Patience Will Be Rewarded
Take care of your performers and patrons, and they will keep coming back
In a recent episode of Suzi Barrett's outstanding podcast "Yes, Also" (everyone should listen and improvisers should subscribe for the bonus content), Jacquis Neal said his show philosophy boiled down to (and I am paraphrasing), "Make sure performers want to do your show again."
I thought of that a couple of weeks ago as I helped clean up after a Highwire show at the Lou Costello Room, one of our regular venues. Folks from each of the three teams in our late show thanked Highwire for booking them. This meant a lot to me because I want us to provide the same experience Jacquis described. But I appreciated the thanks for another reason.
I started the night in a pretty pessimistic mood. We had very few pre-sales. The nasty weather already prevented one team from making the show (I totally understood - safety first). I had little expectation for a strong walkup audience because of that weather.
Not every night can provide a sellout audience. We started 2025 with strong audiences so one night had to fall a little short. I decided to grin my teeth and bear it.
Then some of our students showed up. And a few walkins. Then a few more. And the energy of the performers lifted everyone in the room.
A bunch of people who attended the early show stayed for the late show, which had more amazing performances. And some more walkup ticket sales
By the end of the night, we didn't reach sellout status, but we had a solid audience whose enthusiasm exceeded their number. And the teams left with smiles on their faces.
Sometimes we need to remember that producing shows is a marathon, not a sprint, and we need to focus on providing a positive experience for everyone rather than meeting some pre-determined metric.
Make everyone want to come back again and the numbers will follow.
What a lovely post- I I really love that philosophy. I always like to try to think of a show being a success or not based on what you pictured in your mind, and what happened on stage. Did you intend to tell fairy tales that feature a lot of the narrative tropes? Did you want to mess around like friends in the living room onstage? Did you want to emulate a genre or nail a form? If you hit that mark, great, and if not, what was missing or what can you add in for next time?
Obviously we need the audience there to help us tell these stories and as many people we can have along for the ride, the better, but that doesn't have to be a mark on the quality of the show itself.