Performing Humor and Smart Comedy on Stage

According to his website, robertmac.com, “Robert Mac is a comedy creator, collaborator, connoisseur, and critic,” as well as “the thinking man’s non-thinking man.” A rare breed, he is a stand-up comedian who doesn’t resort to profanity, misogyny, or chest-beating, and still made the Entertainment Business Journal’s list of top one hundred comedians. How does he define his act? That’s “the hardest part of the job,” he says. “How can I tell you what my act is when I can only see it through me-colored glasses? Other people say it’s smart, clever, silly, cerebral.”

He readily admits that he’s chosen a difficult path in life, or, as he puts it, “stand-up is a tough racket.” Still, Mac has been able to find success in his chosen field, performing not only at comedy clubs around the country, but also private and corporate gigs, along with the much-coveted television appearance.

Daily, he battles the dichotomy of the life of an intelligent stand-up performer. “I put a lot of thought into my material,” he says. One the one hand, while “it’s easy to make people laugh…it’s much more rewarding to make them think and keep them guessing.” On the other hand, his experience is that his job involves, “mostly performing for drunks.” The club scene seems to be about “free comedy and expensive drinks, which devalues the comedy. It’s really backward in many ways. The club owners make their money on booze, so they offer cheap or free comedy to get drinkers into the clubs.”

But Mac is committed to this life, and has been for some time. He remembers, as a child, listening to a Steve Martin routine and thinking, “Do people do that as a job?” His first foray into stand-up took place around 1992. He provided some written material for a friend to perform at a local club’s open mic night. “When he did my material on stage, and got laughs, I felt betrayed in a way,” Mac remembers. “I wanted those laughs. After much cajoling, he finally pushed me onstage and my first set was a hit. I was hooked.”

Almost twenty years later, he performs regularly, an iconoclast in an industry where many performers are seeking to reach an audience that is “there to do shots and whoop it up.” By contrast, Mac plays well to a “bright and attentive” audience. Where is his base? He reports, “I do well with people with glasses,” and that he can judge how successful his set has been by how well he feels when he’s done. “If I’m having fun,” he says, “they’re having fun.” His favorite shows, naturally, are “the ones where they are in the palm of my hand the whole time and they let me run the show.”

What else could a comedian ask for? Reportedly, “a few more television appearances.” But he’d settle for the ability to “make a comfortable living as a comedian . . . and I’m making my way toward that.”

Mac uses social networks to share the news about upcoming performances, including Facebook to direct his fans to hyperlinks where they can purchase tickets or make reservations for upcoming shows. Fans can watch clips of his performances on his YouTube channel. He sells CDs and digital downloads online (and hopes to offer more merchandise in the near future), and even writes an occasional blog called Comedy DNA, discussing humor. In terms of weird publicity stunts, however, he rates this article as “probably the unusualest,” thing he has ever done.

Humor, of course, is subjective. “There’s funny in everything,” Mac says, “but it takes a lot to make me laugh. I think I need to be caught off-guard. Today I laughed out loud, literally, watching my friend Myq Kaplan perform on Letterman—funny, smart stuff.”

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QR Code Posters for Fast, Easy, Online Ticket Sales

What if your publicity posters could sell theater tickets for you?

I don’t mean in a metaphorical way: of course, great PR helps you sell tickets. I mean, what if the posters literally sold the tickets, to people who saw them, while they were standing there admiring the posters? What if the moment your patrons saw your advertisement, one feature of that ad was that it would instantly allow them to buy tickets to your upcoming show?

That’s what QR Code Posters from TicketPrinting.com do.

QR codes, those little black and white squares that appear more and more often in our visual environment, allow users to connect directly to websites. Anyone with a smart phone can instantly scan the code and be taken to a page where further information awaits them.

Box Office Bliss

But our QR Code Posters go even further. They don’t just take your patrons to any website; they direct them to your performance’s actual event page at TicketRiver, our online box office. With just a few clicks, your audience can purchase tickets to the upcoming show, without having to walk away from your advertisement, without the possibility that their desire to attend will slip their minds. It’s an instant-gratification ticket sales.

Setting up your event on TicketRiver is fast and easy; the process takes about five minutes and is as simple as entering data into a webform. As long as you have a title and description for your event, along with the time, the location, and the ticket prices, you can get started. The website does the rest: sells seats and collects payments.

Getting your QR Code Posters is even simpler, because our Customer Support staff and talented designers do the work for you. All you have to do is place your order by calling 888.771.0809. You can send us any design you’d like, or let our graphic artists create a custom design for you. We’ll generate the QR code that links to your show and send you a proof for your approval before we start printing.

