Something New
Something that should always be taken into consideration is your audience. It should be fairly easy to get the information when you are first dealing with the Booking Agent.
How big is the crowd expected to be? What is the median age? Is your crowd a Church group or a civic organization? You must tailor your script and the puppets you use to fit the crowd. If you do some jokes that are borderline in content, scrap them for a Church group. They will not be impressed. Although we don’t recommend off color humor, we know that some of you do use it, so just be very discriminating about the type lines and the type crowd you are playing to. It could make all the difference in the world as to whether or not you get called back.
Check out where you will be located in the room well before the day of the show. Get yourself placed where you have the best chance of being the closest to the most people. (It goes without saying that you need to do a sound check several hours before the show.)
Make sure that you dress above the average person in the room. After all, you are special enough that they are paying you to be there.
Jerry Clower had a practice anytime he showed up at a job of immediately finding out who the boss was. He kind of thought that the person who hired him had every reasonable expectation of being in charge of his act. Make sure to let that person know that you realize you are working first for them and then for the group you are performing for. With this attitude established, you will be much more likely to get the things you need in order to perform a better show.
It’s the little things that add up to be big ones. Just remember, no matter how big you become in the business, you can always be replaced if you have done a less than good job of taking care of the folks that sign your check. They will like you much better after the show when folks in the audience tell them how much they enjoyed your show.
That’s all for now folks,
Steve & JET