Archive for the ‘Job Opportunities’ Category
 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada enroute to Ketchikan, AK, USA
I’ve had a lot of people asking me what my plans are for the 2010 Olympic Games that are coming to Vancouver in about five months… I guess, for what ever reason people feel like I’m tapped into the local scene enough to be able to have sourced gigs for this time period already and have everything set up and in place…
The truth is somewhat different than the perception. The Winter Olympics officially run from February 12 – 28, 2010 and the Paralympic Games run from March 12 – 21. I’ve had a few local event producers contact me about possible MC work, but nothing solid had fallen into place yet. Rather I seem to be included in ‘proposals’ for various events and venues that are being planned.
The over all impression that I get is that the big stuff like the Opening and Closing ceremonies have been sorted out, but that the stuff that trickles down to the venues where my talents will be needed are just starting to be looked at. I have a sneaking suspicion that in the next few weeks/month or so things will really start to materialize. If/when I here more I’ll be sure to post more information.
In the mean time, I’ve just come off a successful 17 day run at the PNE and am heading out tomorrow for a week aboard the Golden Princess and have my hands plenty full with the act of living through the days in the coming week. Got a question about a venue or a gig that I haven’t discussed on the blog yet? Leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll be more than happy to share whatever I know with the world at large!
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 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
The National Association for Campus Activities or NACA for short is an organization that helps connect performers with the people who book entertainment on campuses across the United States… This description comes directly from their own website –
NACA hosts a National Convention each February. This high-profile, high-energy, four-day event provides networking opportunities with other professionals, students and associate members. Attracting more than 2,000 delegates from nearly 450 member schools, NACA’s National Convention is the nation’s largest campus activities marketplace.
During the Convention, delegates can view more than 80 live performances ranging from music and comedy to lecture and interactive programs. Educational programs focus on topics such as professional and student leadership development, programming, multicultural education, campus organization dynamics and advising, and identification of current trends in the field of campus activities. These programs also include Featured Speakers in targeted areas of professional development. NACA’s Campus Activities Marketplace gives students and staff the ability to meet member agents and artists face to face, enhancing familiarity with the marketplace and facilitating campus bookings.
This is another one of those conferences like Pacific Contact and Artstarts that I’ve discussed on the blog previously. If you’re lucky enough to secure one of the 80 live performance slots described above and knock it out of the park in that performance then your chances of landing a TON of quite well paying work is pretty great! I know many variety entertainers who based much of their career on touring colleges in the US and have had great success at it.
If you google ‘booking college gigs’ you get a slew of different people telling you the pros and cons to this market along with a ton of advice on how to best capitalize on the market. Though I have done a few dates at universities in Canada, it was never a market that I pursued in ernest. That being said, I can say that the shows I did do for college audiences were a bunch of fun!
Had I been more driven to pursue this particular market I’m sure that I could have tapped into it and done very well, but I’m a big fan of booking a diversity of gigs in a variety of venues. Somehow by mixing things up on a regular basis I’ve managed to keep things fresh and interesting which is what works for me. If this is a market that’s of interest then I’d highly recommend exploring the many resources available on-line that can help you tap into the potential gold mine that exists in doing college shows!
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 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
I was reminded yesterday about pursuing gigs in Comedy Clubs by my friend Byron Bertram. Byron and Sharon Mahoney came in to the PNE yesterday to visit and at one point Byron described working in comedy clubs as ‘Third World Performing.’ When he said this I cracked up be cause I knew immediately what he was talking about. Many many moons ago in the first years after I’d moved to Vancouver I pursued work in comedy clubs and ended up getting booked semi regularly to work at Yuk Yuk’s. It was a decent enough club with decent crowds, and my variety act seemed to go over well enough in the space, but the ‘work to dollars’ ratio was so completely out of whack from what I’d been used to being paid for my show by other clients that it was a little tricky to get my head around it.
Around this time I heard a line that always made me laugh as well…
Question – “How do you tell the prop comic from the stand-up comedians?
Answer – “He’s the one who’s got a car and drives to gigs.”