Waiting in the Wings?

If you’ve been toying with the idea of updating your box office, transitioning to online ticket sales, or just want to add another convenient way for your patrons to get their seats, these QR Code Posters really pull their own weight. They do all the work of your ordinary print publicity, with the powerful bonus of actually selling those seats for you.

It just doesn’t get any simpler than this. Purchase Posters. Sell tickets.

 

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QR Code Posters for Music Event Ticket Sales

Your fans love your music.

Your fans want to see you perform live.

Your fans have smart phones.

Your fans have lives.

Do you love your fans? Show them a little love by making their lives a little bit easier. How? Make it simple for them to get tickets to your upcoming show the moment they see your print publicity. You can make the experience totally hassle-free for you and your fans with QR Code Posters advertising the gig. They actually sell tickets for you, so your fans don’t need to search around for the right link, stand in line at a ticket counter, or deal with any exorbitant ticket broker fees.

It’s So Easy

We’ve streamlined the process. First, we created an online box office at TicketRiver.com. In five minutes, you can register your show and set up an event page where your fans can find all your event details and purchase tickets. You can even sell different kinds of tickets—VIP Passes, 18-over, ½ price, whatever you like—to the same event. It’s fast and easy to create your page, complete with its own unique URL.

A Little Help from Your Friends

But that’s not all we’ve done for you. We’ll get your fans to the link in no time at all with a custom QR Code Poster. Whether you’ve got a design in mind or need one of our graphic artists to create an image that suits your particular needs, all you’ve got to do it is call our customer support at 888.771.0809. They’ll help get your order going. We’ll design your posters, generate your QR code, and send out a proof for your approval. We never print until you’re satisfied you’re getting exactly the Poster or Flyer you need.

Waiting Here for You

Wherever you hang your high-resolution QR Code Posters, your fans can scan the code with their smart phones. It will take them right to your TicketRiver event page where they can buy tickets right away.

TicketRiver sends users print-at-home tickets to save you time and money, but, if you still want to use paper tickets, you can order those too (at a discount for TicketRiver users) and mail them out, or hold them at will call.

It’s that easy! QR Code Posters are there for you, selling tickets night and day, from the moment you hang them until you sell out your event.

It’s just one more way to show your love to the people who support your music.

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Giddy Up to a Great Event!

Ticketprinting.com “gave us a quality ticket with our logo on the back making it look really official. People buying the tickets really seemed to like that.”

~ Michael Cooper, FBCYRA

On August 6^th, the Fort Bend County Youth Rodeo Association (FBCYRA) held its Summer Series Raffle. Cash prizes were handed out to participants. First Prize was three hundred dollars. Second Prize was two hundred dollars and Third prize was one hundred dollars.

The organization chose the All Purpose Raffle Ticket design. The ticket is printed on high quality stock in black and white. It features the essential raffle information and number on the front side, and the FBCYRA logo on its reverse. The ticket has a corresponding detachable stub for participants to write down their contact information.

“We are a youth rodeo organization,” Michael shared with me. The organization’s website further describes FBCRYA’s purpose, as “a Junior Rodeo Association for kids up to 19 years of age. We provide a safe place for Fort Bend County’s Youth to have fun and experience the great sport of Rodeo.” The FBCYRA is dedicated to helping young people. As well as providing a rodeo experience for youths and young adults, the organization is committed to supporting scholarship by providing awards for those young people who compete in the Junior Rodeo.

“We have a raffle each year in conjunction with our summer rodeo series and end of the summer rodeo to help pay for the over $30,000 in prizes we give away.” Michael explained to me. The Summer Series Raffle is a fundraiser for the organization.

How does FBCYRA promote its raffle and sell its tickets? The young people who participate in the Summer Series and wish to participate in the autumn rodeo are required to sell raffle tickets. “Each contestant is required to sale $75.  We target local businesses, family members and other within the community.” If FBCYRA members don’t sell the required amount of raffle tickets, they must secure an equal amount of outside sponsoring in order to be eligible for rodeo competition prizes.

Raffle sales are not only required but also competitive, which brings a spirit of fun to the process. The member who sells the most tickets wins a belt buckle at the end of the sales cycle.

Information about the raffle and the summer series was also available on the organization’s site and its Facebook page.

For Michael, the highlight of the Summer Series Raffle goes far beyond that one event. “The best part is just seeing how the kids grow through the summer and how their riding skills improve. It is neat to watch them compete however great to see the sportsmanship they show in helping one another out and cheer each other on.”

