August 2025: Posting Cadence, Ambition, and Headlining in NYC
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined." - Jonathan van Halem
Hello loyal readers,
To borrow/amend a phrase from Terence Fletcher of Whiplash, “There are no more meaningful six words than thank you for reading my Substack.”
First off, I’d like to welcome my three (3!) new subscribers. Slowly but surely, my Substack audience grows. I’ll admit you all are a small group. But you’re powerful, like the Supreme Court, or Al Qaeda.
We have officially reached the Dog Days of Summer. At the ripe age of 31, I’m finally able to concede that summer may not be the best season, and that I’ve just felt that way because of twelve years of reinforcement that summer = freedom. But now as an adult who’s forced to work, I see summer for what it is - disgustingly hot and humid.
August is also a notorious month for folks in the live performance space (music, comedy, etc.) due to low ticket sales, year over year. I experienced a bit of this while out on tour, as well as at shows around New York City. I don’t blame people for not going to comedy shows in August. They’re at the beach. They’re in Europe. They certainly aren't pining for my observations on the futility of open relationships.
Before I jump into all of my pop-culture stuff/comedy updates, enjoy a handful of photos from my camera roll for August 2025.
(Jonathan stuns in office break room)
(Not sure why but this Mad Men quote has been rattling around my brain all month. Makes no sense without context, and I don’t have the time to explain it right now.)
(You’ll never convince me this song wasn’t written by AI)
(I took this photo so I’d remember where I parked my car in Philadelphia)
(This TikTok boiling Brokeback Mountain down to “a woman finding out her husband is bisexual” got me good)
(If you live in Brooklyn try the chicken plate from Wiki Wiki)
(This is what every public high school in New Jersey looks like. They’re all hideous)
What I Listened To This Month
“Sue Me” - Audrey Hobert - Readers of the newsletter know I’m a sucker for contemporary female pop artists. “Sue Me” is a catchy tune, recommended to me by fellow comedian and friend Zach Schiffman. The rest of her album is also solid, but this track is clearly the standout.
“Vodka Cranberry” - Conan Gray - Conan Gray is an enigma to me. I’d sooner believe he is an industry plant than anyone else. “Vodka Cranberry” is a solid song, no doubt, but it does feel like what an AI generator would spit out if you said make me a Conan Gray song.
“Grandma’s Got a Boyfriend” - John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch - I have no clue why this song has been stuck in my head all month, but I don’t really care. I love it. It’s such a specific and weird-yet-ubiquitous observation. Grandma’s got a boyfriend? My grandma had a boyfriend. His name was Bob. It’s insane that when John Mulaney dies this song won’t even be a blip in his obituary, as he’s put out so much high-quality material that there’s no reason to focus on this. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t incredible.
Comedy Updates/Upcoming Shows
I performed on 13 shows in August of 2025. I was on stage for a total of 214 minutes minutes, and made $691. My 2025 cumulative total of time on stage thus far is 1,411 minutes. My 2025 cumulative earnings are $7,897. I have performed on 86 shows thus far this year. I am well on track to pass my 2025 goal of 100 shows.
Some of my favorite shows this month included:
8/6 Next Slide Please - Next Slide Please is a PowerPoint show hosted by one of my good friends, Reed Kavner. It’s one of the most successful shows at Caveat in the Lower East Side, and I imagine I am the record holder for most performances on the show. In the past I’ve done PowerPoints about horny icons, the 2010s, and of course straight culture. This time I did a PowerPoint about a cruise I went on with my family last year where my dad acted atypically. I’ve never filmed this particular PowerPoint, but I would like to soon and put it online.
8/8 Next in Line (Headlining) - Philadelphia, what a beautiful city. If I was a different person, I would live there. But instead I just go down about four times a year to perform stand-up in the City of Brotherly Love. Headlining Next in Line went great - the venue is run by wonderful people, and the tickets moved nicely without me having to put my back into it. Plus the payout was both very fair and promptly delivered. I’ve been invited back to headline again next year, and will absolutely take them up on that offer.
8/9 Soul Joels (headlining) - I really enjoyed headlining Soul Joels. It’s in Pottstown, PA, and I performed there once before at an outdoor venue in 2020. The crowd that showed up was eager to laugh and were generous laughers. I was in the small room - a Fox News personality was in the big room (read: 800 people) and I watched a little bit of his set. It was… kooky stuff. Regardless, the titular Joel is a nice dude who also invited me back for 2026.
8/13 Hot Gossip Comedy Show - I don’t really know what the deal was, but Hot Gossip this month just didn’t quite have the sauce. The line-up was incredible, they all had fantastic jokes. But the energy was just wrong. This happens sometimes in comedy. Ultimately it is incumbent on the host (in this instance, me) to cultivate a good energy, but I tried using every tool in my arsenal and I just couldn’t quite ever cut the tension that was in the air. Sometimes you just gotta shrug, chalk it up as a loss, and go on to the next one. Plus I have an insane Hot Gossip line-up booked for October, keep your eyes out for that.
I’ve begun contributing to the State of Comedy newsletter. If you found me from them, welcome to the fold!
I have headlining dates in the following cities:
9/20 Boonton, NJ (nearly sold out)
9/27 Suffern, NY
1/2 Beverly, MA
2/20 Portland, OR
New York City TBA
The Importance of a Posting Cadence
This past month, I did meetings with four different comedy managers. All of the meetings were delightful in their own way, but they all also had one stark similarity. Each manager said the phrase posting cadence.
