Performers since the earliest days of Vaudeville and other famous old venues have been relying on excellent lighting and sound to make themselves look good on stage. While nowhere near as technologically advanced as picture lighting or the led picture lights that have recently hit the market for consumers, stage lights and spot lights have been critical in the performing arts since they were invented. One subset of artists that use the stage as their medium is the subset of comedian. Comedians have been around for ages and there are thousands of them out there who try to make audiences laugh on a regular basis. As with any other field of work, some are lucky and hard working enough to rise to the top and become famous while others struggle to make ends meet by working small gigs.

One of those comedians who has crossed over to the mainstream and become extremely famous is Russell Brand. Brand is a comedian from a middle class background in the suburbs of London and creates an impressive dichotomy on stage between his working class roots and the well read and educated person he has since become. For example, he will often times consciously make grammatical mistakes while performing by saying things such as "me haircut" or something, then make reference to a little known piece of literature in the same sentence. Until recently Brand was almost entirely famous only in his home country of England but that all changed when he hosted the MTV Video Music Awards in 2008 and made some political quips, jokingly encouraging Americans to vote for Barack Obama. One of his most famous sets on stage included mocking people who sent him death threat emails after the VMA scandal. Brand read the email to his audience mentioning a part where the anonymous threat sender told him to drop dead and die. Brand lampooned the man by saying that was a tautology and that you cannot drop dead, and then die unless you are a Hindu and believe in the concept of reincarnation. Brand further increased his fame in America by starring in the hit comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall as bad boy English rocker Aldous Snow, and will reprise his role as Snow in the upcoming comedy Get Him to the Greek.

Although less edgy and from a different era, Jerry Seinfeld was also a very important and funny comedian in his time. Seinfeld obviously turned his initial success in stand up into a long running and critically acclaimed television show bearing his name. Using observational humor Seinfeld was always quick to bring to the audience's attention the follies of society and make others laugh by recognizing how ridiculous the world can be sometimes.

Lastly, a comedian to jump from the stages of stand up to mainstream fame is Chris Rock. Rock mainly rose to fame as a comedian by utilizing racial humor. Although often times mentioning sensitive subjects Rock has become popular amongst many people from the suburbs to the inner city by making fun of every race and not taking anything too seriously in regards to racial issues.

Without stage lighting there would be no comedians and there would be a massive hole in the entertainment industry.