Minstrel Booking

A little better this month. We did turn a profit, although barely at $121 for the month. (Again, remember that these P&L figures are more severe than those reported before last month, because I am now including insurance costs in the figures.) Average attendance was 101 for the regular shows, and 82.5 including the Open Stage. That was helped by a sellout crowd for the Phil Ochs Song Night with 157 paid and 195 total attendance including staff and various freebies. Year-to-date, we're still $565 in the red.

I'm adding an additional attachment to those I've included in the past called Minstrel Financial. That shows the actual P&L breakdown, show by show, with insurance allotments, and all expenses. It's sort of revealing in a number of ways. For instance, the Phil Ochs Song Night show brought in only a very modest profit of $158, even with the huge attendance. The primary reason for that was that there were a large number of ticks and 2nd-timer passes redeemed that night (24 total) We count those towards the attendee count when calculating the performer's attendance bonus. Our payment system gives an attendance bonus of 75% of the ticket price for each attendee over 100. So we paid .75 x $9 x 24, or $162 to the featured act for those freebies. On the other hand, the Open Stages benefit from this new reporting system. Since our Workers' Comp insurance is based upon performer fees, Open Stages, which have no paid performers, are not responsible for covering any of that expense.

The MUF sound system was not installed last week, as had been announced, but we are now told it will be installed next week, and be ready by Friday. A number of Sound personnel will go through an instruction session on Friday April 11. We will continue to operate our own equipment until we have enough sound techs familiar with the new system.

On March 29, I was informed by James Keelaghan's agent that he will not be able to make his scheduled appearance on April 29 due to delays in getting his work visa approved by US Immigration. I made a bunch of quick calls, and Cliff Eberhardt will fill in for him.

New Bookings since February:

· June 24: Dirdy Birdies Jug Band with multi-instrumentalist and humorist Russ Rentler opening. The should be a real good-time show.

· July 15: Reeds, Rhythm, And All That Brass with opener Bill Brandon, who plays the same sort of material on solo guitar.

· July 22: Songwriter Nancy Beaudette to open for John Gorka

· January 27, 2017: Songwriter Tim Grimm

Highlights for April:

A good strong schedule for April, including

· April 1: No Fuss & Feathers: A collaboration of 4 songwriters including Carolann Solebello that made a big hit at a recent Getaway

· April 15: Shockenaw Mountain Boys: an accoustic subset of the jam band, Railroad Earth

· April 29: The aforementioned Cliff Eberhardt.

Addendum:

The latest from MUF on their construction plans for the parking lot is that they have another meeting with the Morristown Zoning Board on May 11. If they can resolve all their issues at that meeting, they plan on starting work on July 15. If they need another meeting to resolve everything, the start date will be August 15. In either case we should plan on being displaced to the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township for 8 weeks during the work.

Mike Agranoff