We Rule; and Other Undeniable Truths

[Ben Harpe]

To the Lost Cats of Sudan,

Awesome show last night. I'm really proud of our performance and the whole group. I hope you all are too. We nailed it. Obviously the house was light, but the audience loved the show.  From here out, we really need to pack the house every night.

Here's a breakdown on numbers:

Last night we paid $150 for the space and $20.28 for beer and a bag of ice. To break even, we would've needed to sell 34 tickets. We sold 9 and got $2 in tips. 

-$150  (rent)

-$20.28 (beer)

+$47 (income)

= - $123.28 (net loss)

That breaks down to each of us paying $17.61 out-of-pocket. We can definitely recoup that amount, but we'll have to work hard promoting this show.

If we distribute one night's loss over the coming 7 weeks, we're not in bad shape. If we each bring 5-6 audience members every night for the rest of the run, we will break even. However, if we have more nights with attendance as low as it was last night, it will become exponentially more difficult for us to make up the loss.

5-6 is definitely a possibility, but it will require some real leg work from all of us. I strongly believe that Facebook invitations alone are ineffective, especially in this community of performers where all of our friends' inboxes are consistently saturated with invitations. I encourage you to sit down and make a list of the people you intend on bringing and asking them personally to come.  

Here's an example of what I've been using:

"Hey (NAMELESS FRIEND),

I know I sent you an invite to this, but I wanted to invite you personally too. Because Facebook events are the worst. I'm in this improv group and we're opening an 8-week run on Tuesday (eeek!). It'd mean a lot to me if you could make it out, but especially if you could make it opening night! And especially especially if you came wearing all leather.

You are my one and only,

-Ben

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144518032295622"

Special sales point for next week: we've got a really tall drag queen opening for us. Invite all of your gay friends.

Also, Melissa and Kaylie were talking about whipping up a poster. If you think you'd like to put some up anywhere, hollaback!

Please don't let any of this money talk overshadow the fact that we have an awesome group and we had an awesome show. The shows will only get better. We have a killer show, and it's a bargain at $5. Let's spread the word.

Deeply,

Ben

___________

Bullets

-We rule

-Last night we lost over $100

-If you don't want to pay out-of-pocket, bring 5 or 6 people to the show every week

-Promote the show like it's your job

-We rule

[Melissa Fricke]

Yeah I'll definitely make a poster! I'll send an attachment once I make it.

Sent from my iPhone

[GMail]

Thanks for the words of encouragement and the sample fb message, Ben. I'm using it and keeping your name as the signature. 

I think we had a spectacular show and I am really excited for more. Is there someone with access to printing facilities who can make a bunch of posters and spread them around to us? I would love to put some up at work and invite everyone there, but I currently have no way to print them. 

Speaking of money, I hate to bring this up...but I know Thomas is planning to come to all the shows and help warm us up before...but are we planning to pay him for this at all? Just thinking of how much the run could potentially cost us all in the long run...I don't think I could afford an additional $5 for Thomas each week, too. Maybe we will just keep him well supplied with PBRs? Not sure if he mentioned money to anyone or not. 

Also also, I know we're not currently holding any of the opening groups responsible in a monetary sense, but would there be any way to have them take some of the responsibility? I don't even know if it could make sense, but I just feel like it might give them more incentive to invite people of their own and bring in some audience members.

Thoughts? Feelings? Emoticons?

Keep the good openers coming...who's up next week?

-Kaylie 

[Melissa Fricke]

My job has industrial copiers and a buttload of legal size paper. I'm working on a design right now. I'll send it around once I'm done for feedback.

Sent from my iPhone

[GMail]

Maybe a picture of a cartoon cat or a person in a cat suit would be ideal...sp we don't freak people out too much when we put the posters up!

[Melissa Fricke]

I think it would help if we had a picture of our group. Perhaps posing as cats.

Sent from my iPhone

[Ashley Whitehurst]

I can haz a Lost Cat poster?

[Ben Harpe]

Hey Kaylie (AND EVERYONE!!!!),

Ashley and Thomas did talk about payment for the coming weeks. Thomas is sympathetic that we've already got our work cut out for us, financially but obviously, he does deserve reimbursement for his service. As it stands now, he's thinking about it and will be in touch with Ashley soon.

I will contact the openers and drop some audience onus on them. Last night, our 2 openers brought a total of 1 audience member who almost got away with not paying (hats off to Melissa: I was too scared to confront him). Unfortunately, it's too late to hold them responsible for a monetary figure, as many groups do, but I will let them know how many we need each week and strongly encourage (threaten) them to bring in a crowd.

If anyone has a brill marketing ploy or an incentive to get the openers to step it up, throw it on the table!

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,

-B. Surmann Harpe

[Melissa Fricke]

I will print out posters (aka paper flyers) for everyone.

Sent from my iPhone

[GMail]

If Thomas wants reimbursement for his time, I would like to strongly suggest a vote in favor of just a group warmup without him before the show then....I (and others, too, I'm sure) can't afford the Studio Be bill as well as Thomas's services.

I am also willing to do a cat photo shoot if anyone has a camera. We can make costumes.

[Ben Harpe]

Hey,

If we bring enough people to the show, we'll be able to pay him from the till. Don't resign that possibility: we don't necessarily need to lose money on this.

We'll see what Thomas says about cash money and play it from there. In the meantime, the best thing for us to do is contact everyone we know in Chicago and let them know they can see us monkeyshine for $5.

-Ben

[GMail]

Will do. Good luck to us; we can talk about $ when the time comes I suppose.

[Kelsey Kinney]

hey errbody.

i made a poster. it's kind of crappy and was created using paint, but i just had to see all of us as cats. i just had to do it. melissa, i know you're making a for reals poster and i'm sure it'll be much prettier, but if anyone knows any cat-humans that would be inspired to see the show if they knew other cat-humans endorse it then send them my poster. that is all. thank you.

[Melissa Fricke]

That poster kicks my poster's ass. Let's use that one.

Sent from my iPhone

<lostcat2.jpg>

[Ashley Whitehurst]

I LOVE THIS!!!

[Kaylie Curran]

ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL. Can anyone print some? (some=a whole buttload)

[Melissa Fricke]

I can print them Monday.

Sent from my iPhone

[Mike Kauffman]

Wow...we look really good as cats...seriously.