I leave town for 3 days and you'd think comedian Dave Hill was the new suspect in the Anthrax case...well, at least among local comics. I laid a steaming, hot, lead turd on the stages of UCB yesterday in New York City. I know I'm better than what I've displayed and still have more potential to explore...I'm wondering if Dave Hill and the other folks at the DC Comedy Fest-Industry show feel similar. I know I don't want to be judged by one performance. The more you know...
(Local Comic finishes reading this...contemplates it...then throws his arm across the computer desk, knocking over laptop, empty Yuengling bottles, ash stained coffee mugs, and bar napkins inked in forsaken genius...pounds fists on desk, knocking over remaining lamp and pens...tears start to well, looks in mirror above desk, stares at aging face...in reflection sees old copy of "The Comedy Bible" on bookshelf...has mellow dramatic moment with himself, swivels around and takes book down off of shelf, ominously opens to page with "A Contract for Yourself Not to Quit"...footsteps start to walk downstairs...comic startled, starts to zip up his pants but then realizes he wasn't masturbating...mother looks from bottom step with smile, sets down plate of cookies and glass milk...rubs comics head)
Mom: You'll always be my little Johnny Carson.
Comic starts to sob uncontrollably, grabs mother's apron and buries face into it.
Mother looks at son's picture of Margaret Cho on wall
Mom: Goddamn you. (If you have any thoughts, insights or photos from your experiences at the DC Comedy Fest or Del Close Marathon, send'em our way and we'll post them up)
14 comments:
Good afternoon,
My name is Blaire Postman. I’m the founder and executive producer of the dccomedyfest. First of all let me say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out and supported the shows this weekend!! The houses were great and the audiences were phenomenal.
I also have to thank all the volunteers who are always wonderful, as well as the venues and our very involved sponsors, and of course the performers!
I suspect that most people posting here don't know me or my history very well, or why and how I started the fest. I thought I would take a moment to offer a behind the scenes look at what goes into making a festival and answer some of the questions I've seen posted here and have heard floating around over the past couple of weeks. Every year is different, with different sets of challenges. I am going to focus on 2008 for obvious reasons, but if you'd like to know about how it originally started and why, what my background is or anything along those lines, my email contact is at the bottom.
Producing the dccomedyfest in 2008 meant:
-Having open submissions (many festivals use primarily programmed live auditions or have no formal auditions, and book talent using largely clients of established agents and managers only) in order to give people from anywhere and/or without representation or whom we haven't seen a chance to get looked at. Even offering to waive the submission fee to anyone below a certain income level, even though the whole open submissions process is a net loss in money to the festival.
-Actively focusing on bringing in performers who have moved on to NY and LA but have strong DC ties in an effort to show success stories of comedians who have come from WDC (to show that DC is an important comedy breeding ground); trying our best to express to the public that may not be aware that those ties exist and what we're trying to demonstrate. (TJ Miller, Owen Smith, Baratunde Thurston, Reese Waters and Rob Cantrell, are a few of the names that leap to mind with DC ties but who do not currently work out of DC), as well as highlighting all the improv and stand up acts still living and working primarily in DC (many of whom did not specifically perform on the District of Comedy shows).
-Sucking it up when the major NYC improv fest changes their dates late in the game (from July to the same weekend as the dccf), causing us to lose talent, as well as loyal and fantastic fans of improv/sketch in the DC area to that festival.
-Scrambling when a major venue tells you 2 weeks before the event that it has to close the day of your shows for reasons too complex to describe here, and making a deal to keep that venue open. A deal that means lost time, publicity and ad support from that venue.
-Finding a new host for the first big show of the festival in less than 24 hours when the original host pulls out (for a very important reason) of the gig and some very high profile publicity spots at the last minute. (Dave Hill was very nice to do us a favor on zero notice or time to prep for the event, hosting something that was not anywhere near his typical show format, filling in when nobody else could. He is also hilarious, in my opinion. Too bad not everyone here caught the Weird Show on Saturday night).
-Rolling with it when houses turn over late, because they do sometimes and you can’t control it.
