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... and I'll break out in hives if I want to!

That's right. It's my party. So, regardless of how cool I may look or how organized things may appear ... I'm having travel-sized panic attacks for at least a week leading up to a major event. My sixth annual Verbatim show was no different. (Friday, Nov. 18, 2005)

I was mostly worried about butts in chairs; I knew the show itself would be great b/c all of the performers on the lineup were fire. However, a hot lineup does not guarantee butts in chairs. I've mistakenly leaned on that lesson before.

So marketing is it, right? My bread and butter. My goal from Show 5 to this one was to elevate my marketing efforts from "the underground" to the mainstream. The accurate phrasing of this goal, truthfully, should be "My goal is to have a mainstream marketing budget." Let's face it; we do the underground because we gotta make the most of the resources we have, yeah? Do you think McDonald's or Nike or would opt for squads of college kids cramming flyers under wiper blades instead of advertising? Uuhh ... no. The answer is no, they would not.

And I didn't want to rely on that either. Use it, yes. Rely? If-y. So, of course, I secured even fewer sponsors this year. Of ... course. Money where the mouth is, right? Yeah, well ... whoever coined that little phrase wasn't staring down the barrell of a stack of bounced checks and cycles of phone calls that rotate quickly enough from friendly to firm to furious to fuck you and don't you ever call me about another show again.

Butts in chairs.

Sponsors or no, I have to set in motion everything I promised myself that I would for this year's event: more headline talent, advertising, ticket agents, street promotions. I've done them all for past shows, but with varying degrees of both effort and success. This year, I had to turn on all the jets. Taalam told me that someone told him the best way to promote a show is to start months in advance, then drop off. When you start back, the public will think "hey, i thought i missed this ..." or "hmmm ... i've heard this somewhere before ..."

Made sense to me. So I tried it. Kendall told me that I needed more people selling tickets ... and sooner. Made sense too. So I tried that. I used the six dollars I had left to advertise on the radio, and in the paper. I cross-marketed. I emailed people incessantly. I did my PR thing. I bartered with another PR pro to help me do the PR thing. I point blank asked-slash-pleaded with my friends and family to buy tickets, especially the folks who always wish me luck and never support my shows! I passed out fliers to the girls in drive through, guys in Walgreen's, everywhere. AND enlisted a pair of folks to focus on nothing but getting flyers out.

I can say, with a straight face and free heart, that I did everything I could do to make this show successful. The day before, I told my mother that I was proud of myself.

That made her smile, in that way only a mother can beam.

Butts in chairs would've been gravy, at that point.

Gravy, I say: the show was amazing! Truly the best Verbatim production yet. Plenty of butts in chairs and an unbelievable showing by the performers [Death from Below, Al Letson, '05 Milwaukee Slam Team, La'Ketta Caldwell (actor), Mike Bonner (comic), Tana Reed (music) & Carlton Thompson (music)]. The host was pretty good, too (me! me!)

So, the moral of this story is that the Superwoman cape is much more effective now when I join with other superpowers. I have a lot of people to appreciate between Show 1 and this Show 6. I'm sure I'll double the number of souls I'll be indebted to even by the time Show 7 rolls around next year.

And, yes, even when Verbatim explodes into a national tour and everything is being paid for by Virgin Records and Dannon Yogurt, best believe there will still be a tiny rash of hives on my hand as evidence of a week of tiny panic attacks.

Hey ... it's my party.

Comments

congrats mama! keep making moves like superwoman wishes you could've if she lived in milwaukee and made drinks like mama duck

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