Sad though it is, there’s a grain of truth to the statement as the pay scale for stand-up comedians is just so much lower than it is for other types of acts.
I never really had the guts to give up my juggling props at the time to pursue the fine art of stand-up comedy (I don’t think I could have handle the pay cut to be honest), but grew to appreciate the genre more by hanging out with comics who really worked their craft and material and killed when they walked on stage with just a microphone. I still have a huge amount of respect for guys who can, by shear force of will and funny ideas, deliver a killer set from things they’ve thought up and bent in such a way as to make an audience bust a gut.
Along with the ‘Third World Performing’ line that Byron told me today, he also called stand-up comedy a labour of love, because you really have to love it to pursue it because it’s so freakin’ hard to actually make a living from doing just stand-up.
That being said, I know guys who have made it and who are having successful careers as stand-up comics, so it is possible and even if you don’t want to go whole hog into pursuing the world of ‘stand-up’ comedy, comedy clubs do like to mix things up from time to time and bring in a variety act, so it’s yet another potential venue in which to find work. If you walk in knowing that you may get a bit of a pay cut, but look at it as an opportunity to glean some valuable lessons about the club environment, then the investment of your time could well be worth it, and if nothing else, you’ll likely find yourself laughing a lot at some of the other acts that you share the stage with.
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 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Back when I really was trying to take over the world and was really gung ho about setting up tours I would take a look at a map, decide where I wanted to travel then contact festivals and possible jobs in the area (including, but not limited to opportunities to busk) and work aggressively towards putting together fantastic tours. My usual method of operation was to find two or three events that happened at more or less the same time and contact all three in the hopes that at least one would be interested in bringing me in to perform. This required a bit of tact and diplomacy in the event that multiple events expressed interest, but the appearance of being ‘in demand’ often worked to my advantage anyway.
I got so good at booking tours for myself that several performers approached me asking if I could do the same for them and for a short period during the mid-90’s I co-ran a company called ‘Beaver Street’ which actively pursued tour booking for several variety performers who seemed to think that it was a service worth paying for.
Beaver Street eventually went by the wayside as I found that it wasn’t as much fun to baby sit performers as it was to simply be their friends so after about two seasons of setting up tours I returned to just focusing on my own work an my own touring interests.
I was always sort of blown away by the fact that performers weren’t able to set this sort of thing up for themselves though. To me it never seemed like rocket science. Especially in today’s world where the internet has made connecting with festival producers and possible clients so much easier it still baffles me that people are having a hard time finding work. Mind you as an entertainment consultant for the PNE I’ve also been amazed with the huge variance in the quality of promotional materials that get sent in by various performers.
Take the time to – Craft good promotional materials… Contact multiple possible clients… Pursue those that really allow for the easiest flow of movement and building a successful tour shouldn’t be too hard. Skip any of these steps and you’ll likely be zig zagging around the country cursing yourself for not having looked at a map properly.
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 Where in the world am I today?: Vacationing in Peru
Last week I talked about Pacific Contact… This week I offer a similar-ish resource for performers in British Columbia or who would like to tour in schools in British Columbia. What Pacific Contact is for Performing Arts Centers, Artstarts is for touring schools in the province. Artscan is the annual showcase for artists to present their work to buyers in the school market and artists who have successful showcases have built very lucrative tours out of their investment of time and resources into attending the event.
Much like Pacific Contact though, if you don’t happen to be one of the artists that apply and gets a showcase the appeal of attending the conference is severely diminished if you aren’t actually seen in performance by the buyers.
A few years back friends who have done very well from the tours that have been set up through ArtStarts suggested that I meet with the people in the office who help arrange the tours. I went in and had a meeting and learned more about what’s involved in preparing a study guide (a virtually mandatory aspect of touring schools) and what sort of schedule was involved with school tours, but also came up against a bit of a prejudice towards artists who had developed their material primarily for the street and festival milieu. The overwhelming feeling that I was given was that these tours were reserved for ‘higher art.’
