How Comedians Can Sell Personalized Roast Videos

Comedians can sell personalized roast video Personalized Videos by packaging the "roast me" requests they already get for free as a priced Personalized Video: a follower submits a name and roast details, pays upfront, and receives a short custom video within a stated turnaround, with no follower minimum or booking call required. Personalized Videos let a follower pay upfront for one personalized video for themselves or someone they care about: you set the price and the delivery time, then record it on your schedule.

If "roast me" keeps showing up in comments and DMs, put one fixed-price roast link in your bio so you can charge without making every post sound like an ask for money. Answering those for free in comments or DMs turns a bit you could charge for into unpaid content moderation. A priced roast shoutout keeps the same joke-writing work but attaches a price, a scope, and a delivery time to it — much like how streamers turn free chat call-outs into personalized videos followers pay for.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median hourly wage for actors — the occupation that covers stand-up comedians — at $29.05 in May 2025, and projects employment in the occupation to show little or no change from 2025 to 2035 (BLS; Occupational Outlook Handbook: Actors, page last modified August 27, 2026; wages drawn from the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics estimates released May 15, 2026). The same BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook page projects about 6,300 openings for actors each year, on average, over the 2025–2035 decade, most of them replacing workers who leave the occupation (BLS). "Comedian" is listed among the sample reported job titles for that same occupation code, 27-2011.00, on O*NET OnLine (O*NET 31.0 database, released August 2026; site updated August 25, 2026). A flat BLS employment projection for the actor occupation is one reason many comedians price direct-to-follower formats like roast Personalized Videos alongside stage bookings rather than relying on stage work alone.

What is a personalized roast video shoutout?

A personalized roast video shoutout is a one-time custom video in which a comedian teases a person the follower names, using the details and boundaries supplied in the written request. A roast shoutout is a one-time paid request, not a public bit: the follower pays upfront, submits the target's details, and you deliver the video later within the delivery time you set.

On Brillay, you can turn on Personalized Videos, edit the card copy, set your price, and choose your delivery time, while the offer name remains Personalized Videos (Personalized Videos). Brillay applies no follower minimum and nothing to apply for on any offer, including roast Personalized Videos (how it works). The same offer format works well beyond comedy — magicians run personalized trick reveal Personalized Videos on it, for one.

Paid roast Personalized Videos sit inside a large live-comedy market. Comedians who toured performed for 12.3 million followers during Pollstar's 2025 chart year, and events featuring comedy headliners grossed $837 million worldwide, according to Pollstar's 2026 Comedy Special (news.pollstar.com, published January 16, 2026).

"Comedians performed for 12.3 million followers last year, according to box office figures reported to Pollstar for the 2025 chart year." — Pollstar, "Welcome To Pollstar's 2026 Comedy Special: $837 Million Worldwide Can't Be Wrong", published January 16, 2026

Touring income concentrates heavily at the top of the Pollstar comedy ranking: Nate Bargatze topped Pollstar's 2026 comedy chart with $77.5 million reported. A roast shoutout does not compete with a tour date — it monetizes the much smaller, much more frequent ask that never makes it onto a ticketed stage: one follower, one target, one inside joke.

How much should a comedian charge for a roast shoutout?

Most comedians should price a roast shoutout by video length and personalization effort rather than by a single flat rate. A practical starting test is $10–$20 for 15–30 seconds of friendly ribbing, $20–$40 for a 30–60 second standard roast, and $45–$75+ for a 60–90 second in-character bit; adjust after seeing what followers buy and how long each roast takes.

The $10–$20, $20–$40, and $45–$75+ roast bands are Brillay's own recommendation, not observed marketplace data: each band assumes roughly 10–15 minutes of total work for a short roast and 30–45 minutes for a full character bit, counting brief-reading, joke-writing, recording, and one retake.

Brillay's $10–$20, $20–$40, and $45–$75+ roast bands are illustrative starting points, not a guarantee of what any individual roast will sell for and not an earnings promise. Raise your roast price when your roast-request queue is consistently full within your stated delivery time, and hold it near the lower end while you're still testing demand.

