AustinImprovWiki - When Shows Do Not Make

When Shows Do Not Make

The Problem

It feels like at least once a month, one of the improv comedy shows does not draw enough of an audience to warrant actually giving a show 1. The usual procedure is, wait until 15 after in hopes that enough people wander in (or can be corraled out of coffee-shop patrons, or whatever), discuss the matter among a gloomy and frustrated cast, and then give all the audience members their money back plus free comp tickets to a future show.

Our Five Options

It seems like the troupe can take one of five routes whenever this occurs. It also seems like historically, we discuss these options half-heartedly in the few minutes right after the show doesn't make, when everyone is least interested in the philosophical banter about What Should Be Done.

Option 1: Go Home and Play Another Day

This is what we always do when shows don't make.

Advantages

You get some of your evening "back"
Players suddenly have a forced open window in their social calendar, and can hang out together at the local pub or elsewhere.
If some of the scant few audience members were your invited guests, you can still spend time with them

Disadvatanges:

You already planned your evening around Improv (suggested by JasonHochman)
The experience may disillusion audience members, and discourages repeat business 2
You go home with a foul taste in your mouth about audiences, Improv, The Hideout, the state of the

world and a general malaise regarding the pointlessness of life

Option 2: Play Something Else for the Audience

So we can't play the show as advertised because not enough audience members showed up. How about giving them their money back, and offering a free show? Maybe this would be another offical format (MoreOrLess, TheaterSports, or SixDegrees) or a locally grown substitute (ImprovLotto, FastForward, TheRookieShow).

Advantages:

We still get to Do Improv, which is what we trained for and why we're here
The audience still gets to see Improv, and though they don't get the advertised show, they get to see free comedy!
We can potentially still give the audience comps for another future show (with Hideout Owner SeanHill's approval)
The show may not require all the players, so people uninterested, unqualified, or unmotivated to participate in the surrogate show can leave
Better for Hero morale than going home disappointed

Disadvantages (mostly thanks to BobApthorpe:

The energy in front of the small house, for any show, is weird. The audience feels self-concious about laughing, making it hard for them to have fun and hard for players to read their responses.
Even if it's free, it's still weird to have the cast outnumber the audience. 3
The players warmed up and psycologically prepared themselves to play the scheduled format, and it's hard to switch gears.
ShapeOfShow is difficult without a director (which some proposed formats don't include), and arguably harder to maintain with a small audience.

Option 3: Rehearse for next time

The recently revived RookieRehersal has been a big success, since we're all together, maybe we can use this as an opportunity to practice our skills. Plus, the more we rehearse, the better we are, and the more people will want to come and see us.

Advantages:

Everyone who can make the show can make this rehersal, so it fits the schedule of active players
Since the support staff is around (musician, lighting improviser, directors) we can do completly dry runs for shows, which is helpful for ironing out production kinks
We can do in-show commentary (such as pausing for a brief note about how this scene contributes to shape of show) which normally isn't available
We can tape the rehersal (since we were going to tape the show) or watch old tapes of shows for discussion
Better for Hero morale than going home disappointed
We can potentially let interested audience members watch the rehersal (too wild an idea?)
More time to resolve production issues (like fixing broken props, nametags, etc)

Disadvantages:

Rehearsal energy is likely to be weird since it's a forced environment and players are down because the show didn't make
No plans are on hand for what people would like to work on
Players can't hang out with guests the invited to the show (or they can, and miss rehearsal)

Option 4: Do Marketing for SeanHill and the Hideout

Clearly, if shows don't make, it's because we need more people to know about and be interested in the Hideout and Improv Comedy. Since everyone is together in one place, maybe we can make a coordinated marketing effort at that time to improv attendance for the next show. Ideas might include:

Going to sixth street with a handful of flyers for the next show (or pushing the show back start time an hour and a half and handing out flyers accordingly)
Putting up posters around town (possibly dangerous late at night, should be done in pairs?)
Brainstorming marketing ideas to pass along to our fearless leader SeanHill

Of course, there are some:

Advantages:

Future shows may draw more audience due to these efforts
Heroes become more a part of the community of the Hideout than just a place to play improv
Doesn't require full cast participation, so people can leave if they need to entertain out-of-town guests or whatnot

Disadvantages:

Requires SeanHill to either be on hand or have prepared in advance whatever flyers/handouts/material we might need
Liking Improv does not equal liking pushing flyers to drunk barhoppers. Not everyone may be enthused about this activity

Option 5: Planned Social Event

We could have a standing plan to go to the Driskill or Robby's House or The Gingerman, and get to know eachother all the more. This is especially good for newer Heroes, who find they are playing with people who they know very little about (thanks CoreyHuinker for pointing this out)

Advantages:

It's a par-tay!
The improv troupe that plays together, stays together

Disadvantges:

The Morning After

Footnotes:

1 For Micetro, the agreed-upon (and possibly Johnstone-declared?) minimum audience size is eight. But it's difficult to play to this small of a house since, they are required to score the scenes. For other shows, the rule of thumb has been give a show "if and only if" there are more audience members than players on stage.

2 A recent story from failed shows on 5/9/2003 (Micetro, five audience members) and 5/10/2003 (Six Degrees, four audience members) was the tale of a theater student (?) who came to the Friday show, went home disappointed, then came back Saturday, and went home disappointed again!

3 It's curious that No Shame, which is about as format-less as theater can get, can still "not make". Even when the format is that you don't have a format, you still have to have an audience.

2 pages link to WhenShowsDoNotMake: