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Becoming your own publicist is an advantage in any industry.
Whether you have the knack for it or not, you can do your own
publicity and make yourself known. Admittedly, publicists have
their own skill sets and contacts that can help you get your
name out there and make people hear about you, but even without
those skills and contacts, you can do your own job in that
respect.
There are several reasons you may want to consider being your
own publicist. For one, there is the cutback on costs.
Publicists, agents, and managers usually charge a fee of 10% to
20% for any gigs you do, and over time this percentage can hurt
your wallet. Another reason for becoming your own publicist is
control. Publicists will usually negotiate deals for you and you
may find yourself booked for a gig that you won't want to do,
but by then it may be too late to back out. Being your own
publicist allows you to pick and choose the jobs you take.
That said and done, here are a few tips to getting started as
your own publicist.
Know your selling points - as a comedian, you have to be
completely confident in yourself. Self-confidence is a necessity
in any endeavor, but for entertainers of any sort who perform on
stage, whether musicians, actors, or stand up comedians,
self-confidence is extremely important. Not only does it allow
you to perform effortlessly on stage, when it comes to doing
your own publicity you have to be confident about the things
that make you funny. It's not just about making people laugh;
you have to know why people find you hilarious, and add these to
your selling points. As your own publicist, you'll be selling
yourself, and you have to let people know what you've got to
offer.
Expand Your Contact Base - try to make the acquaintance of other
comedians as well as comedy club owners. Start small, and look
to getting to know them as a learning experience. You'll be able
to pick up tips from the more experienced comedians, and stories
from the comedy club owners regarding past comedians that they
saw were either good or bombed. But aside from getting
information, you'll also be performing a very important task -
slowly but you'll be getting yourself noticed by these people
who are already working with the comedian industry. When time
comes for you to start your stage runs, you'll also be able to
ask these people for assistance in getting bookings.
Advertise, Baby! - Whether through posters, mock interviews,
flyers, or whatnot, you'll need to get word out that you'll be
performing. Different approaches work for different people. Do
your research in this area, and look at your options. Find a
method of advertising that you feel will be both effective for
the audience you're targeting, and one that you'll also be
personally capable of producing. For example, TV or radio
airtime is something most people can't personally afford (and if
you can, I'd like to talk to you about making a charitable
contribution to my bank account...) but some newspapers are
always good to go to publish an interview or to do a review.
If you're feeling confident, you can even write your own reviews
and do the newspaper's work for them, just submitting the
article to them and letting them slap one of their writer's name
on it as an author.
Go Online - get your own website. This is an easy way to get
people to know you. Make sure to approach comedy websites and
arrange to place links to their sites to yours. In return, ask
them to place links to your website on their, so that people
surfing their sites have a chance to be directed to yours. Do
the same for comedian forums.
Prepare a Debut Performance - when all your stuff is ready,
prepare a debut performance. While you may already be doing
small gigs at less known clubs, a properly publicized debut
performance gets your name out through word of mouth faster than
relying on normal word of mouth. Choose your act carefully,
because you definitely DON'T want to bomb this gig. This is a
make or break maneuver, so you have to choose a venue that will
cater to a lot of people and has it's own reputation that will
lend an added boost to yours. Also, when preparing a debut
performance, don't rely on the owner of the club for assistance
in getting the word out. Until you make a name for yourself,
you'll just be another act for that club owner, and
realistically you shouldn't expect any support from them until
you can prove yourself.
How to Book Your Gigs
Going to stand up comedy gigs is a favorite pastime. Young and
old, male or female, they just can’t resist letting themselves
hang loose whenever they go to a comedy bar and listen to a
great comedian package things in a funny way.
If you are an aspiring comedian, having the charisma and good
punch lines are, unfortunately, not enough. There are seemingly
unimportant parts of the gig that you have to go through to be
able to make it to the big leagues, or at least make a name for
your self.
One of the most important things that a comedian has to do
before he starts a gig is to prepare. Hours of practice in front
of a mirror or a small audience won't mean anything if you don't
have a gig. Booking gigs is a major part of the career of a
comedian.
