Hey Dave – You’ve been writing about promoting. I’m on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. How do I get bookers to look at my video? I send emails but don’t hear back and don’t know if they’re watching. Thanks – D.M.
Let’s play a game!
Hey D.M. – As you probably know from following these ramblings I post online, to get bookings you must treat it like a business. BUT I’ve also learned from personal experience that it’s like a game and you must play it. If I had to describe the booking game, I’d call it a cross between Tag and Hide and go Seek.
Let me explain…
Sometimes you need to break down and make a phone call. When you don’t have access to a talent booker’s personal messaging; emails, snail mail and online networking are not the only other resorts. Sometimes you need do it the old-fashion way by picking up the phone and start talking.
If you get a booker or agent on the line – that’s great! Use some of the concepts I’ve shared in past articles about using a conversational hook (short – just as an icebreaker) while being professional AND personable. Remember, you’re making a business call, but at the same time you’re in the entertainment biz and not an insurance agent or tax collector.
Then ask if they’ve received your email and if they’ve watched your video.
If not, and this is the secret cheat (if you want to compare it to playing video games) ask, “When is the best time for me to call you back?”
Many talent bookers, agents, college student programmers, event planners – whatever – have certain hours during certain days when they accept phone calls. Ask when these hours are (by asking: “When is the best time for me to call you back?”). There’s no reason why they shouldn’t tell you. For instance: “Tuesdays between 2 and 4 pm” or give you a general idea: “Give me a couple weeks.”
Mark that date or “a couple weeks later” on your calendar.
People still use these!
If they give you a specific time of day, mark that down also. They might just come right out and tell you if mornings or afternoons are best. THEN – and this is the second secret cheat– after you hang up, send the talent booker a postcard. I’m not talking about a vacation postcard with a pretty landscape. I’m talking about the type of business postcards that I’ve described in my book How To Be A Working Comic and in past FAQs And Answers.
Use the type of postcard that promotes you as an entertainer.
** “Wait a minute! Postcards are so old school. Everything today is online and by email. I don’t even know where to find a post office!” (Note: I’m imagining this response from everyone reading this online).
Yes, that’s pretty much correct.
Especially for working comics that already have relationships with talent bookers. They’ve received approval to send in avails via email or text every few weeks and can get work.
BUT I’ll go back to today’s question:
- How do you contact them just to look at your video (for the first time) and…
- How do you know if they’ve watched it (or even received it)?
The problems – mainly for performers unknown to the talent bookers – are spam filters. This happens with some of the clubs but is especially true if you’re trying to break into the college and corporate markets. Many unsolicited emails with links (to videos or websites) won’t get past the school or business in-house email systems.
This eliminates all the unwanted non-school related or non-business-related ads and other spam that would fill up their inboxes. You – as an unknown email sender– have a good chance of falling into that category. A good email program will let you know what addresses you are sending to are either blocked or rejected as undeliverable, but otherwise you have no idea.
You could be waiting for a response that may never come because your important email was weeded out by a spam filter. You haven’t been added to the booker’s accepted (not blocked) contacts list.
* Also, from experience, many comedians and speakers still rely on postcards to stay in touch. I don’t consider myself to be a talent booker anymore (very rare when I do), but I still receive postcards from performers looking for work. It’s a way to stay in touch without being a pain in the you-know-what.
So, I’ll repeat because it’s very important. Send the talent booker a postcard with a brief note saying it was good talking with him/her and the date you will be calling again.
In reality, you probably won’t get the booker on the phone. In that case, always leave a short message that you were following up on your promotional material. If you’re making the effort to call, you might as well get something out of it, even if it’s just for the booker to hear your name. In your voice message say you’ll call again in about two weeks, then hang up and send a postcard.
Repeat the process until you get an answer.
This might take some time (remember you’re playing The Talent Booking Game) but it will keep your name and face (postcard headshot/photo) passing in front of the booker on a regular basis without being an annoying pain in the butt.
That’s the most important part of this game plan. You don’t want to be in their face every day (annoying). You just want to drop a reminder on a regular basis.
You want personal experience to back this up? Okay…
When I was talent coordinator for A&E’s An Evening at the Improv I’d receive literally hundreds of promotional packages with videos (this was before online promo really took off… and suddenly I’m feeling old…). These packages would pile up on my desk and I’d plan out “sittings” where I’d watch about 30 at a time.
No lie.
The comedians who played the above game were not a pain in the butt. They also were not forgotten or lost in the pile of videos. I would get these regular reminders and eventually dig through the pile to find their promo material. I was tired of being embarrassed when they’d call a couple of weeks later and I still hadn’t seen their video. It made me feel like I wasn’t doing my job, even though it seemed I never stopped watching videos. I just hadn’t seen theirs.
Now, this by no means guaranteed them a showcase or a spot on the television show. Sometimes it worked out in their favor, but sometimes they just were not ready. But at least they had put in the work and had been seen.
I also remember talking about this years ago at a comedy festival with a manager friend out of Los Angeles who has successfully taken his company into the big time by producing television shows and movies. How did he discover new talent? His advice was to be a player. If you weren’t seen in person on a comedy club stage where he scouted talent on a regular basis, you played the game without being annoying.
So, as I like to say, this is nothing I’ve made up.
I’ve learned this from personal experience and talking with people that are successful in this crazy business. Play it correctly and eventually you should get at least some type of response. Of course, that response could be good, bad, or indifferent depending on where you are as a comedian or speaker, but that’s a different game we’ll play some other time.
Thanks for reading and as always – keep laughing!
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