The web3 comedy pioneers are back with Mic Drop Fest, a stand-up comedy experience in Decentraland April 1st through April 2nd.

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Stand-up comedy in the metaverse? How is that possible and what does it look like?

Fortunately for stand-up comedy fans Decentral Comedy has answers — the world’s first comedy club in Decentraland, the blockchain-based virtual world where avatars are free to explore in three dimensions across areas such as Crypto Valley, Vegas City and WOnder Zone. 

The idea for Decentral Comedy was born out of the pandemic “when we were locked down in Canada,” comedian and Decentral Comedy Co-Founder Tyler Morrison said to me recently. “American comedy was back but only Zoom shows were happening.”

Eager to return to the stage and interact with an audience, Morrison and his team figured out how to stream a stand-up comedy show from a Brooklyn comedy club into Decentraland. About 300 people came out to the show in Decentraland, proving that there’s an audience—and an appetite—for metaverse comedy.

“Not everyone in the world can get to experience comedy in a New York City comedy club,” Morison said. “But streaming a live show into the metaverse allows you to hang out with your friends and watch it there. It’s just a different way to get that.”

An issue with presenting live comedy in Decentraland is the limitations on the audio that can accompany an avatar. Live audio is limited to your computer microphone and doesn’t make for a good audio experience you’d expect at a stand up show. “So for now, the streaming is the best way to go in this particular metaverse,” Morrison said. 

Continuing to build the metaverse comedy community is what Decentral Comedy hopes to achieve with its latest Mic Drop Festival, a live and virtual festival with shows happening at venues throughout Decentraland. It will feature stand-up specials, podcasts and some behind the scenes footage from Skankfest, Las Vegas—all taking place onApril 1st and April 2nd. In many ways, the festival serves as an entry point for anyone interested in exploring the metaverse, not just comedy fans.

“Comedy in Decentraland is sort of a merge for what’s happening in the real world and what’s happening in the metaverse. 2-D comedy is still the prevalent thing right now, but as we develop the technology, Decentral Comedy is the easiest bridge between the real world and the metaverse right now,” Morrison said.

But how does it all work?

“There’s a couple of ways to do it,” he said. “You can live stream it, but that’s subject to a lot of variables like the strength of a club’s WiFi. You can also do pre-recorded video which works great with the streaming setup that we have. Pre-recorded is special content that’s never been seen before.”

On the audience front, it’s a fairly simple process to participate as well. The Mic Drop Festival is free for anyone to attend, all you need is a solid internet connection and an ethereum (ETH) wallet. 

Audience members will then receive a non-fungible token (NFT) ticket that goes straight to their wallet and gives them access to the Decentraland venue. They can attend as a guest or will have the option to link their avatar, but either way, will be dropped right in front of the virtual venue in Decentraland. If you hold a ticket, you can enter, and while it’s not an overly complicated system, the process for snagging a ticket is also outlined on the Decentral Comedy website. 

This year, attendees can expect a more interactive experience. “We’ve been working with a company and have scanned some avatars with different comedians,” Morrison said. “It’s an app where we scan the comedian and it generates an avatar. When we export it, I have a guy who turns it into a wearable skin where the comedian can then walk around looking exactly like themself.”

By scanning in one-of-one wearables for the comedians to use, Decentral Comedy is not only making metaverse comedy more enjoyable, it’s also breaking new ground in how intellectual property is being used.

“Let’s say it was Joe Rogan and he scanned himself with this app,” Morrison said. “Our guy would then make it so the bone structure works in Decentraland and we would mint a one-of-one wearable which we’d send to the wallet of the comedian. They’d be the only ones who would have it. You wouldn’t want to sell it because it’s intellectual property, and you don’t want other people taking you.”

Comedians using avatars of themselves also makes the virtual meet and greets with fans more enjoyable. “We’ll be streaming the content in, but the comedians will be in the show live as their avatars, so fans can come up and get selfies and stuff with the avatar,” says Morrison. “We just want to build a great comedy community in the metaverse and continue to bring fun and unique experiences to people.” 

As for the future of metaverse comedy, Morrison said he enjoys the uncensored nature of Decentraland and thinks listening to pre-recorded sets in a communal setting—along with the meet-and-greet element—has staying power for both comics and fans. “We want comics to look at this as a way to simulcast their content. You’re putting out all of your content on social media, YouTube, etc— why wouldn’t you stream it into the metaverse too?”