Troubadour

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

Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2019 5:53 PM

To: 'Folk Project' <fullboard@folkproject.org>

Subject: Troubadour Booking Report to the Board, December 2019

Overall

November was a disappointment for me. Our average attendance was 89.0 paid (114.0 total). We made a grand profit of $21 for the month. Year To Date our average paid attendance was 97.0 (117.3 total) and a profit of $4,112.

Show-by-show breakdown

I had big hopes for the JP Cormier show. And I thought the “Agranoff Imperative” rating I gave him would bring in a significant number of trusting souls who hadn’t seen him. Those who saw the show all agree he is a world-class musician, but there weren’t enough there to cover his $1,500 guarantee. I had estimated 130 paid for him. We only got 87. As a result, we needed to kick in an extra $603 to make his guarantee. (Which I covered personally per my 2019 donation program.) And to top it off, one of the members of the opening act, the Vox Hunters, whom I had hoped to expose to the potentially big crowd for a future headline act of their own got bronchitis, and they were unable to perform. With my underwriting, the show did make a reasonable $200 profit. But I don’t think I can count on the “Agranoff Imperative” rating to carry the weight it used to.

But that was offset by a $242 loss for the Best of the OpenStage show the following week due to a very disappointing turnout of 41 paid, tied for the lowest in 5 years. And with all the buzz amongst the Board about the revitalization of the OpenStage, there were precious few Troubadour regulars and Board members in attendance at that show. And not a whole lot of OpenStage regular attendees there either. Plus, we had a big problem in finding staff for the show, with a number of staffers doing double-duty to cover all the tasks. I think there were two basic problems with the concept. First was the title of the show. The word “OpenStage” implied a amateur level of musicianship, and most concert-goers will not come out for an evening of “amateur night”. But in actuality, the performers were terrific! Mitch did a great job in picking those acts. The second problem was that the OpenStage community is more interested in coming out to perform than it is in coming out to listen. We don’t get all that many OpenStage regulars coming out to our weekly concerts either. (Unless they were attendees before they were performers.) I don’t think we can ever count on the OpenStage community to add much to the ranks of our audience for our regular concerts. The four acts split a $608 pot evenly for their pay, even though there was a $100 bill in the Creel, probably from one of the artist’s mothers.  We can sustain the losses incurred by this sort of show in the future only if we can have enough sure-fire big shows to cover them, or if we can get more support from the OpenStage community and the Troubadour regulars and Board members in attending them to mitigate those losses.

The Zoe Mulford show was the one bright spot in the month, for me. Her attendance was a run-of-the-mill 75 paid. But when I asked how many people had been first introduced to her at her opening set for Susan Werner, about 15 – 20 hands went up. That indicated that my scheme of promoting a promising opener to a headliner by having the audience vote her into the headliner spot made the difference between a unsuccessful and a successful show. It made a modest $64 profit, yielding a rather small $21 overall profit for the month.

Underwriting performers’ guarantee makeups

This month will probably the last time I will have to cover an artist’s guarantee makeup. To review that program, I had resolved to book a number of higher-profile acts in 2019, and personally underwrite any guarantee makeups incurred. The idea was to draw in larger audiences, some of whom would then return to become regulars. (I cheated a little, and did not cover some small guarantee makeups if the show still made a profit without my help.) I contributed to 8 shows, for a total of $3,144. That formed a pretty substantial portion of the Troubadour’s overall profit of $4,112 YTD. And considering the program’s overall goal of drawing in larger audiences, some of whom would become regulars, I think the program was by and large a failure. I did book a number of sure-fire sellout acts in the beginning of the year, which turned out not to need my support to cover their high guarantees. But I simply do not know enough such sure-fire sellout acts to fill our schedule. And those other high priced acts I booked, while definitely worth their high guarantees in terms of artistry, simply didn’t have the draw to fill the room. And so the program’s failure rested largely on my own shoulders in my not being able to find those acts who could. (On the other hand, the Troubadour would still be $968 in the black without my help, so maybe it’s not as dismal as all that.)

The parking lot renovation is complete, and Paul Fisher. Kathi Caccavale, and I attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, along with a number of others who are members of both the Folk Project and the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship.

New Bookings since last month

• Feb. 21: Kora Feder: California-based singer songwriter to open for Small Potatoes

• April 17: Carla Ulbrich: Comedic singer-songwriter to open for Trout Fishing in America.

Plus I’m working on a couple of very interesting non-standard shows for early 2020. Hope to have more about them next month.

Highlights in December

• Dec. 27: After an almost 4 year absence, the return of the harmony-based trio Gathering Time.

Respectfully Submitted:

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

(Formerly the Minstrel Acoustic Concert Series)

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org