Most of my “how to book a comedian” series has focused on you finding the best comedian for your event. I’ve already taken a couple stray paths to destinations involving different destinations, and that’s where we find ourselves today.
Today, we focus on the concept of you wanting to have comedy in your venue, but there’s already comedy somewhere in town.
Basically, we’re talking competition…
(and a few other things that pop to mind.)
I’m going to tell a series of personal stories that should help give you some insight into what happens behind the scenes in the world of comedy.
Now, in order to burn no bridges, I’m going to use fictional names for this first example.
Years ago, in Ogdenville, was a comedy club booked by Big Comedy Booking Agent.
Any comedian that worked there had to go through him.
One day, Corporate Comedy Club decided to open a room in Ogdenville, so Big Comedy Booking Agent sent every comedian on their roster an email: Hey! We demand loyalty! If you work the new Corporate Comedy Club, then not only will we not book you in our Ogdenville room, we’ll just stop using you. What Corporate Comedy Club is doing is unfair, and they’re attacking our business!
So, right off the bad you have these lines being drawn.
Instead of sharing the talent, and allowing comedians to grow a base in that market by playing two rooms, they threw down the gauntlet.
Obviously, such tactics only work with smaller, unknown comedians.
If Bill Burr wanted to play both rooms back-to-back, they’d be happy to have him.
But when you don’t have fame, you’re at the whim of the powers above you.
Here’s where it gets ironic.
Several months later, Big Comedy Booking Agent decided to open a room in Shelbyville.
Thing is, Small Booking Agent already had a weekly show there; one that had been running for twenty years, to great success.
Big Comedy Booking Agent sent out an email: Hey! We demand loyalty! We’re opening a room in Shelbyville, so if you work for Small Booking Agent, you either work our room, or we won’t work you anywhere.
This email was sent with absolute zero irony.
The message was: if someone muscles in on our territory, they’re mean and awful and f-them. If we muscle in on someone else’s territory, they have it coming. F-them.
Basically, f-anyone but them.
Here’s what’s odd: this generally only happens in the world of art.
You don’t see dentists, or plumbers, or HVAC repairmen threatening their customers when competition arrives.
I mean, I doubt a local dentist is happy when someone else opens up shop, but they probably try and run their business better, in order to attract customers. They hire the best hygienist, maybe offer a discount for new customers…
What’s my point behind all this?
Just to give insight.
Here’s the think with comedians: there are always more.
If half the comedians can’t work for you because a booking agent says so, that means there is another 50% out there who will.
And, I’m going to tell you a secret: comedy is rarely (if ever) booked on merit.
This is a business of relationships, not talent.
Just because there’s another room in town doesn’t automatically mean they’re getting the best, funniest, most original comedians.
It just means they’re getting the comedians that that booking agent likes.
Hell, you could actually study the business, find out a bit about them, and discover they’re using an agency that pays very little money, and therefore only has a roster of comedians that aren’t that funny.
Seriously, this happens more often than you’d think.
Look at it like this: newer comedians all think they’re better than they actually are. So, if you get a booking agent paying $100 for a gig in the middle of nowhere, established comedians aren’t going to take it. But, a newbie who wants to be able to brag to their open mic peers, “I’m headlining a show!” will sign on.
This means that if you decide to have a comedy night and actually research your comedian and hire one worth their salt, you can compete with the competition.
Moving on…
Say you have a comedy night at your venue.
Forget everything I’ve written about competition, and the behind-the-scenes nonsense.
Say you have a comedy night at your venue, and it’s a big success.
What comes next?
You want to have another one, right?
I mean, look at all the money you made selling tickets, drinks, and appetizers!
A quick heads up: you never want to bleed a good idea dry.
I have known too many businesses that might have had a good annual, or even quarterly comedy show, who think, “OMG, this is great! We should do this every week!”
And over the course of two months, it’s all over.
Everyone knows diamonds aren’t rare.
But, they’re precious, because the De Beers family controls them with a tight fist.
They don’t saturate the market, making the stones lose value.
You want to treat your comedy show the exact same way De Beers treats diamonds: as a valuable resource.
I mean, wouldn’t you rather have a packed show once a month, over 4 sparsely attended ones?
The truth is, unless you’re a New York City, or Chicago, you’re going to want to space your comedy out.
You need a large population to support comedy, because it’s just a different animal.
People will go to a restaurant multiple times a year.
They’ll see the movies often.
They’ll go to a bar nightly, sometimes.
But they’ll go to one, maybe two comedy shows a year.
That’s just the way it is.
OK, all that out of the way, it’s time to tackle something big: your ego.
I’ve always said that if I were ever to own a comedy club, I’d book acts I don’t particularly like.
Because what I think isn’t important.
It’s all about the audience.
If the audience likes it, that’s all that matters.
Now, you can have standards—you don’t have to hire a hack, or a joke thief, just because he’s popular—but just because you don’t get something, that doesn’t mean squat.
Years ago, there was a comedy club in Germantown, Wisconsin.
The club owner was a bit of what the kids call, “A douchebag.”
It didn’t matter how funny, original, interesting, or popular you were.
You could have an audience love you, but if the owner didn’t personally like your act, he wouldn’t hire you.
He’d never been on stage, but he had all sorts of advice for comedians.
What they should say, how they should act.
He wanted every comedian to tailor their act and personality to him.
You’re going to be shocked to read that the club didn’t last.
The more he meddled with things, the smaller the audiences got.
Eventually, he started bouncing checks, and before you knew it, the club was gone.
All because he couldn’t get past his own ego.
EO, I’ve got to hit certain benchmarks.
So, here are several versions of “book a comedian” in different headings.
How to book a comedian.
Book a comedian.
I need to book a comedian for my event.
How do I book a comedian for a corporate show?
And, because I have to have a link leading away from my page, the Ann Arbor Comedy Club is one of my favorite rooms of all time.
Well, it turns out I haven’t written book a comedian enough.
So…