Paid Members gmoney Posted May 4, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 4, 2018 What are you paying them, if you don't mind me asking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted May 4, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 4, 2018 24 minutes ago, Dead Mike said: Glad it went well fella. Very bad form from the closer, especially if it was pre-agreed that it was a strict 20 & she was getting paid. That said, at my last show the compere (who runs a very successful & established night in Manchester) said that they still have to politely remind their headliners that the gig isn't an excuse to try out new stuff & they want the club set they'd do at any of the big weekend gigs. Onwards & upwards though! Absolutely. To be honest, right after the show, I was so tired and everything, I was sort of feeling a little down, like maybe I didn't want to do this every week. This morning, I can't wait for next week's show. Hopefully we can get some flyering done ahead of next week's show, which we weren't able to do for the opening night - which makes the fact that we got so many in even more impressive, I think. 24 minutes ago, gmoney said: What are you paying them, if you don't mind me asking? It's a bucket split. We, as promoters, take half. Then we've got a percentage deal worked out where, for example, the headliner gets 20% (so, last night our headliner made about a tenner for half an hours work). For the first week, we are also donating 30% of our proceeds to Noah's Ark Children's Hospice, and many of the acts - apart from the headliner - have also offered to give up their bucket money for the charity, so that's nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrasslin Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 26 minutes ago, SpursRiot2012 said: What makes you say that? I've seen her act a few times - that is, doing an actual set, not workshopping material - and she was always pretty decent. Actually had more than one person get up with their notebook. I don't mind people trying bits of new material, but I did make a point of saying early on that this was not a new material night nor a "proper" open mic, since it's always pre-booked comics who I've vetted (for the most part, there was an act last night who did 10 minutes smashing up citrus fruits who I hadn't seen before, so...) as so many of those nights degenerate into about 10 comedians with notebooks watching each other do five minutes they're trying to hone to do somewhere else they consider "proper." Well, I'm trying to turn this thing into a "proper" night, myself, so having the closer come up and do half an hour of unfinished material left a bad taste in my mouth. She's just a bit insufferable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted May 4, 2018 Awards Moderator Share Posted May 4, 2018 How much is the entry fee Spurs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted May 4, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 4, 2018 5 minutes ago, Onyx2 said: How much is the entry fee Spurs? It's free. We do a bucket collection at the end of the night, so it's sort of pay what you think the night was worth, but nobody is obligated to pay anything. Although it would be nice if someone is coming to see the show to buy a drink and maybe in some sort of sly way make sure the bar staff know that they wouldn't be there, buying that drink, if not for us! We are also now going to be lending continued support to Noah's Ark Children's Hospice where 10% of anything raised goes to them every week. It might not be much, but it's something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted May 4, 2018 Awards Moderator Share Posted May 4, 2018 Well I'm there. ... Remind me where it is again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted May 4, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 4, 2018 So, it's upstairs at the White Hart in Stoke Newington. 69 Stoke Newington High St, Stoke Newington, N16 8EL. Facebook event page for next week's show is here:  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted May 4, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 4, 2018 Good stuff. Should be there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted May 4, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 4, 2018 If anyone from on here comes to one of the shows, make sure to come upstairs and see me before you get a drink as I can give you a flyer that'll get you 10% off. It's not much, but given London prices, it's not bad either. Those are limited - I think I gave out about 10 or 15 yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Danger Posted May 4, 2018 Share Posted May 4, 2018 Is that £10 for the headliner pretty standard for the level they're/you're performing at? I'm not surprised promoters are getting shafted, I imagine it's similar to wrestling where if a performer feels they're above a certain standard of promotion they'll pretty much do what they like. Obviously it's shitty behaviour and you want them to treat it as professional as you are taking it but it's a tough ask when you haven't got the caveat of a big pay day to hold over them. That £10 probably doesn't cover much after travel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted May 4, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 4, 2018 (edited) 27 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said: Is that £10 for the headliner pretty standard for the level they're/you're performing at? I'm not surprised promoters are getting shafted, I imagine it's similar to wrestling where if a performer feels they're above a certain standard of promotion they'll pretty much