Producing a show is a proven way to get extended stage time before you’re “passed” at a club or booking consistent road work. When you produce your own show you need to be able to manage four equally important parts: the venue, the comics, the audience and the actual show. This post focuses on the comics.
Congratulations! You’re doing a show at a specific venue on a specific date and time. But unless you’re years and years in, it’s very hard to have a great show without other comedians. Even the most famous comics work with one or two opening acts – often called a feature and an MC. Here’s what to keep in mind when booking comics:
What show structure do you plan on doing? How many comedians do you want on your show?
Do you want to have a standard road show of “MC – Feature – Headliner”? Or do you want to have “showcase” with 5 or 6 comics doing 12-15 minutes each? Or perhaps you want to do a speed comedy show where 12-15 comedians do 5 minutes each?
In New York City, where hundreds of amazing comedians live, we find it’s usually best to have 6-8 comics on your show. Having more comedians on the show leads to you establishing or maintaining more relationships, which if you’re a comedian who’s producing shows, is one of the reasons to start producing because most of the bookings you get will be through other comedians, and they’re more likely to help you if you’ve already helped them. (Just don’t expect them to help you.)
Who will be the host?
Everyone wants to be the headliner, but the MC can make or break the show. Get a high energy host you trust, or if you’re trying to build your MCing skills, do it yourself. But I don’t recommend running and hosting the show all at once – especially when just starting out.
How many minutes will your show run?
The ideal show runs 80-90 minutes. I find that once a show hits the 100 minute mark audiences start to get impatient and figure out if they can leave. Even if every performer is hysterical, there is only so much comedy one can watch before needing a break. But you don’t want to make the show too short: the audience may feel they “didn’t get their money’s worth” and the wait staff might not have enough time to sell drinks.
Which Comedians Do You Want?
Selecting comedians can be very difficult and highly politicized. Some key criteria to consider:
- Do they have TV credits? Right or wrong, TV credits usually add legitimacy to a show and make it easier to convince the audience to show up.
- Are they funny? This is pretty important but sometimes overlooked or purposefully ignored. Hopefully all your performers are hysterical but sometimes the other criteria in this list may override the “funny” factor.
- Are they your friend? If you’re friends with someone, you might need or want to put them on the show instead of someone who’s funnier but who you don’t know.
- Do they run their own show (or have a lot of connections)? The best way to get onto another show is to give that producer stage time at your show. This doesn’t mean they’ll put you on their show, but it certainly increases the chances.
- Are they “normal”? Normal is a relative term in comedy. But you generally want to avoid hilarious performers who are unreliable, tend to show up late and/or create problems with the wait staff, other comedians and audience.
- What kind of audience are you expecting? If your audience is super young, perhaps a younger comedian will go over better than someone in their 70s.
- Can you afford them? The same comic has different rates depending on the night and the show. Some will work for free. Other comics will do free spots on weeknights but not on Fridays and Saturdays. “Big names” can cost thousands of dollars per appearance but appear for free if your proceeds are going to a charity. Figure out how much money you can spend on comics before asking them to be on your show.
Are the comics you want available on the date of your show?
You’ve figured out who you want on the show, what you’re paying them and how much time they’re doing, but the comic might already be booked! Do you have an alternate plan, or are you going to change the date just to accommodate one comedian? Most comics that work at comedy clubs set up their gigs (“give their avails”) right before the start of a week or of a month. I recommend giving comics at least two weeks notice if you’re going to book them. Four to six weeks is better.