A posting cadence is exactly what it sounds like; a cadence for how frequently you’re posting to social media (mainly Instagram and TikTok). Right now, I do not have a posting cadence. I had one in the past, but I was unable to keep up with consistently putting out high quality content. It turns out that by not having a posting cadence, I’ve been doing a severe disservice to my pursuit of success as a comedian.
In my heart of hearts, I knew this. I’ve seen what social media success has done for so many of my peers. It’s enabled them to sell tickets on the road, therefore letting them quit their job, therefore letting them book more work on the road, therefore letting them get better at stand-up, etc. etc. It’s a virtuous cycle of success, if you can get yourself into it. It’s extremely difficult to stay consistent, but those who can manage to do it are rewarded for it (and also it turns out “high quality” part doesn’t really matter a ton.)
So, after realizing that I need to dedicate myself to a posting cadence, I had two big questions. 1) How many times a week do I need to be posting? 2) What kind of content do I need to post? Let’s start with number one.
How Many Times A Week To Post?
From analyzing the profiles of those whom I’m jealous of comedically, it turns out that the typical number of posts per week on Instagram is three Reels. In TikTok, three works as well, though there seems to be less of a punishment in the algorithm for poorly performing posts (AKA post as much are you freakin’ want). I have never in my life posted three Reels per week. In fact, that seems insane to me. That’s something you can only do if posting to social media is your full-time job. Unfortunately for me, my full-time job is my full-time job. But the time for whining is later, in private to my fiancée.
What Kind of Content Do I Need To Post?
Well, I am a stand-up comedian, so stand-up comedy is an obvious thing to post. But I don’t have enough stand-up bits to post three new ones every single week. No stand-up comedian does. But let’s lock away that as number one.
Stand-up clip
Okay, what’s next? Well, I’ve had a lot of success in the past with posting about straight culture, so what if I made the second clip I posted this week about that? Easy, kind of.
Stand-up clip
Straight culture clip
I checked the Instagram pages of comedians who were headlining a six show weekend at the Punchline in San Fransisco this month to see what the heck kind of content they all are posting. You won’t be shocked to learn they all have 200,000+ followers (I have about 15,000), and lots of them are posting front facing videos, which I *think* I refuse to do. They also post crowd work clips, which get a lot of hate, but which I’m down to post tbh.
Stand-up clip
Straight Culture clip
Crowd work/miscellaneous clip
I know I only said three… but what if I did four? Would the algorithm reward me thusly? I think it might. I’ve noticed my friend Conor Janda has been posting carousels of photos of him performing, with his jokes laid over the images as text. Heck, I can do that! I have jokes and photos of myself! It’s rewarded him greatly, so why not copy his strategy, eh?
Stand-up clip
Straight Culture clip
Crowd work/miscellaneous clip
Stand-up carousel
(A preview of what my posting schedule looks like at the moment)
So, How Do I Get All Of This Material For Posting?
Okay, so I’ve decided that before I make my first post, I want to make sure I have about 25 full weeks of posts locked in loaded. That way I can’t start and then get overwhelmed and fall off after two weeks. So, here’s my plan:
Produce and Film a Standard Headlining Stand-Up Show in New York City
I haven’t filmed a headlining show of mine in New York City since May of 2024 when I co-headlined Union Hall. Honestly, a lot of those clips did extremely well online and made me about $7,000 on TikTok. I don’t know why I’ve dropped the ball on filming a headlining set - I’ve gotten much better at stand-up since then! I am about to lock down a date with an excellent NYC venue, and once I do, I *think* I’ll be able to get about 30 solid stand-up clips out of that performance.
Produce and Film a Show Called The 50 Straightest Moments of All Time
I was talking to my friend Chandler Dean about posting cadences and told him that I wanted to do something about straight culture that wasn’t front-facing videos. He suggested I just do a one-off show where I rank the 50 Straightest Moments of All Time, that way I can just get 50 clips done in one fell swoop. I thought that was an excellent idea, and it’s one I intend to pursue! TY Chandler, I appreciate you, my friend.
Film All of My Shows on the Road, Even If It Loses Me Money
I’ve very stupidly not been filming my road shows. This is because I hadn’t wanted to spend the money to do it because I hadn’t wanted to eat into my profits. That was bone-headed, because filming those shows (and all future ones) are an investment. Now is clearly not the time for me to be counting money, but more so the time for me to be taking risks with it, in hopes that I can make much more money. There are so many moments I wish I had captured - I will not let those pass me by anymore!
What Can You, My Loyal Readers, Do To Help, If Anything?
None of this is your burden, obviously. But if you’ve read this far I imagine you have some sort of investment in me. So in a few months when you see dozens of clips of mine in your feed, just “like” them. Or comment on them. Or save them. Or share them with a friend. It’s small but it helps. Additionally, when I announce my headlining show in NYC, feel free to grab a ticket, and perhaps even on the earlier side. It helps with my anxiety, and makes me look good to the venue.
In Conclusion
Posting cadence is going to dominate the next however many months of my life as I try to execute growing my following so that *I* can book more road work and make more money and quit my day job. If you or anyone you know is a social media wizard and can help me in this pursuit, I would love to chat.
That’s it for now
I will be back next month with more stand-up updates/pop culture recommendations and all of that good stuff. I also hope to write a longer form piece in next month’s newsletter, as well. Thank you so much for reading, and Let’s Go Mets.
Love,
JVH