I found this amusing and left the offices of Artstarts knowing that I could jump through the hoops required to provide them with a show that met their ‘higher art’ sensibility, but wondering if my time was really best spent doing so. You can glean the answer to this by the fact that I have yet to do a tour through Artstarts, but don’t let my experience stop you. Touring schools is the bread and butter for many performers and it’s certainly a lot of fun to perform for a gym full of enthusiastic ankle biters, so if that’s your bag, this might just be the perfect opportunity for you.
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 Where in the world am I today?: Vacationing in Peru
What is Pacific Contact? Well according to the website it’s all of this –
Now in its 34th year, Pacific Contact is the BC Touring Council’s annual west coast trade show and booking conference for the performing arts. It includes showcases, a contact room (trade show booths of artists and industry) workshops and networking opportunities for artists and performing arts presenters.
Basically a bunch of talent buyers from the across BC and parts beyond come to check out possible talent for their performance arts season. I’ve heard it referred (just recently in fact) as the PAC circuit – Performing Arts Centers. PAC buyers aren’t the only one’s who attend this conference, but they certainly make up a large component of the buyers who do attend.
I’ve known about Pacific Contact for year, almost since the time I arrived in Vancouver back in 1990, but have never done much more than attend the show as a guest to see what it’s all about. Why? Well it comes down to this. If you get a showcase, the chance to perform in front of the delegates who attend the shows, then you have an excellent chance of booking a very lucrative tour. If you don’t showcase, the chances of landing a tour are radically reduced.
The one year I applied back in the 90’s, my materials showed me in a Street and Festival environment which isn’t exactly the market that Pacific Contact caters to and I wasn’t awarded a spot in the showcase. With out the showcase I didn’t feel that it was worth the investment of time and money to try and land a tour, and had lots of other pots on various stoves at the time that were keeping me busy anyway.
These days, with all of the Cruise Ship work I’ve been doing crafting an application that made me look more in keeping with the venue would be a lot easier, but it’s one of those things in the pile of good intentions that is sitting on my desk that I simply haven’t gotten to yet.
Is Pacific Contact a great way to book a tour? Provided you get a showcase and wow the crowd, then yes you can do very well from it. If you don’t get the showcase however it’s a bit of a craps shoot. Don’t go into it if you don’t have that showcase slot expecting great things. You may still land a few gigs, and certainly the opportunity to network is there, but the bulk of the bookings seem to go to those who do perform in the showcase time slots and deliver a great performance.
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 Where in the world am I today?: Flying to LA then on to Lima, Peru – Yippee! Vacation here I come!!!
There’s a fine line between being persistent and being annoying, but the fine art of being persistent can often pay off in abundance if you’re clever in your approach.
I’ve been fortunate to experience things from both sides of the equation – both as a performer and as a talent booker. Most recently my experience with the phenomena of persistence came at me from the perspective of the talent booker. When I had to scramble to find more acts for the Pacific National Exhibition recently I got to experience varying degrees of persistence from a variety of performers.
I really was blown away by the response I got from a simple post on Facebook saying that the Fair was looking for Acts. With in about 24 hours I thought I had the line-up sorted out and took it to the creative director of the PNE who proceeded to throw a monkey wrench in my well laid plans by saying that he wanted to see more options… Doh!
I went back to the flurry of performers who had indicated that they were interested in the gig and crafted another possible line-up for the program. Again the creative director wasn’t 100% happy with the selections and options that I presented…
Now every time I thought I had things sorted out I sent out an email to people who were contacting me thanking them for their interest, but indicating that I was likely not going to be able to offer them a job. For may of the performers who had contacted me this was enough to diffuse their interest (or rather their persistence). But for a select few, the emails continued to flow. This persistence by one of the performers I was in contact with lead to a contract for a portion of the Fair.
All this to say that it’s sometimes worth putting in the extra effort to go one step beyond, just in case something changes with the employer and something does in fact open up. Two things will result in the extra effort.
One – You’ll get a gig
and
Two – you’ll be a hero to the person who’s doing the booking because you demonstrated the extra effort to keep the door of opportunity wide open.
Posted in Job Opportunities, Marketing, Performance | Comments Off on Persistence
 Where in the world am I today?: Driving from Vancouver to Red Deer… 12 hours plus in the car… Yowza!
