Cancelled!
Its every comedian’s worst nightmare. Getting cancelled. I’m not talking about the kind of cancelled you get from getting caught doing a Nazi salute or wanking into a hotel pot plant. I’m talking about the kind of cancelled where you have to call off a gig due to lack of sales.
Last week I was producing a show in Kingsland at a nice venue featuring a really great line up of comedians. We sold two tickets. I followed the marketing playbook that has proven effective in the past - social media marketing, flyering, physical marketing at the venue. And we sold two tickets. Comedy needs an audience to work so I made the difficult decision to can the show.
It sucks. People think comedy is hard but the things they think are hard (public speaking, bombing, dealing with hecklers) are actually just part of the job. Some of them can even be fun or good growth opportunities if you handle them properly. Not selling tickets? That sucks and its hard to find much of a silver lining.
Unlike other art forms comedy needs an audience to work. Its hard not to feel like ticket sales (or lack thereof) are a referendum on your worth as a performer. Sometimes you have to take the L and move on.
The part of comedy most people don’t see. The hustling to get on line ups and push ticket sales. The relentless shilling and self promotion. Its honestly exhausting and most comedians I know would much rather spend their time honing their punchlines and working on their performance.
It’s also why I’ll never take it for granted when someone does buy a ticket to one of my shows. Times are tough, money is short and people are really struggling so if somebody does put their hand in their pocket and buy I ticket to one of my shows I want them to have the best night out. Then maybe they might tell a few friends and then their friends might buy tickets to the next show (and I won’t have to cancel it!)
Speaking of cancelled
A gig I did last week ended up in the news for all the wrong reasons. University student faces racist heckler at Auckland bar’s comedy night. This was in the running for the worst crowd I’ve ever performed for. The majority of the crowd were a work group who had been taking advantage of a company bar tab for an undisclosed length of time. Unfortunately alcohol and pack mentality took over and the offending mob treated some comedians pretty poorly. Nobody should face racist abuse just for stepping behind a mic. Many of the comedians were early in their career and didn’t have the experience necessary to deal with a turd of a crowd. Kudos to them for taking the abuse in their stride and not letting it get ugly.
Media coverage like this is terrible for comedy. We struggle to get people to come out to gigs. Usually we are fighting against their preconceptions of what comedy is based on some dud crowd work videos they’ve seen on TikTok. Most Kiwis don’t want to sit in an audience with hecklers that need to be dealt with by the comedians. They just want to have a good time.
The other problem with coverage like this is it might make comedy appeal to the wrong sort of audience. People who want to get tanked up with their mates and yell things they don’t think they can get away with in the real world. I want to sell tickets but I don’t want to sell them that badly.
GIGS!
Its a big week this week. I’m producing another gig on Thursday 21 August at Takapuna Beach Cinemas which is selling quite well so far. Tickets are still available here.
On Saturday night I’m teaming with Callum Wagstaff, one of my favourite comedians. The first time I met Callum was when were competing in the 2022 National RAW Comedy final - Callum finished second behind this year’s Billy T winner Hoani Hotene. He has a really unique comedy style and I reckon this show is going to be really fun.
Tickets are available here.
Buying tickets isn’t the only way you can support a comedian. So much of our comedy career is dictated by our social media following - chuck me a follow on Instagram or Tiktok. It doesn’t cost anything and I’m trying to put some funny stuff on there.