 

 

 

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State by State: Raffle Law in America

Sweet and Simple

In our last installment, we discussed some of the harsher regulations regaring raffle law, but not every state takes such a minute interest in the particulars of your group’s fundraiser. In Maine, for instance, the laws are looser. For raffles with prizes in $10,000, many charitable organizations do not require licenses or oversight. In addition to those goodwill organization identified by most states, Maine includes “Any agricultural society eligible for the state stipend,” and “Any state agency that conducts or operates a raffle for a donated item to benefit fish and wildlife conservation projects” in their list of those exempt from requiring a license.

Many states require little oversight for smaller fundraising efforts. Nebraska limits profits of unregulated raffles to $5,000. Montana approves of “limited legal gambling” and includes raffles in its list of “legal live games.” While gambling is restricted to adults over the age of 18, in Montana, minors may participate in “raffles conducted by churches, schools, charitable and nonprofit organizations.”

No Big Deal

While there is oversight of raffle in South Carolina, law enforcement agencies are instructed to “not charge a charitable, religious, or eleemosynary organization conducting a raffle for the benefit of the organization where all the proceeds inure to the benefit of the organization,” but rather to issue those who run afoul of the law with written warnings. For small raffles being run in the state of Virginia, the law is fairly relaxed. In general an organization “that reasonably expects, based on prior charitable gaming annual results or any other quantifiable method, to realize gross receipts of $40,000 or less” in their raffle need not worry overmuch about the law. In addition, volunteer fire departments and other volunteer first responders are exempt from registration and auditing fees.

One state that enthusiastically supports the right of charitable organization to use raffles for fundraising purposes is Wisconsin. The state’s administrative website proudly states, “Raffles are Wisconsin s favorite and most profitable form of grassroots fund-raising.” According to this site,  “Well over 7,500 groups are licensed to conduct raffles and net profits from this activity have remained steady at nearly 60%.” In Wisconsin, a raffle license costs only $25 per year, which authorizes the holder to run up to 200 raffles every year.

Next: Wrap It Up

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Theater Promotions and Theatrical Marketing: Online and in the Real World

Like many theater people, Alexandra Kesman discovered the stage in high school. She dabbled in acting, but spent more time backstage: stage managing, designing lights, running sound, and crewing a variety of shows. She attended Antioch College, where, thanks to an extensive co-op program, she graduated with an impressive résumé: The Magic Theatre in San Francisco, The Cincinnati Fringe Festival, Know Theatre of Cincinnati, Live Bait Theatre in Chicago, The Yellow Springs Kids Playhouse, and The American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA. In 2008, she took a full time position at the Know Theatre of Cincinnati, and today serves as Manager of PR and Marketing.

Kesman is in the vanguard of theatrical marketing professionals, comfortable with virtual promotions and prepared to do whatever it takes to start selling seats. Viral, stealth, and underground marketing? As “a mid-sized theatre with little to no budget for promotions,” she explains, “we are forced to rely on such types of marketing to get the word out.”

The Know Theatre’s mainstage season, from October to May, produces shows in their versatile black box, where seating is deliberately limited to ninety-nine or fewer, to keep shows intimate. Every June, they produce the Cincinnati Fringe Festival: thirty-five shows, twelve days, one hundred fifty performances, sixty-five hundred spectators. This season, they launched The Jackson Street Market, a series “dedicated to fostering and growing our local artist community” including “space for several groups to host salons and performances and the launch of a resource sharing website where Know Theatre’s resources can be utilized in exchange for volunteer hours.” On New Year’s Eve, they host their popular Speakeasy Party Fundraiser.

So, how does one go about promoting theater on a shoestring budget?

Kesman can rattle off myriad low-cost options, which have varying effects on ticket sales. In regard to free video content, she says that the theater was “one of the first in the area to really jump on the Youtube bandwagon,” offering, “video trailers, snippets, and ‘funny things that have nothing to do with our show’ videos,” which don’t necessarily sell tickets, but have a positive impact nonetheless. Due to the nature of the Internet, such clips, “create a conversation, show an insight into our company, and engage audiences.” Kesman suggests that, by opening a dialog, free content allows theaters to talk with potential patrons, rather than at them. She says that, once such a conversation has been started, “maybe they’ll buy tickets farther down the road. A good deal of our social media, blogging, and video efforts revolve around that.”

