Applying to new gigs

[Lynneski]

Ok, as promised, here's a work-related question:

When considering applying to a festival you've never worked (or a producer), what are the most significant factors you consider? Exposure? Geography? Hat size? Fees? Word-of-mouth recommendation? Other artists at the fest? A gambling addiction?

Lynne

[worldwidese]

All of the above are points to consider. Even gambling addiction! A person has to be ready to gamble a bit on weather, accomodation, pitch location etc.

Important also is compatibility. i.e. is the act going to be right for this particular gig. A heavy metal band won't do well if the audience is full of senior citizens. I think it would be useful for organizations to provide more information.

[This message has been edited by worldwidese (edited 12-13-2001).]

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

I'll bite.

I do not market to most festivals proactively, and have missed a few from my too slow office here in the Berkshires. Oops, I mean Queens.
3 exceptions to that are Edmonton, Oregon Country Fair, and Christchurch, all 3 because other performers have told me that they are an unusually good time. Edmonton last summer was true to that and Way more. Dreamy.
Generally, money/fees/hats are not so important. All three could triple as far as I'm concerned. I take a loss to street perform, but do it gladly. Its refreshing to be unsensored(ish), and the company is exquisite. The knucklehead glass player Ed Stander and I like to go to at least one good festival a year, is all.
For me, its word of mouth, 100%.

[Thom]

Lynne,

Have you ever thought of putting references from performers in your 'ad'?

I put quotes like, "Thom Britain is amazing, you must see him, blah blah blah" from producers on most of my promotional material. (That quote IS copywrited by the way)

Could you do the same for performers?

I know a quick;
"This festival is great and I made a fortune"
from Jim or any performer I know well enough to trust could make a HUGE difference in who I send promo to.

Also, since we know how important these lines are we'd be VERY happy to give them to producers we liked.

just a thought, carry on...

Thom

www.thombritain.com

[Jim]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Thom:
Lynne,

Have you ever thought of putting references from performers in your 'ad'?
I know a quick;
"This festival is great and I made a fortune"
from Jim or any performer I know well enough to trust could make a HUGE difference in who I send promo to.

More importantly, a quote like:
"This festival has the hottest girls and they all want to hang out with the performers." from Alakazam would be even more effective.

[Jim]

Seriously, though...

I agree with Taxi. WHO'S going to be there to hang out with has a huge effect on the decision to go or not.

The festival's reputation has a tremendous influence, as well. There are festivals I just WILL NOT do again. And others I just love to do. It all comes down to how respectfully the acts are treated. Fests like Waterloo and Edmonton show their love to the performers. Fests like Halifax show their allegience to their sponsors and the performers are secondary. Yes, the money is good at Halifax, but I felt dirty afterwards and wanted to go home. On the other hand, it's always sad leaving Edmonton!

Accomodations are important to me. I don't mind dorms, but I do mind roommates (unless they're The Butterfly Man.) Hotels are nice, but not when they're a mile or more from the performance areas. I'd rather stay in a cheap hotel across the street than stay at the Ritz and have to commute to the pitch. (But a well stocked green room near the pitch and the Ritz 2 miles away would be fine.)

Hat size isn't as important as having fun and having cool people to hang out with. I don't do too many festivals these days, but one or two a year is a nice break from the local work I do. If the amount of money I make at the festival is the same or even slightly less than I would make at home, I'm OK with it if I have a good time there. It's like a working vacation.

If I think of more, I'll add o this later.

Jim

P.S. Hot girls are always a plus, too.

[nick nickolas]

I'll say my say..
Much the same as Taxi and Jim..
What matters is the Hospitality of the Producers and staff at the festival,
Also the cast and the way they 'play'..

The hats ...well they are always there aren't they?

Good Vibes, good People and good single accomodation is the key for me...

Nick

[Chance]

Thanks for braving the waters, Lynne. Your work here on the boards is enough to make me curious about your festival.

Having said that, and from knowing many of the people here personally and reading the letters of dozens of others, my input is probably the least useful to someone in your position -- but of course a little thing like reality isn't going to stop me from adding my two cents, now is it?

The thing is, I like to travel. A lot. I wasn't doing enough of it so I gave up a full time career performing indoors so that I could do just that. (My only regret is that I didn't begin ten years sooner!)

So in my case geography is key. I have worked only a small numbers of festivals during my eight years' busking, and all but one of them was when the festival people contacted ME. By just busking around and somehow managing to be in the right place at the right time and getting invited to join the festival by the local agents who had caught a regular street show. THAT is a nice feeling.

I have never been offered a plane ticket into a festival, and until this ever happens (yeah, right!) I do not go out of my way to arrange my schedule to fit that of the typical circuit of festivals. To be frank, I love the street and all that it offers, good and bad, more than I love the thought of marketing myself to 50 festivals each season.

BUT... having said THAT, I have always told myself that I would reserve the right to do so when I become old and cantankerous like Robert, too stiff and lazy to do the REAL street anymore, letting the fest do all the advertising and just sit back and let the people come to me.

Which can't be too long away as I turn 40 in February! Expect to see my promo on your desk in the coming years!

It would definitely be welcome for other agents to join in here with you. Come on in, guys! Lifeguard Jim will keep the piranhas at bay.

[Bri]

Exposure... A friend just told me a good line that he uses when a client says "You'll get great exposure from my show" The reply..."People die from exposure."

[Lynneski]

Point to you, Brian. By exposure, I should have said "huge audiences" or "national promo" or even "pitches with really large edges". You know I wouldn't ask you to "work for the exposure". Starvation kills, too.

