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It was just like any other pitch to investors: justify the valuation, address the risks and make lots of impressive-looking pie charts and graphs. Except this time,
Pete McEntegart wasn’t raising money for a tech startup, he was selling shares of himself.
The 57-year-old North Carolinian had tried his hand as a Goldman Sachs investment banker, Sports Illustrated columnist and startup co-founder. But a few years ago, on Christmas Day, he had a bit of an epiphany. “I was on a run, and I realized I wanted to take one more big swing before I got too old,” he tells Variety. He decided it was time to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. Pete McEntegart was no more; from that day forward, he’d be known as Pete Smack.
It doesn’t take a business genius to realize joke telling is not the easiest way to make a buck. And, as with startups, it takes a while for many comics to turn a profit — if a profit is to be turned at all. So, Smack decided he would raise money for his comedic venture and hold himself accountable to investors.
He turned to the startup crowdfunding service Wefunder and became the first entertainer to solicit investors on the platform. By early last year, he raised nearly $60,000 from 104 investors, the majority of whom committed between $100 and $150. Buying into Smack is a legitimate investment regulated by the SEC. To set up his seed round, so to speak, the comedian spent $5,000 on lawyers.
Smack pitched prospective investors in a humorous presentation posted to his Wefunder page. “You can’t have a truly diversified portfolio if you’re not directly invested in a standup comedian,” he began.
Smack offered family, friends and strangers on the internet a chance to split 10% of his gross revenues through 2029. On Jan. 1, 2030, their investment converts to equity at a $1 million pre-money valuation. “While I can’t guarantee what your financial return will be — the lawyers were pretty adamant about that,” Smack wrote on his Wefunder page, “I’m confident you’ll have a fun and entertainingly documented ride.”
In detail, Smack laid out how he plans to deliver a return for his investors. He’ll focus on corporate gigs and cruise ships, as well as “55 and greater” active-living communities. Plus, he’s a clean comic, and as he wrote in the pitch, “CLEAN = GREEN ($$$).”
Smack also provides projections of what the investors’ collective share of his revenue might look like through 2029, with his conservative estimate at $55,000, upside case at $116,500 and dream case at $228,000. Some of his data is less quantitative.
Smack’s history with stand-up comedy started in the 1990s, when he began writing sitcom scripts after college and before his stint at Goldman Sachs. For a “Seinfeld” spec, he had to write some stand-up material for Jerry, and he realized it came naturally to him. In 1996, Smack signed up for an open mic in Virginia, but nobody showed up, so the event was canceled.
“I went home and performed for my two roommates,” Smack says. “I used a ping-pong paddle as a microphone.”
Nearly a decade later, when Smack was living in New York and writing for Sports Illustrated, he took a comedy class and participated in a showcase at the end of it. But he had never given stand-up a real shot. Now, he’s convinced he can succeed at it.
So far, Smack has used his seed money to rent out a venue and film a special, “Last Man Standing,” which debuted on Sept. 22 on VOD platforms via Comedy Dynamics. He thinks the money can last him a few years; he’s able to keep his costs low, in part, because after his dad died in 2024, he moved in with his mom. “I’m figuring out how to make this work — as a living and as a business,” he says.
Smack sends a monthly newsletter updating investors on his progress. But any pressure he feels is mostly self-imposed. “If they make money, they’ll be excited,” Smack says of his backers, “but they just want to be along for the ride.” According to a six-page annual report, Smack brought in $18,497 in revenue in 2025 and had $9,585 in expenses. He says 2026 is on a similar pace.
He’s hoping a streamer licenses his special, and he’s writing a TV pilot loosely based on his life. He’s also exploring creative sources of cash, like speaking to corporate audiences about how lessons from stand-up can translate to business success. He filmed a TEDx talk that came out Tuesday, and he’s working on a new hour that he dreams of taking to the Edinburgh Fringe. In his October newsletter, he floated some title ideas to his investors.
“The new show has the working title ‘A Happy Schmedium,’” he wrote. “(Other contenders: ‘Time Flies,’ ‘Time Flew’ and ‘Time Is a Fat Circle.’) The broad theme is the passage of time.”
He thinks the progress reports help his supporters feel, well, invested in his career. “You know,” Smack says, “because they literally are.”