What of social media and blogging? The Know Theater maintains a Twitter feed and a Facebook fan page, each of which has over fifteen hundred followers. Facebook’s new tagging feature means that posts, “are mentioned periodically through other patron’s pages…helping drive traffic to our fan page and Twitter.” Even Kesman was surprised by the Facebook effect. She noticed that after inviting a few hundred Facebook friends to an event, a certain percentage would click “like” and soon enough, “I was surprised…to find out that Facebook was the number two referrer of traffic to our website, right under direct links and entries..”

Social media helps the theater share updates about shows and tickets, but Kesman sees the main purpose of such pages as, “being silly, fun, and engaging with our fans, rather than just posting ‘Get your tickets!’” A popular example? One snowy day, they created some cool buzz using “a photo of our building with the K in our logo replaced with an S, making it ‘Snow Theatre’.”

The Know Theater’s blog also serves to “engage our patrons.” Content is created by staff, actors, directors, and designers, and while Kesman sometimes has trouble motivating them to sit down and blog, she’s managed to get some exciting content for fans: tutorials on making fake blood, photographs taken by the touring cast in different parts of the country. For the basics, the Know Theater relies on their homepage, where readers can find “info about all of our productions, special events…staff, mission, history, production history, your average fundraising pages…and headshots and bios for our company and guest artists.” This site gets about three thousand hits a month, and, with an “in-house ticketing system that allows online purchases as well as over the phone and in person” is responsible for about thirty-five percent of the theater’s ticket sales!

And everything that Kesman does, she has to do twice. The Know Theater and the Fringe Festival maintain separate, but connected, Facebook, Twitter, and home pages!

In the real world, Kesman knows that “reviews in the paper can really get the word out about a show like nothing else.” She also makes certain to hang Posters and Flyers in the city and the suburbs. Another tactic is to target specific groups in advance, such as “major distributions with the city’s library systems and sneak-peek performances at bookstores,” for family-friendly shows based on books.

The possibilities seem endless. Kesman can drive even more traffic to the website by sending announcement to local community calendar sites. She counts about thirty such pages for her area and says, “You’d be surprised how this can actually sell tickets. People always say, ‘Oh I saw it online somewhere’.” The next big thing looks like their upcoming Google Grants account for Google Adwords donations. She advises, “For anyone that isn’t aware, Google provides a budget per day for some non-profits in Google Adwords. It’s a process to set-up if you are approved, but could really help traffic and searches in the future.” She expects to have it up and running by the spring.

Her advice to newcomers to social network marketing? “Reading books on social media isn’t going to get you anywhere. You really just have to dive in and figure it out…. Ask your friends. Everybody uses Facebook these days.” With a little experimentation, you can learn what Kesman already knows: how easy and navigable social media and blog sites really are, how well they allow you to communicate with patrons and draw traffic. Still intimidated? She suggests you research best practices online. Find a marketing blog that emphasizes the arts and the nonprofit sector. “Find some you like and read them regularly,” she advises. “You’ll learn a lot.”

 

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Streamline Your Box Office with Online Ticket Sales

We live in a twenty-four hour society. Is it reasonable for your patrons to expect you to maintain a twenty-four hour box office? Well, yes! You may already be selling theater tickets online, or you may be wondering how to add that functionality to your website, or whether the return on such an investment would be worth it.

Wherever you are in the process, there’s an easy way to add another portal to your sales arsenal. Ticket River is a new Internet-based service that lets you create a page for your upcoming show and sell tickets right from the website. You don’t need to know anything about creating web pages. It takes literally five minutes to fill out your event information. This site does the rest!

Not only does Ticket River create a page for your event and sell tickets for you while you sleep, it doesn’t cost anything to join or add an event. The only cost is a small, three percent surcharge per ticket sold. You can cover it yourself, split it with your customers, or add it to the cost of their ticket. Most theatergoers don’t mind paying an extra dollar or so for the convenience of purchasing event tickets from the comfort of their own homes. You have the added convenience of being able to accept all major credit cards as well as PayPal.

Whatever your ticketing needs, Ticket River’s got it covered. Create seating charts of your venue and sell reserved seats. Offer different pricing for students, seniors, or advance buyers. You can even use Ticket River to link to TicketPrinting.com, where you can print real paper tickets! In fact, users of this site get a great twenty percent discount on ticket printing.

Ticket River also helps you promote your event with email marketing, embeddable buttons, and easy access to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. This site even provides all the tools you need to track sales with charts, reports, and search functions. And if you need to offer a refund, or cancel a show, the site makes it a snap.

Ready to move your theater forward into a bold new year? Take Ticket River for a test drive!