-Accepting that wonderful comedians don't always have the set of their lives each and every time no matter how much they've killed in auditions and other performances - and that's the nature of live comedy.
-Knowing that for everyone who loved the Alt show, the Weird show, Ruckus, Laughing Liberally, Gulf Coast comics, Chicago Comedy, Politics is Funny panel, Solly’s, Sketchy Stuff and more, that many people either didn't see those shows (and so don’t know) or some did, didn’t like them and hey, you can’t please all the people all the time.
-Accepting that people say you don't live here, when you do (Silver Spring now, before that Adams Morgan).
-Having people email you links to a blog that among the personal opinions also includes some ill-informed statements about dccf or myself, many often expressed as facts, and being too busy to be able to respond thoughtfully.
While dccf has done some great things, we are always trying to grow and learn from our missteps along the way. Like with any creative endeavor, be it a short film or video, audition, TV pilot, or 7 minute set, there’s always something that doesn't come off exactly the way you hoped it would.
I am one person, but supported by a team of volunteers who made a commitment to put on a comedy festival and show off DC talent (both those who live here now and those who have moved on to pursue their careers). And at the same time show DC audiences stuff that we think they’d like but that they haven't had a chance to see.
The producers who volunteer for dccf give their time and support with just the reward of a job well done at the end of it and some solid experience. We always actively recruit for volunteers, perhaps some additional folks will want to volunteer next year so their input can be heard more directly.
If someone is interested or wants to know more about the work (time, resources, volunteering to be a producer or on site volunteer next year, etc) that goes into producing a live comedy festival, please do not hesitate to email me, blairep@babyheadentertainment.com. I am happy to meet with you to talk shop.
I'm Blaire Postman, and I thought the festival was pretty cool.
Blaire-
Which comedians in the festival were accepted through the open submission process?
I'd need a good bit of time to go over everyone, and please understand that I'm sitting here right now without a spreadsheet in front of me (and that some people we first saw on dvd later auditioned for us live based on their dvd) --
BUT off the top of my head people who I remember were taken by submitting dvds or cds include: Brian Moote, Robert Buscemi, Zach Sims (and the 4 other Gulf Coast show comics - the concept was submitted and then each individual comedian submitted and we selected among them), jinx, cayne collier, Pat O'Brien ("shattered"), Drop Six, Rue Butalia (I think that one's right), chantal carrere, diana saez, joselyn hughes (who I later saw live in ny on an aud show), Hannibal Burress, I think Brook VP sent in DVD first and then I saw live based on that ... there are probably others that I can't pluck out right now.
... and this doesn't include the comedians from DC that appeared on the live dc audition show (set up from non-industry people active in DC so we would see people currently active in DC and so we could provide the service of at least some live auditions here), including Jason Weems, Aparna Nancherla, Bryson Turner, Hampton Yount, Jon Mumma/Jim Marsdale, Larry Poon, Jay Hastings, Kojo Mante (some also submitted through the dvd/link process)... Oh, and some people had submitted in the past and I went back to look at them again this year because I had heard they had grown and liked them last year.
I'm assuming you're not asking about people who we only saw first at other free audition shows that were booked out of town by non-industry, which would be another dozen or so... And some we've just seen and like.
Sorry if this isn't a perfect list, it was a long process, long festival and there were a lot of people in it, trying to remember as accurately as possible.
That said, it's not to say that submitting through the open process gets us a huge overwhelming majority, but it does get a some great quality performers each year and we keep it open each year to find those folks.
Also, sometimes people submit but we've had them before and for whatever reason don't think it's time to bring them back, whereas some groups resubmit (like 4 Shades of Black) and we take them again for any number of reasons (but I can't say that I saw them first this year, but we saw them again and thought they had something new and fun to offer this year)...
And of course there isn't room for everyone unfortunately, not even some really good people.
Sorry the question has a lot of dimensions for me so that was long ....
Not to be stupid, but I hope my answer to the last person went through re: submissions. My computer blinked and not sure it made it... let me know... Blaire
Yeah, there's nothing worse than a lackluster performance at a perceivably "important" gig... chin up, MJ. All you need is one good set and you'll remember why you do it: for the positive attention that you lacked during childhood.