So… I’ve spent much of the past week scrambling to get three ‘bonus’ slots at the Pacific National Exhibition filled with entertainment. I consult with the creative director of the fair on the selection of acts and piece together a line-up that provides a diversity of act and meets the budget that the fair has to work with. It’s been a great adventure since I started doing this five years and typically the selection of acts happens early in the new year with actual contracts going out around April or so.
A little over a week ago I got an email saying that the Fair had received additional funds to expand the program beyond the acts that we’d booked back at the beginning of the year. I went in for a meeting at the Fair exactly one week ago, promptly posted a quick note on Facebook and sent out emails to a few select people… With in hours I was in-undated with responses from people who expressed interest in snatching up one of the three 17-day long slots and I started the process of assembling a revised line-up for the program.
I’d make suggestions to the creative director, he’d ask for more options, I’d come up with more options but preface these with each act’s availability. Tuesday – Friday last week I was staring at my computer screen a lot pitching ideas, responding to people who were expressing interest in the gig and scrambling to pull it all together. It soon became apparent that to get an interesting cross section of talent we were going to need to look at splitting up each of the slots in a sort of job-sharing scenario. One act handles the first part of the run and another act covers the rest. In the end we came up with six acts to fill the three slots.
The other interesting thing that happened was that the slots seemed to get filled one at a time with confirmation on each coming in on different days. Slot one got confirmed the day after the meeting (July 15) and contracting started the day after (July 16). Slot #2 got confirmed yesterday with contract information going in today and slot #3 was firmed up today.
I think I felt a bit more under the gun on this because I’m leaving today to drive to Red Deer for Centrefest and really wanted to have the bulk of the work done before I left. Right after I return from Red Deer I turn around (might have time to do laundry) and fly to Peru for a holiday during which I don’t anticipate bringing my computer or being connected to the Internet all that much.
It’s a weird little gig for me this consulting thing because I act as the middle man between the client, the creative director for the PNE, and the performers who are typically my friends. The challenge comes from not really feeling like it’s ‘MY’ program. Sure I only suggest the people who I think will work best for the gig based on my experience in this world, but the final say as to who gets brought in remains in the hands of the Fair. I’m sort of like the kooky uncle who gets to come to the party, but it’s not really my party. The big upside to this scenario is the fact that when the party is over I don’t have to do the clean up, so it’s pretty alright really.
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 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
While hanging out in Edmonton at the Edmonton International Street Performer’s Festival I got to hang out with my friends ‘The Flaming Idiots.’ I originally met the boys at the 1989 Edmonton Streetfest and loved working with them for a number of years at the Edmonton Fringe Festival. Apart from their work at Street Festivals and Fringe Festivals, the Idiots spent a lot of time working the Renaissance Festival Circuit.
I’ve never actually worked at a Renaissance Festival myself but know lots of performers who have and have attended a couple, one in Minnesota near the Twin Cities when I was just a kid and lived in St. Paul, and another near Denver, Colorado when I was traveling across country in the mid-eighties.
The concept behind Renaissance Festivals is to recreate a medieval village complete with Lords, Ladies, Knights, Jousters, and activities including a pretty diverse collection of live performances – jugglers, sword swallowers, jesters, sword play shows, interactive plays, you name it. Obviously all of these shows needed to fit into the ‘Renaissance World’ created at these festivals, but most performers who I’ve talked to about this said that the modifications that they needed to do to their shows didn’t amount to a whole lot and that the environment was a pretty great one to perform in.
A quick Google Search turned up several that might be worth checking out –
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 Where in the world am I today?: Edmonton, AB, Canada
So…the opening weekend of the Edmonton International Street Performer’s Festival was a huge success and we’re just over the hump of the run. The shot that accompanies this post was taken yesterday (Tuesday) mid-afternoon in Winston Churchill Square, the performance venue where all of the shows take place… Obviously the weather presented some challenges yesterday. Everyone made it down for a cast/group photo at 10:30 am dancing between the raindrops to get from the hotel to City Hall (seen in the background) where the picture was taken.