 

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Fast, Easy, Economical Online Ticket Sales

If you want to make music, you can do that in your garage, on a subway train, or out in the woods. If you want to sell tickets to your upcoming performance, there’s a little more work involved. Big symphonies have their own box offices, but what about you? Even if you can sell tickets through a box office, can you sell them at 2 o’clock in the morning? Can you serve patrons in the middle of a blizzard, or when you’re short staffed?

Wouldn’t you rather give your fans the option of purchasing concert tickets online?

You don’t need an expensive shopping engine built into your website, and you don’t need to pay a third-party company big bucks to help you advertise and sell your next gig. All you need is a simple application like Ticket River.

It’s the fastest, easiest, most economical way to sell tickets online, providing you with maximum versatility for ticket sales. Whether you’re selling tickets for multiple dates, multiple venues, or multiple levels of access, it’s simple for you to set up your event, create your own page, and start selling tickets. You can even sell tickets for reserved seating events, and choose whether your patrons will print their tickets out at home, or pick them up at will call.

Best of all, this service is free!

It costs nothing to create a page for your concert. The only fee is a 3% surcharge on each ticket sold. You can pay it yourself, pass the cost on to your fans, or split the cost with them. Compared to markups of 50% or greater with online ticket sites like TicketMaster, that’s not much.

Performing a free concert? You can still use Ticket River to ask your guests to check in online, so you know how many to expect. If your part of a nonprofit group, you can even collect donations on the site.

All you have to do is log in, enter your event details, trick out your page with a background and a photo of your choice (if you want) and you’re ready to start selling. Ticket River provides you with links to send to potential guests, tracks all your sales, and handles payments from PayPal and all major credit cards.

You can use this service in conjunction with any other method you’re using to sell tickets, so you’ve got nothing to lose. Help the music-lovers of the world find even more to love about your music: simple, online concert ticket sales.

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If school fundraising is part of your job description, you’re probably well aware of two things:

1)   Your school’s financial future depends, in some part, on distributing tickets to your upcoming fund raising event.

2)   You’ve got plenty of other things to do in the front office besides distributing tickets.

Do you put the burden of selling Event Tickets on parents and teachers and then deal with the hassle of tracking sales from multiple sources, collecting and verifying money, hounding an unwilling sales team to work harder? Do you depend on the kids to start selling, and deal with the same problems on a grand scale?

How about an option that requires five minutes of commitment on your part, and does all the rest of the work for you?

If you’ve got tickets to sell, we’ve got an app for that.

It’s called Ticket River, and it’s literally the easiest, most reliable, and least expensive way to sell tickets to any school event. Even if you’re not selling tickets, it’s a great way to encourage people to check in to events they plan on attending, so you can get a head count in advance. It even lets you collect donations for your non-profit school!

All you’ve got to do is log on and create a page for your event. It takes about five minutes, and there’s help to help you get started if computers aren’t your thing. You’ll just enter the event information into a template: what kind of event you’re holding, how much tickets cost. You can upload some photographs to liven up the page, and choose a background, as well. And that’s it!

Once you’ve created a page with all your details, all you need to do is direct your students, their parents, and other guests to the URL where they can buy tickets. Ticket River will process credit card or PayPal payments, generate virtual tickets that can be printed out at home, and even track your sales for you. If you’d rather issue your own paper tickets, you can order them from Ticket River’s sister company, TicketPrinting.com, and hold them for attendees as they arrive at the event. The service is completely free: there’s only a small surcharge for each ticket sold (3%—the lowest in the industry), which you can pay yourself, pass on to your customers, or split between the two.

Now, doesn’t that sound a lot easier than waiting for kids to count out their pennies as a line forms around your desk and the phone rings off the hook?

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TicketPrinting.com is please to announced our new, improved resource for local raffle laws.

While states’ rights may be hotly disputed when it comes to some controversial issues, they’re alive and well in the realm of prize draws. Every state in the union (along with Washington, D.C.) has its own particular laws governing the sale of raffle tickets and games of chance. Depending on where you live, selling raffle tickets may be a free-for-all, a carefully governed option for certain non-profit organizations under the strict auspices of the state gaming commission, or just downright illegal. (And even then, at least one DA has written up guidelines for circumventing these rules.)

We recognize that our customers are working hard to earn more money for their particular causes. The last thing you need is a legal hassle. That’s why we’ve compiled links to help direct you to the statutes for your area, and, in some cases, the downloadable PDF files that you’ll need to fill out to get your permit and start selling raffle tickets!

Printing raffle tickets is easy at TicketPrinting.com, and our state raffle law resource helps makes your job even easier.

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