Not all comedians have the luxury of having a personal assistant
or a manager who takes care of the matters concerning the gig
bookings and preparation, especially those who are just starting
out.
Here are some effective tips and reminders for anyone who would
like to start a gig somewhere in town:
-Buy a decent recording device
The first thing that comedy clubs and bars look for from an
aspiring comedian is some sample material. You probably have so
many funny ideas, which have slipped away because you thought
that you’d remember it an hour after you thought of it, but you
didn’t. If you thought of something funny, it’s always better to
record it verbally rather than write it. Stand up comedy is a
performance art and isn't a script writing thing.
Recording it verbally allows you to be able to hear yourself
deliver the line so that you can change the way you do it if it
doesn’t appeal to your taste.
After recording some notes, you would probably want to do a
sample tape. Sample tapes are important especially if you
haven’t had a first gig yet. There are comedy bars that require
some sample tapes from the applicant comedians before they
invite him for an assessment performance.
What you would want to do is invite some of your friends to come
over for a sample performance. When you make a sample tape, it’s
important that the sound of laughter (genuine, and not) is
present. Don’t coerce your friends to laugh if they don’t find
your performance particularly funny.
-Scout the different comedy clubs
Comedy isn't as generic as you might think. There are different
“genres” of stand up comedy and not all can be appreciated by
all groups of people. Make sure that you have had a first hand
feel of the composition of the club’s audience before you
request for a gig. Start with the bars that you feel would
appreciate your scripts best.
Be organized
You may want to jot down notes and keep an organized calendar
containing the different activities for the gigs, including the
preparation and the minute details. Once you get the gigs to
roll in, there will come a time that more than one gig can occur
in one night. So make sure that you know all the details of your
gigs.
-Build connections
The hardest part in booking gigs is finding the right people you
can talk to. Once you have a network and have infiltrated the
existing ones, getting gigs will be much easier.
-Don’t stop with comedy clubs
There are other venues where you can show your funny stuff.
Parties and different functions can serve as good gigs. Some of
them pay much higher than a regular gig at a comedy club. So
have your calling card ready all the times so that you can
quickly build a pool of potential audience.
Build a website
Marketing is very important in getting a continuous supply of
gigs. A website is a dynamic marketing tool because it can be
accessed by anyone. What makes it effective is that it is a tool
that uses multimedia. You can upload your audio recordings and
scripts on the net for anyone to plug in and hear.
Put Audio on YOUR Web Site, Quickly, EASILY, and
professionally. No monthly fees. No special equipment to buy.
No experience necessary. You are going to love this little
jewel as much as I do.
Can you make money playing your stuff right on the web? Yes, you
can. You can either set up with Google Adsense, or find your own
affiliate products to sell from your web site. Put the ads right
under your play button so that as people listen they will be
tempted to click on the message. You get paid every time a sale
is made.
Be a Marine,
Keep it Clean
There are behavioral and societal forces that come into play
when it comes to comedy appreciation. Race, age, affiliation,
upbringing and personal experiences all contribute to a person’s
view towards a certain grade of comedy act.
Do you want to keep your acts clean or go a little bit dirty.
The tendency towards using dirty comedy springs from the fact
that it is rather easy to do it that way than think of smart
themes that are really hilarious. If a certain audience is very
open and loose, then a dirty act will do just fine. Just
remember, when you get tainted with the dirty brush you will be
sucked into that vortex and dirtier and dirtier materials will
be demanded of you. You can't write or produce filthy humor
without filling your mind with it. Do you want those kinds of
thoughts in your life?
Final Advice
Always Have an alternate act ready
Don’t go to a gig with just one act. Always have something up
your sleeve if the time calls for it. Some comedians might think
that it would be too difficult to have such alternate plans
during a gig. But come to think of it, it’s really a test on how
you can transcend beyond your capabilities and maintain your
integrity as a comedian.
