[jdietrich]

I can't speak for the US, but in the UK there's a broad spectrum of "professional standup", from people playing 10 minute slots at comedy nights for £50 a time, through people touring small theatres and arts centres with 100-200 seats, all the way up to people playing arenas and doing TV.

The general rule of thumb here is that you can make a comfortable living with ~15,000 twitter followers - just enough fans to make a tour viable.