Tag: producing tips

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Producing a Show: Running The Show

Congratulations! You’ve got a venue, you’ve booked comics and there’s lots of people in the audience. Now the real headache begins! One hundred things can and will go wrong every time you run a show.

Before getting into all the details, if you remember nothing else about running a show, remember to:

Be flexible and don’t panic!

With that said, here’s what to do when you’re running a stand-up comedy show.
(Note: Some of these steps aren’t necessary depending on the venue.)

  • Set up and test the equipment, rearrange furniture if needed
  • Work the box office selling tickets (if you’re charging cover) and check-in people who pre-purchased tickets
  • Seat people (towards the front first!)
  • Make pre-show announcements (turn off pagers, any drink minimums, etc)
  • Introduce and bring up the MC
  • Decide the order of comics and how much time each comic is doing and tell them
  • Keep track of how much time each comic is doing
  • Light the comic when they have one minute remaining
  • Let the waitresses know when to drop the checks (if applicable)
  • Make an announcement to clear the room after the show ends (if applicable)
  • Put the room back how you found it

Here’s some common problems and possible solutions:

The line up needs to be changed

You should have a lineup in advance that lists the order of the comics and how long each comic is doing. However, unless you’re producing a MC – Feature – Headliner format, the lineup almost always changes at the last minute. Treat your original lineup as a starting hypothesis and not like the Ten Commandments. When making line up changes the most important thing to keep in mind is if there’s a hard stop time that the show must be over by. If so, work backwards from there. And don’t forget to add 30 to 60 seconds between comics for the MC to have time to bring up the next comedian.

The show has to end earlier than scheduled

All your comics are on time and don’t run the light, but suddenly management decides you only have 70 minutes instead of 100. The most important thing to do, is not get pissy at management. Asking them if they can do anything about giving the show more time is okay, just don’t get into a yelling match with them or anything. When this happens, be ready to cut everyone’s time. Most comics will be understanding about this. You might also consider taking yourself off of the show to save time.

Comics go longer than you want

Comics run the light way too often. If you’re a comic reading this, you’ve probably run the light a few times yourself. If the show is running late, make sure to remind comics not to run the light. If you stress how tight the show is, they’re less likely to do it (although it’s not guaranteed). Be ready to keep waving the light until they come off stage.

A comic doesn’t show up or cancels at the last minute

This is a bigger deal if you have only 3 or 4 comics on the show and two of them have already gone up. There’s a minimum amount of time most places will want a show to run, and you don’t want to give someone more time than they can handle, especially if they’re already on stage. One way to solve this is to have comics check-in by a certain time, and if they’re not there, take them off the show so you can split the remaining time fairly from the beginning. Another solution is to always book one comic that you know can do a lot of time if needed, and don’t put that comic on until the other comics have shown up or told you they’re not gonna make it.

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Producing Your Own Show: The Venue

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 (this post), the comics, the audience and running the actual show. This post focuses on the venue.

When producing, the venue is the first step. If you don’t have a venue, with a date and time, you can’t do the rest of the work. There’s usually three main types of venues:

A Comedy Club or Blackbox Theater

Most comedy clubs have off-peak nights or smaller, secondary rooms where an outside producer (that’s you!) can “rent” the space to produce a show.

Financials: Revenue comes from how much tickets are sold for and the two drink minimum. Certain venues let you keep all of the ticket sales. Other clubs charge a room rental fee. Others take a percentage of your ticket sales. Sometimes it’s a rental fee plus a percentage of ticket sales. However, nearly all clubs keep all the drink money as the business model of a comedy club is mostly focused on selling drinks.

Pros: You get to perform at a comedy club and have a video of it. When booking better comedians, it’s easier to get them to perform at “The Comedy Club” than at “Moe’s Diner.”

Cons: Until the owner or manager gets to know you, or until you have a consistent reputation for drawing a good-sized crowd, most clubs will not give you a prime-time slot (Fridays and Saturdays between 7 and 10pm), which makes it harder to sell tickets. Clubs are also less likely to give you multiple shots at building up a larger audience. For example, if your first show has 6 audience members, you likely won’t be allowed to produce another show at the same club for a long while.

A Bar or Restaurant

Many bars have slow nights (Sunday to Thursday) and/or slow hours (after the happy hour but before the party crowd) and would be happy to get someone else to bring people into the bar or keep their existing customers amused and drinking. Ideally, you would be in a private room of a bar, so only people that want to watch the show will go back there.

Financials: Most bar shows are free. This is because some city/states require a cabaret license for live ticketed performances. It’s also because bars don’t want to turn away customers that don’t care about the comedy. However, you can try to negotiate a cut of the drink sales or at least get free drinks for comedians.

Pros: It’s easier to have a weekly show while slowly growing the show’s following. There are times when the bar is completely empty and many mangers would prefer 3 patrons to no patrons.

Cons: Bars can get loud. Not everyone that’s at the bar is there for the comedy show, and unless you’re renting out the whole bar, they’re paying customers too so you can’t tell them to shut up. Also, if you’re trying to make money on charging at the door, this might be harder as bars won’t want to turn away other patrons.

Conference Rooms, Hotels, etc

Description: Any room with chairs can be turned into a comedy show. A hotel conference room, a library’s meeting room, a yoga studio, a laundromat, even your own basement.

Financials: There may be a room rental fee. Or the venue might just be happy to have people learning that it exists. Up to you if you want to charge a ticket fee or make it free.

Pros: You often have full control of how to run the event.

Cons: Lack of credibility. It’s harder to convince audience members and comedians to come to “12 Dark Alley Street” than to “The Comedy Club” or “Moe’s Bar and Grill.”

If not at a comedy club or theater, keep these additional questions in mind:

  • Will you need your own mic, amp and/or mic stand or does the venue have one?
  • Is there a stage? If not, will you bring one or just do it on the floor?
  • What is the stage lighting situation? Do other lights in that room turn off?
  • Is the venue easily accessible by car and/or public transit? Is parking plentiful?

-> Next Up -> Choosing The Comedians