Things cleared up a bit in the evening and some people did get shows in, but the weather is very much an issue when performing at Street Performing Festivals and certainly something to take into consideration before booking a tour who’s revenues are directly tied to the amount that the sun shines…
That being said, weather can even have a serious effect on contracted gigs. Last year during the Pacific National Exhibition the Fair had the wettest run on record. Often in Vancouver you’ll get a day where it rains in the morning and then clears up in the afternoon and people will still come out in support of an event if the weather clears. At last year’s PNE we had several days when the weather just got socked in and it rained all day and kept fair patrons away all day. Although this didn’t impact on the performers who were performing at the fair last year (2008) what happened as a result of decreased revenues was that the fees offered to the cast of the 2009 Street Stars Program took a pretty significant cut.
So what can you do on a day when an event gets hit by bad weather? Roll with the punches. At the PNE we looked into finding alternate rain venues so at least some of the shows could go up. Yesterday at the Edmonton International Street Performer’s Festival people remained in a holding pattern waiting for the weather to clear then got out and made the magic happen in spite of the conditions not being ideal.
Audiences can tell when you’re making an extra effort to overcome challenging situations and the bigger the attempt to make things work the more appreciative crowds tend to be. Of equal or possibly greater importance though is the impression you leave on your employer when you make an extra effort to make a show happen in spite of challenging circumstances. This sort of dedication will often lead to repeat bookings and long term business relationships.
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Posted in Job Opportunities, Performance, Thoughts | Comments Off on Dealing with the Weather…
 Where in the world am I today?: Ottawa, ON, Canada
So… Ottawa… Canada Day… As it so happens this is my 25th year of performing in the Nation’s Capital on Canada Day. I’ve been performing for 28 years, but I missed three in there, so it’s a bit hard to actually call this a ‘Silver Anniversary’ but still 25 years does represent a milestone of sorts…
My first few years working on Canada Day I came out and did straight ahead street shows and passed the hat for tips… For what ever reason I gravitated to Major’s Hill Park as a place to do this and it wasn’t very long before the NCC decided to give me a contract to perform in this very same location. For what ever reason, I seem to have become a fixture that certain people search out as part of their Canada Day experience and the couple of times that I haven’t been performing the NCC has actually had people call in to ask why I wasn’t there – very flattering, but also somewhat bizarre.
I’m a firm believer that performers are taught how to perform by the first audiences that they have the privilege of performing in front of. I started in Ottawa, so for me returning to Ottawa to perform for this crowd is always a sort of home coming, and my show often works better here than in any other place on the planet. For so many reason’s it just feels effortless to do my show in Ottawa. Last year this video of one of my shows got posted to you tube –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmFycEowtSQ
All this to say that most countries have some sort of national holiday which is well worth investigating as an opportunity to work. Some examples that I’ve been introduced to are –
I’m sure that with a bit of poking around you’ll be able to find that most countries have some sort of day on which they celebrate being a nation and the parties are usually a blast and if you can’t get an official invitation (ie a contracted job) you can always crash the party (street perform) and will likely do exponentially better than were you to be performing on a non-holiday day.
If you find yourself performing in Canada today, be it in Ottawa or some other part of the country, I hope you have a great time helping celebrate Canada’s 142nd Birthday and bring lots of laughter to those who will be watching you work!
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 Where in the world am I today?: Cruising in Tracy Arm Fjord
Wednesdays are usually dedicated to places, venues and or markets where you can track down work, but this week I thought I’d offer one simple piece of advice for what to do once you’ve landed the job and here it is – take the time to read the contract and know what you’re agreeing to.
I got an email recently after receiving a contract from the producer of a summer festival commenting that she thought I was likely the only person to actually read the contract she sent out and ask relevant questions. I figure it’s in everyone’s best interest to know exactly what is being agreed upon so I don’t show up at the gig and get asked to do things that I’m not comfortable with. If it’s in the contract and I agree to do it then I will. If there’s something in the contract I’m not comfortable with I’ll ask about it and often it gets removed from the contract. It doesn’t always get removed, but then at least I know what is expected from me before I leave my door so there are as few unexpected surprises as possible.