@ Blaire
Hey, there was a lot of weird exchanges going on with this blog re: the comedy fest. Something to do with an open forum and anonymity that can turn mere grumblings to full-scale diatribes. The real-world emotions run nowhere near as hot.
2 points:
1) Chicago Showcase = best standup event I've seen as an audience member all year.
2) Adding the Solly's shows = good call.
3) A lot of local shows are floundering for lack of exposure/audiences. If you had any "simple tips" on how to drum up interest and press while juggling the old day job and performing, I would love to hear it.
I had a great time doing the Solly's show, met some good people and had a good time at the party after. Definitely not a bad Saturday night as far as they go.
As for anonymous posting, screw it it's pointless to waste energy on it, while it's true that arguments can be made which don't require identity to be valid (e.g., "shows should be advertised honestly" or "people who run a show should be able to put on whoever they want") but the minute it gets to opinions based on identity the lack of verification renders the point all but useless (e.g., as an audience member, as a Comic I think, etc...) And when people post their name in the message it's not much better, since I can just as easily type that I am John X, Rory Scovel or Ghandi, and there's no good reason to believe any of that. For my part I assume all anonymous posters on 'teh internet' are actually one diabetic 11 year old in Skokie Illinois whose parents grounded him but forgot to take away his laptop. He's got to be double jointed to type so much crap about so many people at once, but I don't know, maybe he has help from a room full of monkeys with typewriters. Historically speaking, they're pretty good at flinging shit too.
Anyway, I'm happy that DC is getting more attention and I'm glad there are more talented comedians than there was space in the festival, that speaks well of our talent pool. But speaking as a comic, I hope those comics who didn't get into this festival but wanted to are also applying to other festivals around the country.
Regardless of how I feel about this issue I sometimes feel like people would rather spend their energy complaining about injustices than just keep hitting the streets or keyboard to try to make the next thing happen. I know I'm plenty guilty of this too, but it's something I'm trying to address with my joke every day project and it's something I think we could all stand to work on. If I had one criticism of the members of the DC Comedy scene it wouldn't be a lack of talent, it would be a lack of ambition and tenaciousness.
Good luck to all of us in the years that come.
Shameless Plugs:
My Youtube account, home of my Joke Every Day project, hitting Day 200 as of midnight.
AND
Mikecomedy.com -- Not too much here that's not on my youtube right now, but will be going through a renovation in the next few months.
Hey Blaire-
We appreciatte you coming on this board and talking to us. People wouldn't be critical if they didn't care about it.
-Jimmy Meritt
Blaire - so, are you saying that the fact that the showcase was populated predominantly by your clients was just a coincidence?
"the showcase was populated predominantly by your clients"
where are you getting your numbers, jeffery? how many of the performers in the showcase do you think blaire reps?
From what I've heard, at least three. Is that not correct? If I heard wrong, then I retract my statement.
inthemiddle - Rory is in the middle of this whole situation...is that you, Rory?
Rain Management Group the company Blaire works for produces the DC Comedy Fest according to their site.
www.rmgcomedy.com lists Jared, Kumail and Rory as clients.
So they may not be directly rep'd by Blaire but it's definitely a coincidence to have that many rmg clients in the industry showcase.
And that's not counting the ones who are not listed.
Here was the industry showcase line-up:
Andria Smith, Brian Moote, Brooke Van Poppelen, Hannibal Buress, JARED LOGAN, Jason Weems, KUMAIL ALI, Peter Grosz, RORY SCOVEL, Sean Patton, Team Submarine
Here are some clients of Raine Management:
http://www.rmgbooking.com/id20.html
http://www.rmgbooking.com/id16.html
http://www.rmgbooking.com/id18.html
Here is their agent at Raine Management:
http://www.rmgbooking.com/id24.html
Blaire Postman, Manager & Live Event Producer
914-693-4600
bpostman@rmg-ent.com
Fact - Blaire gave preference to her clients.
I can't say what I wanted to say because I can't post anonymously, but it would have been hilarious and it would have included the name "Leo Goodman".
Just on principal, I want to retract my thanking of Blaire, since she never came back to the board.
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