Sharing a stage with acts who run long

[mommaK]

Oh the perils of the street shows! I've only been in this game for a few years but have been part of quite a few festivals. I think that everyone has valid points. As an organiser, I have been put in that position of backing the promoters and the performers at the same time (Taxi - you know what I mean!). It's a tough call when you have promoters who have sponsored the event cursing you because they decide to give you 30min slots (when you as the organiser know damn well that none of the acts you hired do a 30min show) and the performers who lose shows at the end of the night because of this situation. My festival in Halifax runs on 1 hr slots now - this was something that I implemented about a year ago to try and clear up these hassles.

If I hire an act, my first questions are on the time of their show. I make it clear to them that all pitches run 1 hr and no longer. As Jim had stated, when an act runs over their allotted time the next act has to make up for the "queen". This is true in Halifax. I have a meeting the day before the festival and on the day of the site walk and make it clear that I do not tolerate acts run over their allotted time slot. This way, all acts are clear on the situation.
I'm not saying that it doesn't occasionally still happen, but as Lynne stated (in so many words) burning bridges doesn't fly well.

My beliefs are that of each performer is a professional. I have hired you as a professional - why not act like it?

[Lynneski]

Yup, 1 hour spots are the way we worked things when I was at Waterloo, and also at Dundas. Time to set, draw, perform, hat and clear the pitch. Likely it's the case for you too, Kelly, but the start times and number of shows at any one given time at the fests I've worked have been based on a schedule that's been tweaked over history so as to be quite accurate at predicting where and when crowds will appear. Messing with the timeslot, then, messes with the whole she-bang.

But every fest has it's esthetic and it's own chi. Before I worked with Ken at Windsor last year, I had a hard time grasping his explanations of how Windsor flows different, how he expects closer to 30 minute shows, schedules closer to 45's, and why that works there. Having been there, now I get it. It's some wierd thing about the combination of the black asphalt site, the pitch arrangement, and the crowds that virtually requires it to operate in the way it does. But part of the reason why it works is because most of the time the circles are hand-delivered to you - there's little need to do much of a build. Wait five minutes after the pitch next to you goes down, and you're good to go. *When* that next-door pitch goes down is then the question.

Chicago, I understand, tried to work their schdule on 30's in their first year. That's gotta be very difficult to do when there's no crowd flow established, long builds required - how in the heck do you pull off a 15-20 minute build and then a show and still stay on time? There's gotta be some transitioning built in, and some allowance for vagaries of attendance.


Sometimes the sites themselves determine what the time structure looks like. At both Edmonton and Windsor, one can see nearly all, if not all, the pitches from almost any location on the square. So it doesn't matter so much where the next show goes up, as folks can see the circle forming. In Waterloo and Dundas, pitches are aligned in a row along the street. One can't see anything but the very next pitch, so timing what goes up in the next space has to closely relate to the space in use.

Ok, maybe this is all getting a little too noodly, even for me.

To summarize for the original query: timehogs are cutting your grass. Be the squeaky wheel to mngt until something is resolved. Vow not to be a timehog. Don't book timehogs.

Oh, and Taxi - I've now added a version 2.0 hook to my roadkit. Let that be a warning to all faceless comics.

[em]

My go my go!
Ok, god, sometimes Peewee and i struggle to get past 31 minutes let alone bloody 80 minutes! thats because we are oldish, well 30ish and we dance, well not dance exactly. well i dance, peewee rabbits on till i slap him.
so, tell them they HAVE to dance for at least half the show then they'll bloody well keep it short in 40 degree temps.
secondly, send them to The Shizouaka street competition. If you go over 20 minutes, even by a minute, you lose "points". You become one of the acts that stands at the back of the stage shuffling with humiliation as a 5 hour prize giving ceremony is painfully drawn out.And you get nothing. absolutely nothing.
Tax them. If doing REALLY long shows REALLY earns you more money(?) (MONEY MONEY MONEY)then every minute they go over they have to pay $10/$20/£100 depending on the person in charge of taxing at the time.
Then the taxed money goes to acts that aren't very good at busking. Like dancers that have to give shows away because its too hot and their makeup is dripping off and one of them was in the bar till 5AM with Hot Nuts and Pop Corn, Martin, Nick etc.And it could be either one of them.
I like the taxing idea.. the more i think about it...
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

[jester]

I've never been to a place where it ran on time. But I've been lucky, I haven't had a real problem with time queens. If I'm given 30 minutes and I start late I use my 30 mins.

In comedy clubs I've known a problem with aspiring comics though and their is a physical law that says the more mediocre the comic, the longer he will over run by.

In comedy mediocrity is worse than being utterly bad. But the utterly bad ones are normally heckled off before their time anyway.

[Christopher Cool]

Granted that the performer has done this many times before and is aware of the fact that he is going over time, try this:

Make sure you have your crate turned up loud and start your show beside him using his last row as your first. Best time to do this is during his hat line - yeah they love that. "FREE Show here ..." Go crazy!!! Finish with his front row being your last.

The tumblers and I had our differences, so I did the "COOL Tumbler show" Strapped on my hard helmet and did my summersalts - left a nice blood stain on the pier, but it was worth it. (FYI I don't do a tumbler show, let a lone a summersalt)

Don't let other performers walk over you, unless you play the bagpipes.

Cool!

[malkav powermann]

'quote'<[during his hat line - yeah they love that. "FREE Show here ..." Go crazy!!!}> 'end quote'
i hope you are kidding? i have seen this happen it just starts fights , and so does going long but any pitch abuse should be handled by us off the pitch crowds should nut be used in our busking Jehad!