I am on a roll these last few weeks.....
Road Story 2076: Marketing smarketing Winter 2002
I was touring western canada for my last time I said to myself. Nights of crying myself to sleep wondering what is wrong with me. I do this everytime by convincing myself that I will have a good time...it is all up to me..only I can make me have a good time. Yeah right.... as I lay at night making long distance phone calls to people I barely know just to get some comfort in the shitty hotel room
"Hi Sarah...it's Darren, don't you remember me. I know it is three am...I forgot the time difference. I...... we took that improv class and we never really were introduced but you laughed that one time when I played the no armed driving instructor who drove standard and had a wacky british accent"
I just cannot handle the road for that length anymore. It is not the clubs or the comics or the other bullshit why other comics will never go out there anymore. Just the idea of being away for 22 days in a row. When you are past the ten year mark you don't do tours this long to get better...you do it for the money and that is it. Maybe you can fool yourself into thinking that you can write a script with your time off...or you could visit friends while you are out there. Then once you are out there you realize your friends don't want to visit you.
I was walking into a weekend of shows headlining the Calgary comedy club there. I actually like the people in calgary..the staff...the people. I mean I know I sometimes I give the go fuck yourself vibe before a show but I am being genuine when I say I like Calgary. I don't know why i like it cause I never kill there...i hold my own.
For this tour I actually took time to try and market myself a little differently then the other tours I have done out there. I actually made posters which I paid for and sent them to the clubs a few months before so they could let people know that the show I do is not very "normal". Some of the clubs and venues posted the posters and it worked out well. I sent each club like 50 posters just to see what would happen.
Calgary is in a nice hotel and some felt the poster was not appropriate which they have a right to do and I am glad that at least the club tried. So I thought maybe just a few in the club then and that would be good.
One thing i do that is not very professional and I don't care...is that I always take up a small piece of paper on stage with me with like 5 new bits I am working on. Just a small scrap piece of paper with five titles on it and that is it. If the crowd is digging me then I force myself to try and work out some newer stuff...if they are not I stay a little closer to home if you catch my drift.
So right before showtime on the thursday night show, I walked up to the box office and asked for a scrap piece of paper. The nice girl said "Sure" and walked over to a heap of scrap paper and handed me a 4x4 inch piece of paper.
I turned it over and it was my tour poster in which they had cut into four and put on the scrap heap. So I said to her "You are handing me my poster" to see if she saw the irony. She just laughed like a uncomfortable schoolgirl and said "Yeah I know".
We both just kinda looked at each other not knowing what to say...kinda like the moments in Wonder Years when Kevin and Winnie would stare at each other. I turned my head and walked down the long cold hallway lined with pictures of comedians posing funny faces from years gone by. Overhead they were playing Kiss's I Wanna Rock and Roll All Night. I remember thinking this truly is the saddest music in the world.
and tear
5 Comments:
I can't believe they cut up your poster! That is not professional in my opinion.
As we try to get ahead in this crazy game they should realize these things cost money. It would have been a better jesture to at least hand them back and say "Sorry we could not use them".
Then again the Canadian industry is shit. There is no star system and that is partly our fault for letting it happen.
Club owners and bookers will not help us achieve stardom. Maybe they think it hurts their bottom line as they may have to pay us what we are worth?
Keep promotinng yourself. All comics should. ONe day we can wake up this nation and let them know about the hordes of talent that have gone unnoticed or worse, left to the UK or USA because this nation just does not give a fuck.
You have balls Frosty. Keep it up!!
Also unknown
Daryl Makk
Darren,
I will apologize on behalf of my club and for that "schoolgirl" and her insensitive and clearly moronic moment. The sins of one youngster should not be cast upon the entire industry.
Daryl says "Club owners and bookers will not help us achieve stardom." Tell that to the newspaper and radio execs that bill us astonomical amounts of money each week so we can put your names and faces out to the public. As well, if you've looked at a show ticket anytime in the last 2 years, you'll notice that we put the headliners name on it - that's to try to help them remember. At the end of the day, we're all personally responsible for getting ahead, regardless of what job you toil in.
This was just a story that I told so people don't think it is all roses and wine. I also stated that I like the club there and this kind of thing can happen anywhere....I just find it ironic now and can laugh at it.
Calgary over the years has been kind to me even though it can be rough for my style of humour.
It is up to the comic to try and promote themselves but it also up to the club to help cause in the end we do not make anymore money if the club is full or not. I always get up at six am and do radio...I always email all the radio stations and press outlets for every show in towns now.
Eventually people will wake up. If comedy clubs and venues do not realize that is no longer exciting to a vast amount of the public to go to comedy clubs but the public will go and pay 15 bucks for legally blonde 8 on ice....there is a problem.
This arguement is bigger then the three of us really. We all do our jobs well promoting and trying to do a job well done.
I do have to say one thing about the west and this is fact. I have had press everywhere in this country except the west. Maybe I am not known there...maybe crowds don't like me....or maybe like denise is saying, maybe the radio stations charge too much. In the east no paper has ever charged for the press that I have gotten. If there is an angle they want to report it. They just won't cover an event where the only benefit is to the club.
"Tell that to the newspaper and radio execs that bill us astonomical amounts of money each week so we can put your names and faces out to the public."
Yes Denise, you guys do spend money on ads but are they the right ads? I have never had any input as to what they say when I feature nor have I had any interviews, write ups, reviews from them or connected to them. The industry in Canada does not know how to "sell the sizzle" of any act unless it is a big concert series it seems. There are great things about all the features even if they don't have big movie credits.
I stand by my comment.
The day I get to have input on an ad, interviews set up by the clubs so I can have a write up (to post on my site), I will say they help to make us stars. There is a problem with media here and comedy. They too only seem to focus on big US names. Perhaps a different approach is needed?
Clubs are a business, they focus on their brand name. I understand that. They want bodies in the seats but ads that continuosly say "Come to this club for a good show" without pushing what is special about the comic de jour will eventually seem flat. Even restaurants tell you what is new on the menu when the advertise.
Clubs are not PR firms.
Maybe this is what the industry needs.Some PR people to work with the acts/clubs?
Darren has a style that is quite unique. Maybe the ads were not hitting his target audience so people there that night were expecting a cookie cutter show.. I am just throwing ideas out here but really, would you sell me the same way you sell Frosty?
Would Nannarone be sold the same way as Zedlacher? Both high energy but with their own unique flair.
I am not trying to ruffle feathers with the clubs, (god knows I have done that before!! LOL) but one thing all comics want is to be seen and seen by people who want their particular style of style of comedy. In short a following that is after their style.
Darren you know when you have the right room and when they are their for the ride, you light it up!
They exist here, they just have to know who you are and when, so they come. Methinks you had a stuffy corporate crowd that night? Just theorizing here.
I have seen some of your posters out east. They are well done and I can see certain people turning their noses up at it while others would trip over each other..."Man I have to see that show!"
Keep on with promoting, you are on the right track.
I forgot to add. I have noticed the tickets with our names. A great idea! I have actually signed a few. There is acutally someone I impressed out there that they wanted an autograph!! Cool
thanks mom!
:-)
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