I think it was in The Artists Way, that I read about children liking tacky things.

And I've written in the past about the importance of any endeavor: business, creative or travel, falling on good soil. Think of the parable of the seed. A seed on
bad soil simply doesn't grow. For example, I did a mime show at the Hollywood Fringe right before Covid. It was a flop. Now, I made, of course, some big mistakes. I did my research, only I researched on the wrong Fringe Festival. I researched the biggest and the best (Edinburgh) and assumed all other festivals followed their programming. See, Edinburgh has a huge children's section. It was my bad assuming that Hollywood Fringe also had a huge children section (it doesn't at all, which is surprising, given the amount of wealthy people who have children in Los Angeles). So, I thought there would be a huge section and audience for children. There wasn't. As a result, the show wasn't well received. At all. But my point is: if my show had fallen on the "proper soil" i.e. children's theater, it may have had a better reception. According to some sources, J.M. Barie wanted children at the opening of Peter Pan specifically for this reason. Hollywood Fringe is really about moving, and emotional one-person shows or wacky adult-themed group theater. A mime show for children simply didn't go over well.

Another reason it may not have gone well is the fact I used other people's clown acts. I didn't steal these acts and I credited the creators. But I used them none the less. I forgot that mime acts require practice from the individual performing them and not using someone else's act. I forgot the name of the clown (he was a bearded fellow, maybe Avner the Eccentric although I think it was a more historic clown. They all seem to blur together) who, when asked about another clown stealing his act, said he wasn't worried. He knew his act couldn't be done by anyone else.

I'm not sure I 100% agree. Comedians such as Bob Hope only use jokes written by others. Whereas, David Chappelle said he mostly uses original material, and that material written for him doesn't land quite right in his stand up. I'll see if I can find that interview where he says that. I hope it was the right comedian.

Anyway, the point is: targeting an audience is key.