Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve created a comedy blog post. Sorry, it’s been really busy. I’m going to try to get back to doing these once a week. We’ll see!
If you think negotiating pay is hard when it’s just about you as a comedian, try negotiating pay for yourself and 2 to 5 other comics! It’s nobody’s favorite part of producing a comedy show…but it is one of the most important parts!
Let’s start this article with some baseline logic.
You and your comedian friends should get paid to do what they/we do.
It’s a service you’re offering. Money is being made at the establishment you are performing at. (And if money is not being made, they will likely stop offering the comedy show.)
So if money is being made, and you are doing work to help bring in that money, you should be getting paid.
However when producing shows and discussing budgets, there is a lot of other factors to consider. If you ask for to little, you could be “leaving money on the table” and cheating yourself and your comedians. If you ask for to much, the venue could choose not to hire you, and likely go find someone else who will do it for cheaper. Also if you ask for a lot, you better deliver, otherwise it may be a one and done gig! Expectations from you and your venue need to be discussed, and agreements need to be made.
It’s a whole thing. Here are the different types of “being paid” I’ve worked with in different venues, and from my experience, different venues are met with different expectations.
“Just the tip(s)”
Sometimes, especially when you are a brand new comic, a smaller venue may approach you to book a comedy show with them, but they tell you they can’t pay you. More experience comedians may completely pass on this “opportunity”, because for them it’s really not an opportunity at all.
But if you’re new, you may want experience hosting and producing a show. You also may not be fully confident in your “product” yet where you feel comfortable charging a lot for it. (I get it, we all have to start somewhere!) Comedy may be just a fun activity for you, and a comedy show paid just in tips may be appealing to you.
I’ve done many shows like this in my time. And some have even been good!
I recommend every new producer start with a tips only comedy show at one of their favorite venues near where they live. It’s great training grounds for future shows that may be more financially lucrative. I run a ticketed show now that started as a “tips only” freebie. I was able to build an audience and take good pictures of a fun monthly show, and then when I approached bigger venues with the idea of doing a comedy show where they’d pay me, I would show them pictures of my (free) show that I was doing and be able to say “Look at how successful this is, can I do the same at your venue?” But with the second and third places, I wouldn’t do it for free. And that’s how I got paid shows, from a free one.
Some things to consider if this is the kind of budget you’re working with.
Can you and the venue bring in enough people to the show where you’ll get an acceptable amount of money to pay yourself and the comedians? Shows like this only work if enough people come, and give money, to help you provide for yourself and the comedians. If the venue can’t afford to pay you and doesn’t feel comfortable offering a ticketed show, do they have a big enough of a client base to get “butts in seats” in your comedy show?
The only thing worse then no comedy show, is a bad comedy show…so don’t put yourself in a position where you are asking comics to perform in a room of 3 people for no money because you didn’t want to say no to someone asking you to work for free at a failing business. (I’ve been there and done that and it wasn’t a fun experience)
Do you really want to work with this place? Working for tips usually only work if you really like the venue, and live close by. Hopefully the venue helps with promotion by placing signs in the venue and getting word out on all their platforms (and if they don’t, maybe that’s a sign you shouldn’t be working with them)
In my experience, with these kinds of shows, usually a lot of the promotion falls on you.
Be transparent with your comedians about pay. Ok, you’re doing a tips only show. We get it, we’ve all been there. as producers. This is information you need to share right away to your potential comedians when you ask if they want to perform.
“Hi, would you like to come perform at my show at <Venue>? It’s paid only in split tips, so I can’t promise you’ll be able to retire early from this show…but if you’re available and interested, I’d love to have you!”
Their answers may surprise you. Local professional comics are always looking for spots to try out their newer material in front of “real audiences” (Not just comics at open mics) so you may catch them on a good day when they’re home and have a new bit they want to try out in a stress free “I’m not getting paid much” environment. Also new, amateur, or semi-pro comedians may just be looking for stage time so they may be delighted to do your show, especially if it’s a good crowd!
