What's Wrong with the Hideout, and How to Fix It

Is the Hideout Doomed?

As I see it, there are more-or-less continuous rumors that the Hideout is dying. We see dwindling attendance to shows. The Friday shows get cancelled frequently. The House Manager is probably dead under the floorboards somewhere.

IMHO, this can't continue forever -- or, more precisely, it can go on for only a finite period of time, and it ends with the Hideout bankrupt and closing its doors.

Benefits

What do we, as improvisors and artists, gain from having the Hideout around?

1. A place for improv
First and foremost, it gives us a venue for regular improv shows. I think of improv as the sort of 'art generator' for my life. Pretty much anything you learn, you can bring into improv (for example, everything I've studied with voice was originally just so I could do better singing in improvised songs). It spins off material for sketch comedy and for lab shows.

If we lose the Hideout, we lose all that.

2. A locus for this artistic community.
Face it, the Hideout is where you'll run into all the people you know from the jury, or from the Heroes, or any number of musicians, jugglers, painters, writers, and actors that have been sucked into that particular maelstrom.

If we lose the Hideout, then that point of focus disappears. The main threat to someone like me (i. e., an engineer), is that after that, we're pretty much unplugged from Austin's vital and thriving artistic community. And that would suck.

Contingency Plans

What do we brave souls do if the Hideout goes under?

1. Keep in touch.
I say this both because the greatest resource for doing anything is other people, and because my social life has really atrophied outside of the Hideout. So if the the Hideout disappears in a cloud of eviction smoke, the best thing we can do is keep in touch with each other.

2. Find a way to keep doing improv.
Improv is the most immediate way that we can all keep writing, singing, and acting together.

First, there's studying. Are there other schools in Austin? Could we stomach doing National Comedy Theatre?

Second, there's performing. Can we continue First Round Draft as a going entity? Can we keep renting out small theatres and putting on small shows?

Keeping the Hideout Afloat

As you can see, the contingency plans look somewhat dire.

So, what can we do right now to keep the Hideout from going under?

What Does the Hideout Really Sell?

This is the question at the center of any business plan. And keep in mind, what you are really selling may not be immediately obvious. McDonalds, for example, appears to sell hamburgers -- but, equally important is that they own the real estate under their restaurants, a significant and profitable asset. Nike doesn't sell shoes, but rather its brand, its logo, and the emotions associated with it.

So, what does the Hideout really sell?

The fact is, it works much like a cult. It raises money by building a community, and sells two things:

The Impulse Buyer

By brother pointed out something important. A passerby who goes by the Hideout doesn't even know it's a theatre, much less that there's an improv show on every Friday and Saturday night.

This is an indication of a greater problem -- the Hideout is not geared towards the impulse buyer. The key to any cult -- or any sales force -- is getting 'bodies in the shop.' A bunch of people see the shows. Some fraction of them like the shows. Some fraction of them want to take classes at the Hideout. Some fraction of them are actually pretty talented. So, in order to get a steady trickle of interested parties entering your community, you've got to get a lot of eyeballs aimed at the stage.

That said, both the outdoor decor and the prohibitive price tag ($10 for every show, all the time) make an evening at the improv show impossible for the impulse buyer.

Selling Coffee

One necessary 'paradigm shift': You are not selling coffee. Anybody can sell coffee. Starbucks can undersell you, put out a better product, and have a better location. Nyah. What you are selling is coffee in the Hideout. Leverage your status as a locus of artsiness.

{more to come, or please add more}