Space Acres HPAC Comedy Night

THE IDEA

Space Acres is bringing comedy back to its ancestral home in the Catskills.  Not that it ever left.  I guess there have been occasional one-off comedy shows in a few places, actually.  And open mic nights.  But seriously folks, that’s not gonna cut it.  The people want a regular show they can drop by when the mood strikes, and we are going to give it to them.  There are a whole host of things to figure out, so we’d like to start with some simple, one-off shows to test the waters and start building an audience.

SHORT TERM

We already have our first show booked for July 3 at Cabernet Frank’s in Parksville.  We have 2 more complete shows ready to go, one tentatively for late July (3rd week?) and one on Friday, Aug 19.  The format is quick and easy: A 20ish minute feature set from someone local, a 30-60ish minute headliner from NYC, hosted by Space Acres’ very own Matt Werden.  After these 3 shows we will know a lot more, and can make more firm plans for the future.

LONG TERM

The long term goal is to have a regular comedy night that can feed some larger shows.  It’s easy to imagine a comedy festival at HPAC, or a bigger show with national talent.  The regular night can be once per month, potentially moving to weekly for summer or high traffic times. Once we’ve established a regular night, these additional shows can be added as it makes sense.

VIBE/TONE

One of the things I will be looking for is what kind comedy starts to emerge as we start booking these shows.  The Borscht Belt DNA is real, and there will probably be some NYC raunchy flavor from time to time.  I plan on working some framing into my hosting duties so everyone knows what to expect going in.

TECHNICAL NEEDS

All we need to get started is a microphone and PA system.  So that’s easy, at least.  Hopefully the Tango can supply that, but we can also if necessary.

CASH MONEY

The first thing to figure out is how to make this sustainable.  It would be great to start with absolute minimal staffing at the Tango, whatever that may be.  Then we can run a free show plus $5 suggested donation to start getting people in the door.  Opening acts around here are likely comfortable playing for tips, but comics from the city would need a guarantee of at least $150 or $200 to come headline.  That’s for the newest of the new talent - you sort of get what you pay for.  Perks like a meal and drinks would help, and Space Acres can also offer media services.

In terms of cash flow, a simple split could be that Space Acres collects the donations and gets a percent of the bar.  Then we can pay all the talent.  Alternatively Tango/HPAC could treat Space Acres as another performer and pay Feature, Headliner, and Space Acres separately.  I’m imagining this is more of a conversation to be had, so these are just some starting ideas.