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Influencing Transparency from the Bottom Up

But you can influence from the bottom up as well! Here are some strategies you can employ to try and move the needle.

• Model the behavior you want to see

• Give private feedback

• Enlist an inner circle ally

If They Don't Know Any Better

I don't know any ownership of any comedy club that comes from or behaves with any kind of professional background. The closest is probably the Levity/Improv, but I'd argue agency background is pretty wild west too. And the management layer typically comes from arts or restaurant background, neither of which is well known for fairness or sanity.

Speaking for myself, I do have a professional tech background and it took me years to realize "oh, when I send a welcome email to a new comedian, I should explain things like spot pay so they know they have the right information"  Nobody above me ever thought that was necessary so I was never instructed to do so. And very few comedians felt comfortable asking those questions when I hadn’t volunteered, so I honestly didn’t recognize the information gap.

Model The Behavior You Want To See

If you meet anger and crazy with anger and crazy, the situation will just escalate.

Here’s an example I dealt with recently, I was securing some dates at a venue and had been chasing them down for the contract for 3 weeks. It was finally sent during the 4th of July holiday weekend and the morning after July 4, I received a very curt follow up. Here’s a redacted bit of that exchange:

Amy, are you going to sign the contract or not? I need to know ASAP because other people want to book those dates.

Hi XXX! I hope you had a great 4th of July! We are 100% in for those dates, just due to the holidays we haven’t had a chance to look over the contract together. We’ll get back to you with questions & clarifications by Monday, but please keep holding the hold! I really appreciate that.

Okay, great, thank you.

My initial lizard-brain-stress-chemicals-flaring thought was to all caps type IT TOOK THREE WEEKS OF ME CHASING YOU DOWN TO GET THIS CONTRACT AND NOW IT’S URGENT BECAUSE IT’S IMPORTANT TO YOU?

But what would that help? NOTHING and might even lose me the dates! He didn’t magically turn into a competent, reasonable person but he calmed down and I got what I wanted.

It can be even more powerful when you are the one initiating the conversation. If you start from a cool, calm, polite and friendly tone there’s some neurology magic that can help induce the recipient to match you!

Speaking of Good Communication…

I have a video series and a set of email templates you can use for professional booker outreach!

I’ll also be doing a livestream Q&A on Sat August 5 at 2:30 pm about Booker/Gatekeeper communication conundrums! (This is rescheduled from June if it sounds familiar)

You can submit questions and situations in advance to be addressed anonymously or post questions in the chat live… or both!

It can really be anything to do with communicating in the business, including:

• Why did this message make the Booker mad?

• AITA here or are they?

• I got this reply from a Booker and I can’t figure out what to do next

• The showroom Manager said they really liked my set, should I reach out to them to put in a good word?

Give private feedback

Nobody likes to be put on blast, it’s the fastest way to get someone to dig in further. If you have that kind of relationship with a Leader, have a low key chat over drinks or coffee.

If that feels too confrontational or isn’t an option, email is the next best thing. Email is “slower” than a text or DM, nobody feels like they have to open and read an email right away so they are more likely to be in a receptive state of mind when they do read it.

Express an understanding of their goals and challenges while you are making your request.

If you acknowledge what’s important to them, it shows you’ve actually thought this through and it creates an opening for a more constructive and honest explanation, whatever the outcome.

I can’t count the number of very well meaning (and sometimes not) requests and complaints I’ve got that made me say to myself “wow, you have no understanding of anything outside your own needs!”

Hi Ownerman!

I had a great time working there on Friday, but we did run into a couple of snags. I know the reputation of your club with both comedians and audience members is very important to you so I thought I’d let you know about it from my perspective. During the 7 pm show a woman fell asleep in the front row. She wasn’t removed immediately so later in the show when she came to, it became a whole scene. It interrupted the show and caused the next show to start really late. It ruined two good audiences and a number of us had to rearrange our spots to get to our next shows on time. Showroom Manager was very helpful through all that chaos, but it was chaos that could have been avoided if the room was being policed more proactively or if she had been refused entry in the first place. We had similar disruptions the last two times I was there.

I know it can be tough in these small rooms to remove anyone at any time without disrupting the show, but I’m sure that between you and your really great staff, you can come up with a solution to this kind of thing.

Thanks for hearing me out!

Comedyperson

Hey Bookerlady!

You already know how much I love working here, the crowds are great and I love the staff! But I’m not sure if you know this, but Otherplace Comedy Club just raised their pay to $85 on weekends and $50 on weekdays. I’m sure you understand my bind and I’m sure I’m not alone in needing to prioritize spots there over here. And I know you don't just get to snap your fingers and change pay, there’s plenty of people above you who need to sign off on it, but I figured knowledge is power! And you’re welcome to share with the owners that it was me who said this to you if that helps!

I’ll be sure to keep my avails as up to date as possible so you’ll know about my conflicts at Otherplace before you reach out to book me. And I also want you to know how much I love being there so it’s no reflection on the club as a whole, just the pay!

Best,

Comedian

Enlist an inner circle ally

Three different people could make the same suggestion to an Owner and twice it would be dismissed out of hand, then suddenly it was the most brilliant idea he’d ever heard!

So, as mentioned, I’ve received wild requests and complaints aplenty. At some point, the grain of salt one is taking with this direct feedback gets so huge, it can block some really useful info!

I also witnessed first hand how three different people could make the same suggestion to an Owner and twice it would be dismissed out of hand, then suddenly it was the most brilliant idea he’d ever heard!

So if something is really important, enlist an inner circle ally! And it may not be who you think! I can’t tell you how many really good things that NYCC implemented were things I had brought up months or years earlier but I wasn’t the right messenger. Which is to say, you may think that Bookers are the Great and Powerful Oz but we’re never the highest person on the totem pole in the business as a whole.

For some folks it’s a trusted comedian, for some folks it's a specific employee, for others it’s “any white man who is a draw!” Do some digging and try to figure that out.

But what if they do know better and just seem to thrive on power trips, ego strokes and chaos? Well, we'll get into that in the next one - see you in two weeks!