If you’re only getting paid in tips, you better pretend you are a pastor during the Offering time, and get the most tips possible! Lots of comics will agree to do a tips only show, and then do a terrible job asking for tips. Not only is this a disservice to yourself, but it’s not great for the comics you book on your show. I get it, asking for tips sucks, but it’s how you are going to pay your comedians, so if that’s the only way you are getting paid…suck it up, you’re a salesman now (or at least for part of your show)
Have a sales pitch that you say at some point in your show. You’re a comedian, make it funny. I can’t say mine will work for you, but I absolutely play it up as an offering. First, I tell them how amazing the comics are and how lucky we are to have them for free….and then my joke is, “I’m a former pastor, i have no problem guilting you all to give money to a good cause.” And I also pass the tip jar like an offering plate…it’s to easy to choose not to give if you never have to at one point hold the tip jar in your hands while everyone is watching you pass it to the next person.
If you aren’t going to pass the tip jar, you should at least have it at a great location and suggest people drop tips as they are leaving at the end of the show. Maybe ask the comedians to have their sad helpless child stand by the door shaking the tip jar as he/she/they look hungry. It can’t hurt!
I should say, if you are doing a ticketed show and still want to ask for tips…I don’t normally make as a big of a deal passing the plate and guilting them into giving if they’ve already paid to get in…but I do leave the option there in case they want to give extra.
Speaking of which
Ticketed Shows
This is probably the most common kind of comedy shows, and definitely the version I’d recommend if possible. You and the venue settle on a price for tickets, and then that’s the money that you use to pay yourself and the comedians.
There are still some considerations here too though
Do you get 100% of ticket sales, or are you doing a split with the venue? Best case scenario, the venue will tell you that you get all the ticket sales, and they make money from food and drink sales.
Some venues will ask for a percentage of ticket sales. Other venues will say you get 100% of the ticket sales, but they will charge you for using their space. If this happens you want to consider how much money you’ll likely make, and if it’s worth the cost. It’s absolutely okay to reach the conclusion that it is not worth the cost, and choose not to do the show.
Often I’ll agree to try one show. You can learn a lot from working with a venue from that very first show.
How much should the tickets cost? There are a lot of factors that will come in to play here. When setting ticket prices, the first question you should be asking is how many people can the venue hold? You want to know the maximum amount of money you’ll make at each show, because then that will give you an idea of what you can pay everyone.
The next question you’ll want to do know is how much do you want to pay everyone? Maybe I want to do a 3 person show where I, the host/producer, make $200, the headliner makes $400, and the feature makes $100. So I know that the minimum I need to make from the show is $700. If the venue holds 60 people, and I charged $15, the most I’d make (assuming we are getting 100% of the ticket proceeds) is $900….so that could work.
Also when you are thinking of how much money you should make, remember to account for whatever you are wanting to spend to promote the show (facebook ads, printouts, etc.)
You also want to consider the audience, their demographic, and what people in the area would likely pay for a comedy show. Some parts of town will think $15 is to expensive, so you’d have better results in selling cheaper tickets. Some parts of town may have more money, and would consider a $15 dollar show probably something that is cheap and lame….go ahead and charge $20 then! This is a great question to discuss with the venue owner.
One final thought, on this point: if you are charging $20-30 dollars for a show, you have a bigger responsibility to give them a better show. Don’t bring “open mic comic showcase” energy to a $40 show. But if it’s a $5 dollar show, that’s a little more understandable. (But you should at least only bring the good open mic comics!)
Who’s in charge of the actual ticket selling? By this I mean who is actually collecting the money, yourself or the venue? I always recommend you be in charge of the money, but some venues would prefer that they do it. Create an online ticket link through a service like Ticket Tailor, Eventbrite, or one of the other billions of ones that exist.
I like Ticket Tailor because currently they take the least amount from your ticket sales, and their is a donation option that I find many folks take advantage of for $5 or $10 ticketed shows…but you want to be mindful as prices from the ticket places increase. If it ever gets to much, just switch to another ticket service.
