By Creig Ewing
You’ve been booked on a comedy show. Congrats! Now all you need are people to come to the show, and you can help by promoting the show.
First question you may have is it even your job to promote the show? Yes. The comedy club, venue or booker should promote it as well. But things work better when everyone works together.
You don’t have to buy and ad, but you can do a lot of things to help.
How should you promote a show?
Get a flyer from the booker or club and post it to your social media — Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever.
Some comics even make their own flyers or update the ones provided. Great. Be creative.
If you don’t have social media, you can drive around and tack flyers all over town.
When should you promote a show?
You should start as soon as you get the details from the booker. Don’t wait to the day of the show to promote it. That’s too little, too late.
I have several shows coming up, can I just promote them all at once?
Comics love to post flyers listing all their events for the month. That’s nice, but it’s more for promoting themselves than a show. Doesn’t really count as promoting an event.
You want to make it easy for potential audience members to buy a ticket. Put out an item for each show individually and include a ticket link.
If you have three shows at three different spots this week, it’s fine to do a post with flyers for all three. But you should also post them individually.
I saw where the club posted something on Facebook about the show, can’t I just share that?
More than anything, Facebook wants people to buy ads. When you share a post for an event, they tend to get held up and often people don’t see it until after the event.
Copy the flyer and take a minute to create a post of your own.
I have three events this week. Am I really supposed to promote the open mic like I am the show where I’m hosting at the comedy club for the first time?
I think comics should promote every event they are on. You may have gotten the host spot because the booker noticed that you’re good at promoting.
Doesn’t mean you have to give the same attention to every show. You want people at the open mic, too. So promote that some and blast your host spot.
I have been doing comedy for several years and my friends and relatives don’t come to shows any more. What’s the use of promoting shows?
Ideally, you’re a terrific comedian who is building a following. If not, you’re still helping because by promoting shows you are ensuring more people see the event and may decide to show up and discover what a terrific talent you are.
