File puptcrit/puptcrit.0805, message 416


From: Christopher Hudert <heyhoot-AT-mindspring.com>
Date: Mon, 19 May 2008 15:38:20 -0400
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Free shows



On Jun 1, 2008, at 6:21 AM, Kismet wrote:

> We often get asked to provide someone to do a gig, not always a 
> puppeteer
> and I love the "Good opportuity for them to promote themselves" logic 
> for
> doing shows for free......promote to who? People that are looking for 
> free
> entertainers?
Yep. And when you get on "the list" of people who will do free shows, 
it can be hard to get off.

But we also suffer the mixed blessing of being in what I call a hobby 
profession. It is one that some people do as a hobby, and this means 
that they may not require or even want any payment for what they are 
doing. They will gladly do that show for free. They do it because they 
love it, not because they want to make money at it, and they are 
supported by other means - some of which they plow into their hobby. 
(Many of us started there.) Some of these people are very, very good. 
The vast majority are less than that level. (Many of us started there 
too.) The fact that they do it for free, and that many of them are less 
than decent, negatively impacts the both the perception that puppeteers 
should get paid for doing puppetry, and that some puppeteers are worth 
paying for. If the hobbyist, or even the professional, is bad enough it 
damages the desire to have a puppet show at all as entertainment. Then 
we reach into the 10 to 1 rule. Whether you are an audience member or a 
sponsor, it takes 10 good performances to overcome the 1 bad one. 
Unless they have had some of those 10 good ones already, they are more 
likely to go for the magician, the clown, or some other type of 
entertainment before risking another puppet show. So if the other 
entertainer does well, they get the repeat booking and the door stays 
shut to puppet shows a little longer.

Yes, there is an element of "well. you get what you pay for," but how 
do you gently tell them that in a way that makes them still want to 
hire you? It kind of goes back to my previous post, but to the 
sponsor's side - if they paid nothing for a show, how can they complain 
when it was worth exactly what they paid for it? Well, they can (and 
do) complain, and rightfully so if it was by a professional company, 
because they thought they were getting a bargain. It's not what they 
expected. Should their expectations be lower? Maybe, but that is not 
the mindset. The mindset is that of a bazaar - haggle to get something 
of great value for as little as possible. Often they forget the adage 
of "Buyer Beware."


Okay, I've spent too much time on this already. Back to working and to 
lurking for a while.

Christopher

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