Cameo's talent page tells creators to "Set your price and keep 70% of your earnings," which is a 30% marketplace take rate (Cameo Talent Hub). Brillay's platform fee is 8% when a follower pays for work and 5% on tips and goals (pricing). Your page, your price, no application and no follower minimum.

Before setting your roast price, account for Brillay's platform fee, separate Stripe processing fees, taxes, and the possibility of a card dispute. On a $40 roast shoutout, Brillay's 8% platform fee on this paid work is $3.20, and typical US domestic online-card processing at Stripe's published rate of 2.9% + $0.30 is $1.46, leaving about $35.34 before taxes (Brillay pricing and Stripe pricing). Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 is the typical US domestic online-card rate rather than a universal fee, because international cards, currency conversion, and other payment methods are priced differently on Stripe's published pricing page.

Roast income is taxable whether or not a tax form arrives. For US creators, the IRS states that a third-party settlement organization must file Form 1099-K only when gross reportable payments to a payee exceed $20,000 and the number of transactions exceeds 200, after the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act reverted the threshold (IRS, Form 1099-K threshold FAQs). That $20,000-and-200 figure is a US information-reporting threshold only — it is not an income floor, and it does not apply to creators outside the United States, whose reporting rules vary by country.

What details does a follower need to submit for a roast?

A roast request needs four things at checkout: the target's name and nickname, the follower's relationship to that person, two or three "material" details such as a habit or running joke, and an explicit list of off-limits topics. A roast brief needs more input than a birthday brief, so collect every field upfront rather than messaging the follower back.

Useful intake fields include:

• Target's name and nickname, spelled the way it should be said on camera.
• Relationship to the follower (roommate, coworker, sibling, best friend) so the roast reads as accurate rather than generic.
• Two or three "material" details — a habit, a running joke, a recent embarrassing moment — that make the roast feel personal instead of interchangeable.
• Occasion, if any (birthday, going-away, bachelor party), so the tone matches the context.
• Explicit off-limits topics. Asking for off-limits topics directly, rather than assuming them, reduces the odds of a request you'd rather decline.

For comparison, Cameo's own site tells buyers a personalized-video brief takes "Name, occasion, a couple of inside jokes" and that "a few sentences is all it takes" — a roast brief needs more than that, because the person being roasted is not the person writing the brief.

Followers describe a Personalized Video request in writing. Ask for the target's name, relationship, inside jokes, occasion, and off-limits topics in the written brief.

Requiring the target's name, the relationship, the material details, and the off-limits list at checkout — rather than collecting them after payment — keeps roast production time closer to the recording itself.

Is a roast shoutout different from a regular birthday or hype shoutout?

A roast shoutout and a birthday shoutout use the same Personalized Video offer, the same upfront payment, and the same video delivery, but they demand different creative work and carry different risk. A hype video is built to make the recipient feel good; a roast is built to embarrass them, which raises the odds of a tone miss.

Roast requests are a standard occasion, not a fringe ask: Cameo, which advertises 50,000+ bookable stars on its own site, lists "a well-deserved roast" alongside birthdays and milestones as a reason followers book a personalized video.

Roast and hype Personalized Videos both benefit from the same production discipline — read the details before recording, keep the video within your stated length, and deliver inside your chosen delivery time. A roast request needs an explicit off-limits list and a relationship detail before the comedian records, while a birthday or hype request usually needs only the recipient's name and the occasion. Treat a vague roast request ("just roast him, you'll know what to say") as one to decline, then tighten the written brief for future orders; the brief collected at checkout is the only chance to get it right before you record.

What if a roast request crosses a line?

Followers pay upfront; you can decline a request.

"What if I get a request I don't want to fulfill? You can decline and refund it. You're always in control of what you take on." — Brillay, How Brillay works

A decline window is standard across personalized-video platforms. Cameo's Terms of Service states that "the Talent User has up to seven days or longer (at our sole discretion) to fulfill or decline your request" before Cameo issues a refund or credit (Cameo Terms of Service).

Stating roast boundaries in the listing description reduces how often an uncomfortable request arrives in the first place. A line like "friendly roasts only — no targets outside the platform, no content about appearance, health, or family status" tells a follower what to expect before they submit a request, rather than after they've paid. Personalized Videos accept written request details, so ask followers to spell names and include the relevant nickname, relationship, and inside jokes in the brief.

