During the pandemic, Twitch, the streaming platform owned by Amazon, saw exponential growth as viewers and new streamers flocked to the site. It had already enjoyed a rapid expansion in recent years, despite a slight dip prior to the pandemic. But the growth accelerated when people were forced to stay home last year.
Now, however, with vaccine rollouts and creative industries tentatively reopening, those who began streaming during the pandemic is whether they will return to “normal” life again.
Australian comedian John Robertson has been performing for 17 years, living in London since 2013, and like many comedians before the pandemic, he was doing shows for audiences up and down the UK. “I was doing everything that you can imagine. You would go to Hammersmith and do 10 minutes after Harry Hill had been on," he says. "I would go and do my show The Dark Room at sci-fi conventions and gaming expos and theaters and art centers, then you’d be back at somebody’s hen do in Plymouth. You just do everything on the planet.” This is a fairly typical snapshot of life as a jobbing comedian. Robertson’s offbeat, weirdly wild and energetic style translated perfectly to a Twitch community, which he calls “diverse, perverse, wholesome, yet awful.”
He had returned to the UK, and with gaps in his schedule, and in the middle of a breakdown, he threw himself into streaming under the name Robbotron. Unlike many who turned to Twitch when the work dried up, Robertson had found success on the platform some months before, and when the work did disappear, he already had a bustling schedule on the platform.
Robertson’s channel consists of high-octane chat and shows like The Dark Room and Sunday Lunch With Your Dad. Talking fervently about the community and togetherness, he notes that “the most important stuff we’ve done is the charity stuff,” raising nearly £50,000 via the stream for charities like Mind, Black Minds Matter, Women’s Trust, and End the Virus of Racism.
With the UK slowly coming out from lockdown, Robertson’s schedule doesn’t look to be changing much. Instead he intends to do more. “We’re going to start streaming the live shows," he says. "There are some venues that have kitted themselves out beautifully,” which makes his shows more accessible to those who either don’t want to attend live performances or just can't because of circumstances like health or location.
