Minstrel

From: The Minstrel <mike.agranoff@folkproject.org>

Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2018 2:04 PM

To: 'Board FP' <fullboard@folkproject.org>

Subject: Minstrel Booking Report, August 2018

July was overall a pretty decent month at the Minstrel. Counterbalancing the disappointing attendance for Kirsten Maxwell on July 6, we did quite well for Christine Lavin the following show. We averaged 77.7 paid (95.0 total) attendance for the month. And with the help of the Birthday Show, which is always a good money maker, we came out $650 in the black. That also did a lot to get our YTD profit closer to break-even at a loss of $337. See the attached charts for a more complete picture.

I received and signed our 2018-19 contract with MUF, with no change from the previous year. We pay different rents, depending upon which rooms we use for each show. (Dining room for food for smaller shows, Terrace Room for bigger shows, etc.) Heretofore they have asked us to specify which rooms we will use for each show in advance. This year, they have very graciously verbally permitted us to make changes on the day of the show to the room usage we had reserved, and make adjustments to the following month’s rent to cover those changes. We took advantage of that at the Birthday Show when the attendance did not warrant use of the Terrace room which was what we had reserved.

We had an unusual incident at the Christine Lavin show. I was Bookkeeper that night, and the Minstrel Computer picked that time to do a system update, without giving me the option of postponing it to later. By the end of the show, the update was only 25% finished, and I had no way of calculating Christine’s pay. What I did was to give her her guarantee in cash at the end of the show, and took the balance of the money home with me to do the calculations on my home computer. Once I did that, I had Chris send her a check for the balance of what was due her. There was also the matter of allowing the computer to complete the update. I was reluctant to interrupt the update, but didn’t want to leave it unattended overnight to complete the process. Fortunately, Kathy Caccavale was in attendance, and had the key to the MUF office. I brought it in there to complete the update, and left a note for the MUF staff. Kathy returned it to the storage box on Sunday.

I’ve begun the process of booking some high profile acts to try to boost attendance, and personally covering any guarantee makeup with my own funds. I’ve booked Susan Werner for January 4, Tom Chapin for March 22 and Cheryl Wheeler for April 5. And I’m working on a few more. I’m estimating that Susan and Cheryl may cost me somewhere between 0 and $500 each, and Tom should make his guarantee on his own.

I’ll also make this observation. More than the money, booking such acts costs me an enormous amount of time. Normally, once I’ve settled on a date and a guarantee, it takes me about 15 minutes to prepare and send a Letter of Agreement to the performer or their agent, and post the show up on the Minstrel web calendar. But performers at this higher level have a list of requirements, both contractual and technical, that do not fit within our normal operating procedures. I need to carefully go over their contracts and riders, looking for special requirements we cannot easily provide. And even those requirements we can provide, but do not fit within our usual procedures need attention. There are things like payment of deposits in advance, hotel housing, rather than host housing, specific items required on stage and in the green room, and other details too numerous to enumerate. And once I’ve which of those requirements we will meet, I need to prepare special instructions to the Treasurer and to various staff personnel in order to comply with them. (Which then makes Amy’s job and the jobs of various volunteers more difficult in turn.) All in all, I probably spent about 4 hours in such negotiations, and paperwork for each of those high profile acts. I would probably not be able to do the job if the entire Minstrel schedule was comprised of acts on that level.

While the Birthday Show was of high quality, and quite profitable, ($579 in the black, including all expenses such as rent and insurance), I found it quite disappointing, in terms of participation by the performers. Instead of the usual 20 groups, we only had 14 signed up, of which two more dropped out before showtime. There were a number of factors this year that contributed to this, such as the last-minute change in the Picnic date. But still, enthusiasm for the Birthday Show seems to be waning among our performing membership. And I find the increasing number of our more capable performing members who opt out of signing up for the show especially troubling. Yes, it can be disappointing to an accomplished musician to be paired up with a beginner. But I’ve personally always found it gratifying to be able to provide support to a beginner and help them to present a performance that they would not have been able to do on their own. I would welcome any suggestions to reverse this trend.

Mark Schaffer is investigating what it would take to sell advance tickets to Minstrel shows, probably through Brown Paper Tickets. It would be advantageous, particularly as the higher level of performers in next year’s schedule might result in more sellouts. But it would complicate the finances of the show, and probably require a new Committee member to administrate.

New Bookings this month:

• • Sept. 28: Peter Lister opening for Beppe Gambetta He’s a multi instrumentalist the first of those selected by Mitch from the Open Stage community to do an opening set

  • Jan. 4: Susan Werner, as mentioned above. For those unfamiliar with her, she is a singer songwriter who scores off the charts in all categories: Writing, vocal quality, instrumental prowess (guitar and piano), stage presence, and draw. I’m expecting a full house.

  • March 22: Tom Chapin, as mentioned above. We had to turn people away when he played last July.

  • April 5: Cheryl Wheeler, as mentioned above. Well known singer-songwriter, alternately wonderfully sweet and bitingly funny. Also a potential sellout.

There are one or two more in the works, and I may very well have them confirmed by the date of the meeting.

Respectfully submitted:

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Minstrel Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Minstrel.FolkProject.org