do what they like. Obviously it's shitty behaviour and you want them to treat it as professional as you are taking it but it's a tough ask when you haven't got the caveat of a big pay day to hold over them. That £10 probably doesn't cover much after travel. Most "open mics" don't do a bucket collection type deal, at least in my experience. Those are where you go to do things like work out material and you can have your notebook on stage with you and what have you. There are a few, good, established comedy nights/groups that attract real audiences but who also host new material nights where it's expected that the set might not be polished, or the comedian might need their notebook or whatever. Our night is at the level of an open mic, but I very much feel that a night's vibe is made by how we as the promoters and the comedians treat it. It becomes a "proper" night if we make it feel like a proper night. Now, yes, you're right that that £10 probably isn't doing a lot for her (although you could see it as £10 for 20 minutes work and we're also an early show which gives comedians the chance to do double shots and go close somewhere else that's finishing up at 10 or 11pm), but even at her level - and she's fairly experienced - stage time is still very important. And if we - both promoters and comedians - work together, we can turn that free admission, bucket-at-end night into a decent, ticketed event. But if comedians treat the night like it's just any other open mic, new material, new act night then the audience - real people, not comedians or their mates - ends up getting driven away and it becomes, as I mentioned earlier, 10 comedians, notebooks out, watching each other doing 5-10 minutes that they're trying to hone so they can they go and do better at a "proper" comedy night. I've seen it happen. There were a number of nights - one near Covent Garden, two in Dalston - that, at the start, had a real audience. And they could have built on that. But even the MC (who was also the promoter!) at those nights treated it like, hey, this is just a bit of free comedy I'm doing to get stage time. And the audience didn't take long to figure out that this probably isn't worth the effort to come and see. So the nights - all three - dwindled and died. I'm doing this night, yes, to get better on stage but I also would like to build something real up there. This particular act is - I believe - doing comedy full-time, as her job. So, she needs to go somewhere to work on her bits. And I'm totally OK with that. But I didn't book that and if she'd told me she wanted to come and do that, she wouldn't have been closing the show. A few little things compounded to leave a bad taste in my mouth with her - the workshopping, the turning up at the interval, the asking me in a fucking stage whisper if it's OK to plug her comedy night at the end of her set, giving out to the audience (in that passive-aggressive way many comedians at this level do) that they weren't laughing at particular bits - which is indeed shocking since she's literally standing there telling them, "this bit doesn't really have an ending." What, a punchline? Yeah, it's a wonder they're not laughing. I mean, that might be a preference thing from me. But I just hate that, "oh, that one didn't work" or "it's a thinker!" Move on! It's weird to say since you are in fact talking to the audience, but there *is* an element of not breaking the "fourth wall" to standup, I feel. If your joke didn't land, well, it didn't land. I don't think you need to comment on the fact it didn't land, just move the fuck on to the next thing. And especially don't, as I say, complain that your bit with no punchline didn't get a laugh when you've told the audience up front that it has no punchline. It's kind of missing an essential element of the joke, isn't it? Edited May 4, 2018 by SpursRiot2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoUseforaUsername Posted May 5, 2018 Share Posted May 5, 2018 I tried to broaden my horizons by watching Bill Burr: "Why Do I Do This?". I had to turn it off after 15 minutes. Why are so many comics so loud and abrasive? A large part of the reason Louis CK works for me is the delivery of his jokes. It's his timbre; he's easy to listen to. Like if I'm driving to work I'm not going to listen to a DJ who sounds like Gilbert Gottfried, because it's distracting. It's why I think Dave Chappelle is good, too. His style is informal. It's like he's talking with you, not at you. It's relaxed. It's not like a lot of modern comics yelling out overly rehearsed sounding routines. I don't know how critically acclaimed Burr is, but he reminded me a lot of Denis Leary, and Leary isn't a critical darling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted May 5, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 5, 2018 Bill Burr is an excellent comedian. Obviously its just that you don't like his style or stage persona. Luckily, there are loads of comedians with specials to choose from with a completely different way of performing material than Burr, some of whom you've mentioned. However, he's much better than Leary. Much, much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted May 10, 2018 Awards Moderator Share Posted May 10, 2018 Fresh from @SpursRiot2012 comedy night in Stoke Newington. Very damn good for the price (free!) so if you're in the area definitely give it a go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members SpursRiot2012 Posted May 10, 2018 Paid Members Share Posted May 10, 2018 Thanks so much for coming. You, too, @Carbomb  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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