Jon Stojan
Eric McDowell is combining old-school comedic skills and discipline to perform on modern digital platforms and build his comedy career. As a performer, content creator, and comedian, he brings an authentic edge to his comedy while keeping in mind that “the world needs to laugh.”
“I set out on this journey because I would love it if people could take comfort in my humor in this hostile world,” says McDowell.
Extinct Techniques and Lost Authenticity
Born and raised in Canada, McDowell grew up with a very funny father who was the source of his inspiration to pursue comedy. One time, his father gave a speech at an event that was covered by a journalist who later wrote that McDowell’s father “very well may be the funniest man in Canada.”
“He bragged about this in my four-year-old face, and ever since then, I feel it’s been deeply ingrained in me to value comedy,” says McDowell.
When McDowell moved to the United States in 2020 to attend film school, he describes his former self as “very starry-eyed” and says he held many misconceptions about the industry. In his classes, he felt as though many of his instructors’ teaching techniques for traditional media had gone “extinct five years ago.” He also noticed that some of his peers were social media content creators, and although they were earning money, their content lacked authenticity.
Soon after the pandemic, the actors’ strike, followed by the writers’ strike, inspired McDowell to try a different path for someone with his degree. Initially, McDowell produced video essays on YouTube and experimented with different joke-telling formats on TikTok. It would take some time, but he finally found his niche in the digital landscape.
“My content is as if you took SNL-style sketch comedy and stripped it down to the level where it was producible at a rapid rate,” McDowell explains.
Succeeding in the Digital Era
McDowell notes that few people are successful with multi-person, situation-based sketch comedy in the digital landscape. Most of the comedy videos found on Instagram are kids in their bedrooms talking to the camera. The multi-person sketch videos that do appear on people’s social media feeds are often “ill-conceived and ill-executed,” in McDowell’s opinion.
Since becoming a content creator and starting to post on social media, he’s been competing with high-quality content. He posts his sketches weekly and has over 20,000 followers on YouTube and 35,000 on TikTok. Across all his social media platforms, he’s had over 25 million views.
“I have fought very hard to carve out a sketch niche on social media that ‘has legs’ in traditional media, in the sense that showbusiness people will understand and appreciate the format, as well as being deeply disciplined in the practice of stand-up comedy,” says McDowell.
McDowell’s success in the online digital space has also translated to the real world. He was selected to perform in the 2024 Bergamot Comedy Festival to a sold-out crowd, which included industry scouts. McDowell also performs monthly at The Crow’s “highly selective” Door Girlz. He has also done stand-up at The Hollywood Improv, The Comedy Store, and The Laugh Factory.
“I want to be an authentic, novel comedian in the digital age,” McDowell says about his aspirations.
Among his future goals are performing on TV, headlining a comedy tour, and appearing on SNL. For McDowell, success isn’t just about views or followers. True success is about proving that comedy built on discipline, craft, and genuine humor can still find its audience, even when the world seems to reward shortcuts over substance.