audience, you undermine the whole thing — in music, in film, and in startups.
A novel called 'Call Me, I'll Hide the Body' triggered a 14-publisher bidding war and sold for $2.4 million before critics alleged it was predominantly written by AI.
John Mulaney cold-texted Robby Hoffman out of nowhere to offer to produce her Netflix special, which became Wake Up.
Robby Hoffman posed as a courier to hand-deliver her spec script directly to the president of HBO Canada early in her career.
Robby and Mulaney filmed two shows in one night for the Netflix special; after the first they knew they had it, so the second was a victory lap.
Jimmy Carr performs up to 300 shows a year, often doing two shows per night, which he says reduces nerves rather than increasing them.
Jimmy Carr says that speaking at roughly 92 beats per minute is the optimal cadence for comedy and public speaking, including political speeches like Obama's.
The oldest recorded joke appears in a Roman book called 'The Lover of Laughter' and is still funny — a barber asking how a man wants his haircut, who replies 'in silence'.
Jimmy Carr argues that comedians like George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Dave Chappelle have permanently expanded the conversational Overton window on sex, politics, and taboo topics.
The Lion King musical has grossed over $11 billion in its 30-year run, making it the single highest-grossing piece of entertainment in history across any medium.
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