Now there can be a fine line between being diligent and being annoying and coming off as a prima-donna. Being too demanding will likely loose you more jobs than it will get you no matter how good your show may be. Now this may not be true for SUPER famous people, but I suspect that if you’re reading this blog in the first place you likely don’t fall into that category. Crafting questions about a contract with a certain amount of diplomacy and/or humor will serve you well and will endear you to the festival producer more than annoy them. Just be aware that the last thing any festival producer needs to deal with is a performer with excessive demands.
If you get a contract that seems to be lopsided in terms of who is benefitting most from the business relationship you’re always free to walk away from the job. If the contract asks for more than you feel comfortable delivering then you don’t have to sign it. Instead consider getting the client to sign your contract. This of course means that you’ll have to take the time to craft a contract of your own, but doing so can be an excellent exercise in making sure the things that are important to you are understood by the client.
I had one friend who went as far as to supply a contract along with a ‘Care and Feeding of the Performer’ document that laid out some simple suggestions for how to make the show look the best it possible could. Documents like this can contain humour and a light hearted spirit, but can go a long way to making sure the performance situation is the best it possibly can be for you so your show comes off looking great which will ideally lead to even more work.
So… Read your contracts and if you haven’t done so already, create a contract for yourself. Having a written understanding of what’s expected (one that you’re comfortable with) before you leave your home to do the job will save you a lot of head aches and ensure that your performances look the best they possibly can.
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 Where in the world am I today?: In Juneau, AK aboard the STAR Princess
Now I have to admit that I’m not the hugest fan in the world of performing at Fairs and Exhibitions… This is likely because the majority of my experience at these events has been performing in environments where I’m competing fairly aggressively for attention amongst the sights, sounds and smells of your typical Fair. Having to go head to head with a game barker or compete as half the crowd watch as someone gets launched in some sort of human sling-shot isn’t my ideal performance environment.
That being said, I’ve also had great experiences performing at Fairs where pulling focus isn’t such a challenge. The Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver re-instated their Street Performer’s Program in 2005 and dubbed it the PNE Street Stars. Performers were given a fighting chance with decent sound systems and staging provided by the fair. I was asked to come in and consult and manage the program 2005 – 2008 and will be back in 2009 with a brand new show as well.
My relationship with this particular Fair has been excellent and I think the experience for the performers who’ve come in and participated in the PNE’s Street Star Program have had a pretty good experience as well. Fancy checking out a bit more about what the program’s been like over the past few years? Then head over to the video area of my site and check out the digest videos I’ve created for each year of the program located at the bottom of the page.
One of the best things about this type of venue is that their are Fairs and Exhibitions all across Canada and the United States, so the sheer volume of work that’s available is quite impressive. In Canada the “Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions” (C.A.F.E.) hosts an annual conference around the middle of November. The convention takes place in a different city every year, but getting to the convention is an excellent opportunity to mix, mingle and strut your stuff to the players in the industry. More information about the conference and about C.A.F.E can be found on their website –
http://www.canadian-fairs.ca
The International Association of Fairs and Exhibitions (I.A.F.E.) is the biggy though. This organization helps fairs from all over the United States and Canada stay connected and their annual convention in Las Vegas is THE place to schmooze with the players in the industry. Meeting face to face with potential employers is an amazing opportunity which, if done right can lead to a very full calendar of work. More information about I.A.F.E. and their convention can be accessed on their website –
http://www.fairsandexpos.com/
I know some performers who work almost exclusively at Fairs and Exhibitions and swear by it as they love the crowds love the environment and love the atmosphere. If this is the right venue for you and your show then there certainly is a lot of opportunities in this world if you can craft a show and promo to convince both audiences and buyers that you’re the answer to their entertainment needs.
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Posted in Job Opportunities, Performance | 2 Comments »
 Where in the world am I today?: Juneau, AK, USA joining the STAR Princess
I haven’t worked a lot in restaurants, but I do remember my first contract working a restaurant gig very clearly. From May – July 1988, I was contracted to perform at the Sunday Brunch at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa (the building in the background of the picture that accompanies this post). The Chateau Laurier is one of the many Hotels across the country which were regarded as the peak of luxury for travelers of the Canadian National Railway back in the early part of the 1900s and has remained a prominent landmark in Ottawa as it’s situated right next to the Parliament Buildings.
