[Dixielandjazz] Play for pay!

Tue Jun 5 23:00:13 PDT 2007

There is a vast difference between the standard Senior Citizen home and a 
charity.  The homes are for profit and charge residents $3000 a month up. 
This in no way is a charity.  The Seniors are paying for a service and the 
homes advertise that they have entertainment which attracts paying customers 
(the Seniors)  The seniors have paid for your service but a corporation is 
nickel and diming you.  I think that this difference is lost on most of the 
groups out there who just want to perform.

That's not to say that there aren't homes that are charitable in nature. 
There are subsidized homes where the people pay 25% or so of their income no 
matter what it is.  There are a lot of elderly people who have only a small 
SS check each month.  Those homes are semi charities but when someone calls 
me on the phone I may not know what it is.  I have in the past given them 
names of groups that will perform for free.  That does two things.  First 
they get to perform.  The home isn't going to hire me anyway and it helps 
get them out of my hair by directing them to true charitable places.

There is a church run home that has a lot of elderly nuns.  I get calls from 
them about twice a year. I have only booked it once.  They always plead 
poverty but I simply don't believe it which brings up a suggestion that 
might do someone some good.  Groups like that should go to a civic 
organization in this case a K of C to help subsidize their entertainment. 
That way the Nuns get entertainment, I get paid and the K of C gets to feel 
good about what they did for the Nuns.

If you think that these wannabee entertainers don't have an impact just try 
to book anything around Christmas time with seniors.  They have groups 
coming out of their ears.

I guess I'm sort of dwelling on Seniors and Senior Homes but they are major 
purchasers of OKOM here and are important.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Gluetje1 at aol.com>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 3:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Play for pay!

> Something I try to do and even occasionally experience a mite of  success: 
> I
> meet retirees living on their pension who see it as  good-hearted charity 
> to
> play music, be in a vocal quartet, etc. and entertain  for free for civic
> events, senior citizens, etc.  I try to see if a bit of  education and 
> information
> will help.  Education in making sure they  know such places do have an
> entertainment budget.  Compliments that it  is great that they want to 
> give their
> time and talent to charity.  Then I  make suggestion that their group 
> could
> charge and then donate their earnings to  whatever "actual" charity they 
> wanted.
> Also ask them if they know what the  income circumstances are for 
> longstanding
> professional musicians in their  area.  They don't.  Try to point out that 
> it
> may be uncharitable to be  taking money away from musicians who do need 
> these
> jobs to meet living  expenses.  Suggest they make it a fair competition 
> for
> gigs.  I  actually know a couple of groups that did indeed decide to stop
> playing for free  as a result of such conversation.  It's not hard to come 
> up with
> charities  in actual need.
>
> The other piece of "education" is to try and help the person engaging the
> group to reflect on what they are "doing" to their audience when they 
> inflict
> poor quality entertainment because it's free; subtly suggest how this 
> reflects
> on them.
>
> More than once I have had entertainers tell me that entertaining in 
> nursing
> homes is no different than entertaining pre-schoolers. And they mean it!
> Right down to their selection of grade school songs and their clown,
> infantalizing, antics.   What an insult!!
> Ginny
>
>
>
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