OK, in the spirit of teaching each other about how and why we do what we do...

It's tremendously important to me to work towards pulling together a "balanced" cast. Though how to define "balanced" is dicey.
- local/regional, domestic and international
- skill, circus/acro, theatre, mime, magic, music, dance, and always, comedy (this balance is most important to keep audiences engaged, provide the "something for everyone" factor)
-large, tall and on fire shows versus intimate and close-up shows
-what the audience has seen before, what the audience is comfortable with, what I think the audience needs to see but doesn't know yet
-artists I've worked with before, artists I've never worked with
-focussed circle shows, roves, installations, spectacle
- solos, duos and troupes
-gender
-seasoned and emerging artists
-and of course, all subject to negs and the almighty budget

Last is the whole personality thing, the "plays well with others" factor. Hardest to gauge ahead of time, magically brilliant when it works. Rare that there isn't some PITA (IE - Pain In The Ass) factor or a bit of diva-ness. I don't know about anyone else, but my life's to short to willingly rehire folks that I experienced having a huge PITA factor.

To borrow a quote from Mister Ewen completely without copyright approval, "I don't know if it's art, but I know there's an art to it".

I know we can do a much better job of sharing information about our fests so you can make better decisions on which you wish to apply. Hey, maybe we can even put together a "fact" page on each street fest here, so the basics don't require a lot of hunting.

And maybe we need to talk about the application process - timing, how decisions are made, tour construction - from both sides of the issue.

Lynne

[Stretch]

HIGH! LYNNE!

OH! boy! I torture myself asking myself this question too. If it promises to be a LOT of fun, I might pay you! Well, isn't that what happened when I stilt walked the Dublin Ireland Marathon for the Arthritis Foundation? Raised over $10,000, one $26 check at a time and stilt walked the marathon . . .TWICE.

Of course I can only afford to have THAT much fun about ONCE every two years.

I took on a circus arts festival in Steamboat Springs Colorado this summer. I had never before been there, took it on as sort of a "vacation". Supposed to be a two hour gig for $300 and a hotel room. Had so MUCH fun it turned into most of the day and half the night! Thank God I didn't have to do anything the next day. First time promoter/event, didn't have enough audience, so never did get the $, but oh, what a great experience.

Did get some good video though, although I had not planned on it, sold a couple of sets of the hand held wood stilts. I would not have taken the gig without the promise of the $300, as it took me away from a a real potential of over twice that, what with blowing the whole weekend with driving and all.

Years ago I traded a four hour performance for my Giant Candy Cane Costume. One of the best decisions I've ever made. Got a WONDERFUL and talented costume designer out of the deal, and have performed at that event (and enjoyed it) for 5 years now, plus some summer events for the same folks.

Since I don't do a circle act, there is no hat, so the fee IS important. That and timing. If I know that I am hired on early in the year, I can mitigate my loses (time and $, and my much needed recovery time) by planning my other gigs around your festival.

Did an opera this year in exchange for a LOT of tickets. 9-1-1 came along and never did get a chance to do anything with all those tickets, (I would have been RICH!) but had a blast stilt performing in Colorado Opera Troupe's performance of I Pagliacci.

I am a member of ITEX, a barter exchange group. http://www.itex.com/
I do a few events each year for their members, including a travel Trade Show. I exchange my barter dollars for everything from pizza to printing, mailing lists, signs, Amway, sewing, etc.

Earlier this year I performed at a CofC trade show booth in exchange for a very expensive ad in a meeting planners guide. Comes out in January, hope it works out.

Re: the hotel, ya, across the street is nice, but I can walk a mile in 15 minutes with my stilts or the 18 foot tall puppet. Of course if it is 90F degrees . . . . Having a QUIET room is much more important. This old fart needs his sleep. I'm mostly early to bed and early to rise, so I won't be disturbing the "night shift". Of course it was nice that the Hotel in Dublin had a bucket of ice handy for my bleeding feet after the last marathon !

If I/we bring 20 - 30 sets of hand held wooden stilts for your festival, or 2-3 costume changes, and a trunk full of props (I wish they would FIT in a trunk!), and a couple of 18 foot tall Giant Puppets, close in storage would be nice, but I'm adaptable.
One courtesy that I truly do appreciate is copy of the photos and video that is taken of our act. Feed back of all kinds from the promoter or any one else is welcome as well. This truly is my second childhood and I want EVERYONE to have as much fun as I do.

Two other notes: EVERYthing on these boards is long distance from Denver, so travel is expensive. BUT it is a tax deductible business expense if it is "work" related. Not so for a vacation.

January and February are my slow times. I'm vulnerable to offers of fun times in exotic locations with friendly (and reliable people with good reputations) for less than top dollar at these times. Tell me you have an enthusiastic fun crowd, and a two or three person camera crew on roller blades with a boom truck ready to try and keep up with me, AND I get a copy of the edited video and I'll be listening!

Tell me you've gone to the swanky hotel/resort/restaurant/attraction or advertising media or ? and that you have due bills that I can swap out and I'll be listening. Heck I might even take canned goods IF there is enough of them! Yes money talks, but it is not the only language. It DOES talk the loudest March - December however!

Hope this helps and my very best to you and yours,

Walking Tall and Stretching Imaginations!

Bill "Stretch" Coleman

http://Stiltwalker.com/

303-922-4655



------------------
Walking tall and stretching imaginations!
Bill 'Stretch' Coleman