Hypothesis

The project's hypothesis was simple: That shared interests superceded man-made boundaries; whether these are geographic borders, cultural or social divides, or language barriers.

"If your passion and interest is cabinetry, and you found out the world's greatest living cabinet maker was a Muslim lady in Afghanistan, and you were a devout something-else or nothing-at-all across the globe, those differences would quickly become background details."

Execution

The World in Jest project relied on this shared interest, combined with Matt's (at the time) 20 years of performing and the expertise, reputation, and connections that came with that.  

He began with a handful of dates across mainland China and Southeast Asia, and from there added cities and countries and regions as the goal of the project was passed along by fellow performers, promoters, and audience members. 

Primary Restriction

The primary restriction placed on the project was that it had to move under its own momentum: the shows themselves (or, rather, their averages) had to be financially viable enough to propel to the next set of shows. To achieve this, at times Matt took the leading role in promotion, or offered guidance and assistance on how to approach on-the-ground efforts. 

This carried over into packaging as well: laying out strategies and partnerships between multiple cities to create "runs" of shows that allowed for travel expense and logistical hurdles to be overcome; and organzing hub-and-spoke efforts around viable downtime cities.  

Secondary Restriction

For both personal artistic reasons and becuase it felt required to test the project's hyphothesis, an emphasis was put on performing for local audiences who spoke English, rather than expat centric audiences who lived in non-English cities. It was evident even before beginning the project, that expat-centric audiences in certain parts of the world tend to concetrate around birth-country: British organizers would organize events that had a primarily British expat audience, etc.

While expat audience members did find their way to shows, the primary focus was always on local audience. To keep this focus, Matt relied on the local artists themselves, often performing in English on shows primarily in another language. 

Result

A very strong case can be made that Matt's hypothesis is correct. The single largest limiting factor was simply financial. Interest and enthusiam were there, and the project continued unabated for 13 months without ever getting to 30-40% of the markets and contacts that reached out. So, beginnign with only a month-or-so worth of shows, another 12 months were added. 

The End

The World in Jest project was ended rather abruptly when an incident in Thailand presented real personal safety concerns. The short of it: an argument took place between Matt and what he had learned were would-be human traffickers. Matt outed them, and in turn received death threats, prompting him to leave. Continuing the project's goal even in this departure, he was able to arrange for a show in Yangon, Myanmar that flew him there, and then upon invite from another comedian, he flew to Scotland to join the already-in-progress Edinburgh Fringe festival (his first visit to it).

Afterward he returned to the United States where, after a bit of reflection, he began closing the door on the World in Jest project and began separating his own touring from ongoing efforts that he feels can continue to bring artists together across man made borders. 

of comedians who performed on World in Jest shows (this is from only July to November of 2015)