Prior to my contract a husband/wife juggling duo (Jean Besnard and Nicolette Naum) had enjoyed a long time association with the Chateau Laurier having worked there for years. I never actually saw them work because the idea of going to a Sunday Brunch was a bit out of my field of vision as a young juggler in Ottawa, but I had seen them work in other venues.
Enough of the stroll down memory lane though… The real point of this post was to say that some restaurants still seek out live performers to help liven up the atmosphere of their establishments. This seems to be a particularly popular pursuit for practitioners of close-up magic because the nature of close-up lends itself so well to tricks performed in front of a small group of people. Especially if you’re working in a reasonably popular restaurant a small case containing a dozen or so tricks is likely all you’ll need to keep the joint hopping and people thinking that you’ve got an endless supply of tricks to entertain them with.
Now… Chances are that the fee offered by a restaurant for such performances isn’t going to allow you to retire anytime soon, but having a steady local job once or twice a week can allow you to cover your bills and provide you with an amazing opportunity to workshop new tricks and material. The simple act of repeating things over and over again over the course of an evening will allow you to polish existing material and work new bits into your regular repertoire much faster than were you only doing the bit once or twice a week. Nothing beats working bits in front of a crowd in terms of increasing your confidence and making the bits better and there are few other venues that will allow you the opportunity to work material so diligently.
Another great aspect of doing strolling restaurant work is that it often leads to other opportunities. Someone sees you at the restaurant and brings you in for a private function. One job leads to the next and then to another etc. The exposure you’ll get from doing what you do over and over again and getting better and better at it will pay huge dividends that the actual performance fee you receive may not reflect. But what price can you put on the polish that you’re act will get from the opportunity to repeat it over and over again.
I was lucky to fall into a gig that was well established when I was asked to do the Sunday Brunch shows at the Chateau Laurier. You may need to look around a bit more before finding a similar opportunity where you live, but do some checking with local performers in your area and you’ll likely turn something up. If not, perhaps you could approach a restaurant or club owner directly and see if you could create an opportunity.
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Posted in Job Opportunities, Performance | Comments Off on Working at Restaurant
 Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
A few months ago I posted about the various options for landing work as a performer on Cruise Ships. One talked about the option of contacting the lines directly, the other discussed the option of working through an agent.
Since about the beginning of the year it’s felt like there’s been a bit of a pinch on and that there just isn’t as much work for performers as there once was… The cruise lines are looking at cutting back any way then can and this included the entertainment programming. I recently received an email from my agent in Miami that talks a bit more about this and thought I’d share it here just to give people some insight into current trends…
I just want to reiterate that summer is quickly approaching & work is getting more & more scarce.
This year, especially this summer, has been rough. Between the major budget cuts, added production shows, Int’l guests & more & more ships heading to foreign ports, every line has reduced the # of acts that they typically book and is using local acts in the foreign ports as much as they can. Every act has been affected by this. Obviously, our agency has been affected as well, but we keep perservering & trying our best every day. We get so many e-mails from acts, who are concerned about how their bookings have been affected by this & I just want you all to know that we are working really hard, every day, to try to pick up more dates!
I really do believe that things will get better! Everyone has been affected by this volatile economic climate, and, unfortunately, the cruise lines, are no exception.
So there you go… Now you could look at this and see that there are possibly an increase in opportunities for local acts in foreign ports, but the over all trend is fewer jobs for the same number of acts. Not good math for the number of performers who rely pretty heavily on the cruise ship industry for a large portion of their annual income, and likely not good news for people who are looking at breaking into the market either. Will things turn around? It’s hard to say how long the current situation is going to last or if, after implementing these new budget cutting measure, the cruise lines will ever return to the more flush days that appear to be ending… If/when I know more I’ll post it here.
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Posted in Cruise Ships, Job Opportunities | Comments Off on This Just in from my Agent
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