[Dixielandjazz] Raising Comedy performance fees

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

Hello Hello !!!!

Do the Math folks before you start crying  in your BEER.

$60.00 for a fifteen minute talk that may or may not be Funny equals $240.00 
an hour, plus the free beers, etc., and the chicks in the audience etc.  

Comedians are in the business for the same reasons as most musicians, and the 
comedy club owners are still just guys in the alcoholic beverage business 
trying to sell enough beer to pay the rent, insurance, lights, gas, bartenders 
waitresses, janitor, accountant, lawyers etc.

The Comedian waltzes in goes and hangs out backstage drinking with the other 
ones having a good time waiting for his fifteen minutes of fame and the chance 
to score with a chick.  Some of them are simply not funny either.  

Every clown who ever fell down and heard someone laugh at him thinks he is a 
great comedian, and entitled to go out and become wealthy telling a joke or 
two.

I remember when the comedy thing took off the first time in places like The 
Hungry Eye, and the Purple Onion, in San Francisco, etc., and then every guy on 
the sidewalk of North Beach thought they were funny and started begging to 
get on any stage in any club on the street for five minutes and start a career 
as a comedian.

Sort of like the DJs did to the musicians remember????

I say if the comedian thinks he/she is all that funny then go promote 
themselves and see just how many of their "FANS" will actually Show up and Pay enough 
money to pay them $240.00 an hour.

You must remember the mentality of the club owners, they are there in 
business to sell alcohol, the entertainment is a side act to keep folks in the seats 
to buy alcohol, or drag them into the joint to buy alcohol, that they can buy 
next door for about the same price.

I have to laugh the loudest at the story about the famous comic that made it 
to the BIG TIME and toured all over the world making tons of money.  I think 
it was Rodney Dangerfield, he walked back into the little club where he first 
begged the club owner to let him get on stage to get a start.

He sat down at the bar and asked the club owner if he remembered him?  The 
club owner looked up from washing the glasses and said yeah kid I got a slot 
open Thursday night same pay as last time.  He Got No Respect, but he assumed 
that the club owner had real life outside that damned bar and should know how 
famous he had become.  Naw, they live in a very small world.


SO DJs and Comedians have infiltrated the live music joints and further 
repressed the presentation of live music, they convinced the Bar owners that it was 
cheaper to hire a comedian or a DJ than a whole band.  However once they get 
in they start to ask for more money than the guy even paid for the bands he 
had before they came to save him money.

I like Funny Guys, but I would not pay $240.00 an hour and buy beer to see 
any one of them.  But then again I would also not pay $240.00 an hour to hear 
any Dixieland Band I ever heard.

Except for the Drs. and Lawyers on the list that play a bit of music on the 
weekends, how many of you musicians make $240.00 an hour?

It's all relevant and in the numbers folks.


Cheers,

Tom Wiggins