To break it down… Meet Drink Laugh was a hit. Why? Because people had fun. Comics had fun me, venue appreciated the event and alcohol sponsors had a positive experience, or this is what I choose to believe. Now down to the nitty gritty.
It ain’t my first time at the rodeo, but somehow I am constantly making mistakes. Err a wise man told me if you’re not bombing you are not learning. I think that is true on the producer front and comic front. Wali Collins says ABC always be closing and I want to add to that ABLB Always Be Learning from Bombing. Cuz let’s be real you are always going to bomb– and by you I actually mean me. EEK
How do I know the knitty gritty? Well… everyone tells me what was wrong-in real time-. The truth is most of the comments are correct, but don’t the truth hurt? These comments are painful to hear, but necessary. Most of the feedback I knew on my own, but hearing it from others only makes it more real and more of a problem I need to fix. Things I learned from Meet Drink Laugh- I need someone to run the show and lord have mercy did I have the right guy. It’s amazing how being emotionally invested in something totally clouds your judgement. Having someone unemotional (yes a man) with good judgement and on the case just makes it so much smoother. When two of our comics hadn’t shown up he literally ran (almost tripped) to find a comic that could kill or err gently hurt. Can I coin that term? The comics said the venue was weird (which is true, but the pro comics handled it). You can absolutely see the amount of years of experience and how it makes a difference. The pros can handle any situation (within reason). So other things I learned– don’t be so freakin’ nice. I was trying to help audience members avoid ticketing fees by purchasing at the door, but forget it. It just complicates matters. Also, some of these ticketing companies help promote so they deserve the revenue. I am going to try and have 4,5 different promotional/ticketing companies at the next events. I am only booking headliners. I shouldn’t even be on the lineup at this point, but what is the point of it all if I’m not giving myself stage time. It’s a balancing act between being a producer & a comic at these events. I think the happy medium is me doing some time, but not THAT much time. I’m aware of where I’m at in comedy. It’s hard to not compare yourself to others. I think that’s why most people get married and have kids because everyone else is. The worst part of it all is being financially dependent on my parents. I have tried to downsize my life, but if my parents didn’t give me work or support me when needed, I would be homeless. I think thats partially why I’m a bag lady because I know my roots. That’s also one of my darkest issues; I’m so dependent on my parents financially. It hurts to write this, but if this is the comedy grind blog I’m gonna grind it out. And hopefully get some jokes out of it; being a comedian we are using our life experiences as fodder for humour so whats the difference between talking on stage and writing it in a blog? Umm cuz there is written proof of my lame-ness. The worst part of the financial situation is even the comics who are headliners and are killing it- it’s still financially rough. They literally run around town trying to get spots where they are paid $25 and if they get 4 spots at least they made a $100 which is a days pay; and as another comic astutely said as an aside (pay for an 18 year old). You can’t win!! But we are living our passions and you can’t put a price tag on that (well you can, but that’s not the point). Godspeed and meet drink cry no meet drink laugh.