"I HAVE TO COME SEE ONE OF YOUR SHOWS!"

Recently an old friend who has not seen me do comedy said that to me. Don't say that to a comedian! Or "When are you in town next?"

I have been doing shows for almost fourteen years now and this person and I have been friends for years. We are connected on social media so this person knows I am constantly promoting my shows and my schedule is all over the place.

As comedians, we spend hours and hours writing and perfecting our stand up. But we also spend just as many hours and hours promoting our shows and, at my level of headlining, checking our ticket sale numbers to see how shows are doing. Sometimes shows get cancelled because we don't have enough tickets sold, or other times, we have event like NBA finals affect our show dates. Most of the time, we have nice crowds and sometimes, we even have a sell out!

It's hard to always email and text friends and family to remind them of shows when we are in their cities. It's even harder when you do and they don't show up. I have tried new ways to get fans. Through new marketing technology I have subsribed to, I have "found" people who are like me and may enjoy my brand of comedy. Thankfully, I am at the point where most of the people who follow me on social media or attend my shows were strangers to me not too long ago. That feels good.

Recently I told this story to a friend of mine who routinely sells out theater sized shows now and, thankfully, does not need to worry about tickets sales anymore. He laughed and told me that the same people who would say they "need to come to a show" (and never did) are now hitting him up to see if he can get them into a sold out show, or if they can come back stage after his shows. He usually tries to help them out or gets them back stage. I wonder if I would be able to do the same. Either way, I hope to be in that situation soon. hashtag#standup hashtag#comedy hashtag#formerlawyer hashtag#careerchange hashtag#wednesdaywisdom

Photo by @sarahlarson