-Socialize before the gig starts
Whenever you go to a gig, always arrive there an hour before
your call time. This allows you time to mingle around with the
people and get to know some things about them, so that you’ll
have a chance to educate them a little bit on your style of
humor. An audience that has people in it that already know you
is an easier to work audience.
You may want to especially get acquainted with the “who’s who”
inside the room. You can easily make people laugh when you crack
a certain joke that pertains to him.
Is Taping Your Set a Good Idea?
A good comedian always strives to be better, to give better
lines with better timing and delivery after each gig. One of the
ways a comedian can be able to hone his skills further is to
review his past gigs by taping them.
Some comedians would definitely argue that there is no need to
tape their sets, especially if they are experienced. They would
argue that it disrupts the natural process by which a comedian
acquires certain skills through maturity and wisdom. However, we
should also see that taping a set is a tool that can rapidly
enhance a comedian’s skills.
Here are some of the advantages of taping your set if you are a
comedian:
a) A clear recording will capture the intangible factors, which
can make or break a performance
Factors such as timing and execution of the lines are some of
the things that one can see (or hear, for that matter) by
reviewing a tapped gig. Watching out for lull moments is also a
good thing to do when you are listening to your tapes.
Sometimes, these lull moments are necessary for building up the
anticipation and sometimes; they are just plainly not needed.
b) The recording will let you review the tangible factors that
are important to your performance
If you have a video camera, then it is really advisable to use
that instead of a tape recorder. Reviewing your performance
using multimedia recordings is so much better than reviewing it
with plain audio recordings. You can see the reactions of the
people to certain lines and to the whole thing in general.
You can definitely use an ordinary recorder to be able to check
if your intonation and the constant changes in your voice’s
volume are okay. It’s very important to take these factors in
mind and not just concentrate on your material.
c) A performance is always unique, so you’d better tape it
If you tape all of your performances, then you have the
opportunity to properly document your progress as time goes by.
You can also use them to build a collection that you can share
with your loved ones.
d) Taped performances are marketing tools
If you would like to get more gigs, then taping your acts is a
preliminary step towards creating a great marketing tool. You
can spread the tapes across to different comedy clubs in town or
perhaps in other places. You can easily build a fan-base by
uploading your recordings on a website where you can also post
your gig schedules.
What’s not to love about taping your gigs? If you are convinced
that you will greatly benefit from recording your gigs, then
you’re probably asking about the proper way of recording them.
“Do I go analog or digital?”
Some of the digital recorders today aren't as versatile as the
old-fashioned tape recorders out there. Some of these digital
ones don’t capture the warmth of a certain performance and have
a tendency to pick up distorted signals. However, these devices
are so much easier to use if you are familiar with them. Once
recorded, there is no need to convert the files and you can
easily upload the material to the web or onto a CD. Ordinary
tape recorders can do just fine but once you are finished
taping, you have to manually convert these files into digital
format, which requires additional time.
If you are using an analog tape recorder, you can use the
default “sound recorder” program of Windows or other audio
mixing programs to digitalize your recording. You also need a
cable that connects to the earphone slot from your recorder to
the line in socket in your computer. This cable can be bought
from any Radioshack or electronics store. You may need to adjust
the volume from your recorder so as to avoid getting muffled
sounds from the process. Finally, you should convert your
digitalized .wav file to an mp3 file so as to minimize the size
of the file.
Remember to tape your gigs. It’s very important to document the
gigs because it is the only sure-fire way of reviewing your
performance and yourself on stage.
Last note.. To be a good comedian you need to think funny. Let
all your leisure reading rest on humorous material of any kind
that you personally like. If you hit a piece that makes you
laugh, but you don't know why, you know it is good. Go over it
again and again until you do know why it makes you laugh. Once
your mind thinks funny delve into something that isn't supposed
to be funny – like the newspaper - for a short time, letting
your imagination transpose words or add a phrase that will
transform the material into hilarious proportions. You are now
creating new comedy material and developing your talents as a
stand up comedian.
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