If you are in charge of ticket sales, be sure to pay yourself enough to offset the costs of using that service. This, by the way, is usually why venues want to be in charge of the money…so they can take a bigger cut, or at least be in charge of who’s using the knife.
Can we sell tickets to this show? The last consideration if you’re doing a ticketed show is will people actually buy tickets to come to the show? The whole thing falls apart if nobody is buying tickets. Does the venue have enough of an organic audience where people will show up to your show and buy the ticket?
Do YOU have an audience that would come to the venue? You might have an audience, but is the location of the venue somewhere they might come? In my experience, the farther the venue is from where I actually live, the more I need to depend on their audience to make up the folks that buy tickets
Final thought on this point, if I know for a fact they will not be promoting the show well, then I will likely not do a show with them. I am always willing to try one, but often will choose not to do a 2nd if there isn’t much of an organic audience. (And by organic audience, I mean people that come because they know the venue)
Not going to lie, selling tickets is a hassle. Wouldn’t it be great if venues just paid you to put on a comedy show? Sometimes they do!
Venues with Budgets
I’ll just say it…this is every producer’s favorite kind of venue! The venue that makes enough money where they are able to pay you to put on a show. Maybe it’s still a ticketed show, and maybe you still make money from those tickets. (Or maybe all the money from ticket sales goes to them, but you’re being paid enough where it doesn’t matter.)
I typically find that theaters and chain restaurants are the most common places with budgets to pay for a show. Usually if it’s a theater, they’re expecting a really good show so I’ll be honest…wait til you know you can produce a damn good show before you take these production gigs. Because if you don’t, you could risk only being booked once, not satisfying your customer, and never being booked by them again (and they may even tell other people you didn’t put on a good show)
That’s’ one consideration, here are others:
How big is the budget? Are they offering you $1000-$1500, or $100-$200? That will 100% dictate the kind of comedians you can bring in. I always tell venues, the bigger the budget, the better the comedians I can get you. If they offer me $200, okay it’s going to be a local show, and we’re also taking in tips…and we are probably going to be making all or some of the money made from ticket sales too. Now if they offer me $1000-$1500, that’s probably all I need to pay the comedians, and I’ll be making some calls to my friends with credits who might travel to be on the gig.
(But even then, they won’t be traveling from far because that’s probably not enough money to cover travel and lodging….however if they offered me $5000….)
How are you breaking down what you are making? In my opinion the two most important people to pay are yourself and the headliner. If it’s a small budget, those are the people I’m taking care of first, and then I’ll pay the rest of the comics with what I made from tips and potentially ticket sales as well. And I’ll probably book local comics who I can pay less, except maybe the headliner.
What do you say if they ask, “How much would you need to put on a comedy show?” First of all, a good self discipline is to take the number your thinking of right now…and add $300-$500 to it. Because you’re probably undervaluing yourself and also if they say no to that first number, you can suggest something cheaper which is still likely more then what you were originally thinking.
There are 2 considerations when considering a budget for a comedy show.
1) Consider the size and overall budget of the venue. If it’s a tiny coffee shop they can probably not afford a budget of $1000-$2000, but they probably can $200-$300.
2) How much you’d like to pay the comedians for that show, and remember to include yourself in that equation. Generally speaking, at most comedy clubs the pricing breakdown is.
Hosts get $50-$100
Features get $150-$250
Headliners get $500+
For local showcases, typically if comics get paid $50-$100, that’s a good night. (Again, generally speaking)
So if you can pay yourself and your people those amounts or better, you’re running a good show. (At least money wise, there of course are other considerations)
It’s a great day if you work with a venue that can pay you $1500 and you can split it in a way that you pay all the comics well….but you better deliver a show that’s worth $1500!
If you have a place that can only pay you $200, hopefully you can also profit from ticket sales and tips where you are able to pay your comedians a bit better….or maybe it’s a good fun show, that doesn’t pay a ton…and those have their places in our lives as comedians too!
—-
So that’s a bit of insight on making money from producing shows. I hope it helps! Let me know your thoughts, if I missed anything, or if you have any questions! Have a wonderful day!
