2021 Troubadour Booking

Mike Agranoff

Troubadour Program Chairman

December 3, 2021

THE TROUBADOUR

2021 YEAR END REPORT

After much discussion among myself, the chairs of theTroubadour Staffing, Sound, and Streaming Committees, the officers of MUUF, and the Officers and Directors of the Folk Project, we decided to re-open the Troubadour on a full weekly schedule starting in September. We are limiting attendance to only those persons who are fully vaccinated, and require wearing of face masks by all personnel except while onstage. Presuming that our attendance would not be up to pre-COVID levels, I resolved to personally cover the Troubadour’s losses for a period of at least a year, in order to allow us to establish ourselves as an ongoing operation when people finally crawl out from under the covers and start attending live events again.

Thus far, we have experienced little to no resistance to the vaccination and mask mandates for attendance. We have been checking vax cards at the door, and encountered perhaps 3 or 4 people who did not have documentation.

I actually had some hopes that pent-up demand might bring people out in droves. That, alas did not come to pass. Our paid attendance has hovered around 40 from the start, with one notable exception for the November 19 show with Christine Lavin that drew 95. MUUF raised our rent by about 12% this year for the first time since around 2016. Consequently every show has run at a loss, averaging about $420 per show. This has been offset by private personal donations to the Troubadour (by individuals other than myself) totalling $4,800. Counting those donations, we have made a profit of about $1,000 for the year, without requiring any additional contributions from me.

We started live-streaming our concerts on FaceBook Live from the beginning at a very modest ticket price of $2.99. That brought us a modest income of $543 over the 3 months we’ve been in operation. That streaming ticket price will be going up to $4.99 starting in 2022, hoping we might make home streaming less of a “bargain”, and getting more folks to attend live.

We have had to make numerous changes in the Tally Sheet and other documents. There is a brand new tool to populate the several schedules on our revised website. That, plus the new livestreaming of shows have required a lot of work on the parts of myself as well as Webmaster John Lamb, Streaming Chair Gary Pratt, and Facebook maven Kathi Caccavale. Many thanks to those individuals, and others who have contributed work and input.

Towards the end of November, we had two disappointing events. First, we learned that Bill Staines, whose appearance at the Troubadour had been rescheduled three times (The first two due to COVID-related closures, and the last when he broke his wrist only a week before his scheduled date) was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had to retire from performing. Consequently, he will be unable to make the most recent April 15, 2022 date on which he was finally scheduled to play. And secondly, yesterday, Thursday, Dec. 2, Toby Walker reported to me that he had contracted COVID. I had been in the Green Room with him only the Friday before at his Troubadour gig, and consequently I may have been exposed to the virus. So in abundance of caution, I will not be performing tonight as scheduled as one of the songleaders in Chorus Song Night. (I am asymptomatic, fully vaccinated, and have tested negative on the first stage of a two-stage at-home COVID test.)

Sorry to end on a negative note. Here’s to better times in 2022.

Respectfully submitted:

Mike Agranoff

Program Chairman