Where does a roast shoutout fit next to your other paid offers?

A roast video is one request format among the five paid offers on a Brillay page: Personalized Videos, Paid Questions, Custom Work, Tips, and Goals. A full custom roast belongs on Personalized Videos, and a one-line roast punchline fits Paid Questions.

• A full custom roast video → Personalized Videos. A full roast shoutout means a named target, a follower-submitted brief, and a recorded video delivered within your stated delivery time.
• A one-line roast or quick joke on demand → Paid Questions.
• Set or joke feedback on the follower's own material → Custom Work. Choose Custom Work when the deliverable is notes, a marked-up transcript, or voice feedback rather than a roast performance.
• A follower who wants to support you with no roast attached → Tips. No reply or delivery is required.
• Funding a tour, special, or new mic → Goals. Cash toward a stated goal with a progress bar, separate from any single paid request.

Selling paid requests directly sits inside a large one-person economy: the U.S. Census Bureau counted 1,043,306 individual proprietorships in Independent Artists, Writers and Performers in 2023, up from 907,569 in 2018 (U.S. Census Bureau). Those same Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers proprietorships generated $25.4 billion in receipts in 2023, second only to taxi and limousine services among the gig-heavy nonemployer industries the Census Bureau ranked (U.S. Census Bureau). A nonemployer business has no paid employees by the Census Bureau's definition, which is the same shape as one comedian selling roast Personalized Videos from a link in bio.

For the fuller picture of how comedians route DMs across all of these formats, see how comedians make money online.

How do you set up roast Personalized Videos on Brillay?

Setting up roast Personalized Videos on Brillay takes three decisions: one fixed price, a delivery time of up to five days, and clear boundaries in your listing description. All three appear on your Personalized Videos listing before a follower pays, and any new Brillay creator can turn Personalized Videos on the same day they set up their page.

Brillay's delivery-time setting offers 1–24 hours or 1–5 days, so the longest delivery time a creator can promise on a Personalized Video or custom request is five days (Brillay product specification). Pick a delivery time inside the 1-to-5-day range that you can reliably meet, especially when roast requests compete with show prep or a day job. For comparison, Cameo instructs its talent to "Complete their request within 4 days".

Direct, self-set paid work like a roast shoutout sits inside a broader shift toward independent income: 11.9 million people were independent contractors on their sole or main job in July 2023, or 7.4% of total US employment, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements release.

There's no follower minimum and no marketplace application: put Personalized Videos on the Brillay link in your bio, let followers pay by card without creating an account, and receive payouts in any of Brillay's 41 supported countries.

Create your free Brillay page

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a certain follower count to sell roast Personalized Videos?

No. Brillay applies no follower minimum and nothing to apply for — you can turn on Personalized Videos the same day you set up your page (how it works, Personalized Videos).

Can a follower request a roast about someone other than themselves?

Yes — most roast requests target a friend, coworker, or family member rather than the follower. Because a roast request names a third party, it's worth requiring an off-limits list and a relationship detail at checkout. Brillay creators can decline any request they're not comfortable recording.

What if I only want to sell light roast Personalized Videos?

You can scope your listing however you want.

How long can my roast delivery time be?

Up to five days. You pick 1–24 hours or 1–5 days when you set up the offer, and five days is the longest delivery time Brillay allows on a Personalized Video or custom request (Brillay product specification).

Does a roast shoutout need to be video, or can it be text?

Personalized Videos are delivered as a recorded video.

What does Brillay charge for a roast shoutout?

No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. Stripe's published pricing lists 2.9% + $0.30 per successful transaction for domestic cards, the typical US online-card rate. On a $40 roast that works out to $3.20 in platform fee plus $1.46 in processing, leaving about $35.34 before taxes.

Do I owe taxes on roast shoutout income?

Roast shoutout earnings are taxable income even when no form is issued. In the United States, the IRS requires a Form 1099-K only when gross reportable payments to a payee exceed $20,000 and transactions exceed 200 (IRS Form 1099-K threshold FAQs). Rules outside the United States vary by country.