Who's still not paying featured readers?!!

[scottwoods]

Who's still booking poets and not paying them? I mean, really, are there organizers out there who think features are coming in from out-of-town to perform for free? Without even an explanation? This is actually happening?! Really

Comments

[ocvictor]

I actually backed out of a gig recently because they don't even pass the hat for features. There are reasons why the reading's the way it is, which I found legitimate and completely understood, but nonetheless, I postponed the gig until after my book comes out so I could make something. And even that I'm only doing becuase I like the organizer.

[scottwoods]

Sounds reasonable to me.

I am not against hats so long as that's clear ahead of time.

[mstegosaurus]

...and at a couple venues I can think of, "pass that hat" can come out very well (like, low-to-even-sometimes-low-mid-3-digits).

What's worse than a venue that doesn't pay is a venue that doesn't pay AND charges a cover. Infuriating.

[scottwoods]

Right and right.

I've never done a pass the hat because the speech to fill it always sounds a little "needy", but I've seen some pretty impressive hats. There are lots of ways to compensate a great poet.

The second one I also agree with, even though I understand why this probably happens a lot more than anyone wants to admit (be they a feature or the host in question). It really drives home the point that somewhere in the artistic chain is a business deal, and that has to be honored. But we have to understand that when we sign up a feature, we're adding a business deal on top of the business deal and that's okay. No one is hiring features because they think it will HURT their audience.

Acts of God?

[afro_titus]

For the 4 years Mojo and I ran Palo Alto Slam we had a rule

Re: Acts of God?

[scottwoods]

I'm a big fan of the up-front pay too. Somehow, it just makes everything better going in.

[twosnoos]

We had a West Coast slam gig where they didn't have enough money to pay the features (us). The door money -- admittedly low, as it wasn't a big crowd -- went to the slam winners instead, who were promised a cash prize.

As an organizer, I can understand how shitty it feels to have a night where you don't have the funds from the door to cover the show's costs. It sucks.

But also as an organizer, I've never skipped on paying a feature, let alone an out-of-town feature.

Sucks all around.

[scottwoods]

RIGHT. I have almost never walked in the door without having the feature's money covered.

[jbradley]

Locally, there's a night that has a bad habit of paying out of town features and I've heard people who feature at my night bitch about it after it happens. When it happens in your own scene, should you pull the organizers of those nights in question aside?

[nelsonbob]

J, do you mean "Not Paying"? A bad habit of paying is horrible indeed :-).

[jbradley]

I meant not paying - doh, stupid flu.

[brazencaucasian]

"Locally, there's a night that has a bad habit of paying out of town features"

did you mean a bad habit of NOT paying out of town features?

Venues

[monkeypudding]

I'm also curious to know how many organizers have to pay for their venue use. And how many venues assist in covering any costs.

We get our venue for free. They get the bar we get the door. Same with the other slam in town and with all the open mic nights that I know of.

Re: Venues

[dj_muse]

I only know this because I asked - our venue is in a bar (downstairs) and they have to pay something per person (we charge at the door). That said, I know our features get paid, and that makes sense because Simone is ridiculously organized. :) This is definitely NOT a venue that is organizationally challenged.

I thought it was usual for most venues to put the poet up with the host or someone else who lives there. I've just seen that with a couple of venues and thought it was part of the coolness that is the poetry community.

Re: Venues

[scottwoods]

I imagine most nights have to give the venue something. Irrelevant to whether or not you SHOULD pay the feature, but it may have everything to do with if you CAN pay the feature. If that is the case, however, then you should either get another, cheaper venue or stop running poetry nights because your support clearly isn't there.

Re: Venues

[sirenoftitan1]

You can also consider going from a weekly show to a monthly, or, if you are already monthly, having features every other month alternating with slams. You can also likely get your team (if you have one) to do a pass-the-hat feature one month. All ways to cut down on the number of features you have to pay.