I am wondering if anyone has the current info on what an mc/opener, middle or headline act is getting in a comedy club? ( either per show or for the week). Any insight is useful,

thanks

Comedy writer

On-the-road or in LA or NY are different things.
I'd say on-the-road for a week openers make $250-$400 flat (no travel). Middle $350-$600. Headliner $1000-$1500-may get a travel allowance. About half what the money was in the late 80s.

Greg,

I take it this is per show?

Why has the $$ gone down so much? Just curious? Has Comedy Central reduced demand for live entertainment?

Interesting statement about our times. Seems like if anything we need to laugh more than we used to. . .

Thanks,

Todd

Greg, are you saying that they make $250 for a week's worth of shows? Or $250 per show.

Thanks for the info- that is about the rate that I've been hearing...

Some clubs you get $0.00 for opening, they use that as showcasing and most have that spot open for entertainers to get their skills up so they pay nothing or very little.

The club I started at in Seattle only paid the headliner - everyone else was there just to be there.
The owner also wasn't too receptive to "majic" as he called it when responding to my email about a future booking.

Per week!
Money's gone down due to the glut in acts.

Wow ... ya gotta have real dedication. Kudos to those who do. I'll stick to the kiddie birthday shows, and wonder if I ever could have made it as a comedian . . . (if my middle-aged pockets were younger and didn't have family to feed, I think I'd see it differently)

Kudos to YOU Mumblemore! Kiddies birthday shows scare me more than anything!

I bet one reason the paychecks from those type of comedy clubs are going down because of the less amount of guest appearing because of the economy.

Mike you would think that but in reality the numbers are going up. People are not travailing like they would if the economy was good so they are finding things to do closer to home. Movies, Comedy Clubs and local camp grounds are not doing all that bad really.
I guess I should say not as bad as other forms of entertainment.

The money's been bad in clubs since the last recession in 91/92.

I agree with Jerskin.
There are just a glut of would be comedians that just want to get stage time and work free or next to. Open mic nights performers even pay to get in, and then pay the two drink min, and another 10 - 15 bucks if they want to record their set (which is only 3 to 5 min long.)

As long as club owners can fill seats with free acts, why pay?
I only do them now to bridge a jump or try out new stuff.

Just saw this old thread and see that now many of those old week-run clubs are now just down to running shows on the weekends. I spoke with two different club bookers who were paying $50 a night for emcee, $100 per night for Feature and $150-200 for Headliner. And yes, they still have comic working for free or driving from two states over just for the $50-%100 slots.

It is totally insane out there! I recently hosted a burlesque show called "Red, White, and Bloomers." It was a charity fundraiser with all profits going to house homeless veterans. I started out as a middle act, but 4 days before the show the emcee had a family emergency come up and had to cancel. The producers called me up and asked me what I could do for them. The emcee's duties were to open the show, introduce each dancer, and have a few minute bit to perform in between each act. I told them I could cover it. It basically became an illusion show with burlesque dancers in between each illusion. We were such a hit that we were asked to perform there regularly and replace their host. I said that we'd love to, then they about fainted when I told them what we would charge for a paid gig and not one I was donating. I am not kidding when I say this.....The producer of the show said they could get 100 performances out of their old emcee for what it would cost for one performance of mine!! His emcee was working an entire 2 hour show for only 50 bucks a night!! When he asked what I would charge for doing my comedy bits and magic without the illusions I said he could still get his guy to do 20 performances at my price and that he should probably just keep him....LOL. I was shocked at how little pay people are willing to work for.

Danny Dole should know this subject matter well...
Ask him

I've always enjoyed doing comedy clubs but there never was any decent money in them.

Ok since my name was used (Sans the "L".) I will chime in.

Most people don't know the difference in a "comedy club" and a "comedy night". Here we go!

Comedy clubs are clubs that run a full week schedule. Wed through Sunday nights. Often with 2 on Friday and Saturday if not 3 shows. You can still find them and they are "A" rooms. Used to be pretty good money in them, but they were tough to crack. Thing magicians can't figure out is that it has more to do with selling drinks, than being funny. (That is another thread.) But if you had been on the circuit for long enough and the owners liked you and you managed to get drink sales 10 years ago you could pull in 2 or 3 grand a week depending on door splits, bor sales and such. That was 10 years ago so 2 or 3 grand meant a whole lot more than it does now.

I stopped doing the clubs 10 years ago. Fees have gone WAY down. (Coincidence? You deceide.) Many of the larger rooms have gone to part time rooms, many part time rooms have vanished into the oblivian. I think that the "new sobriety" has sort of hurt clubs whose only real goal was to pour as many drinks down them as they could while you tried to get them to understand your jokes. I think that is largely what is at the heart of them not really bouncing back like they always have.

Fees are down and will be for quite a while. I don't see a lot of new clubs opening, mostly the one night gigs. I have no idea what to say about going rates, except that they seem to be going steadily down.

You used to be able to get at least $250 per set if you were lucky and performing at a "name" club. (I'm not sure what headliners got paid...since I never was one. )

Now it's significantly less than that. Often free. Several reasons: there IS a glut of talent on the market. Many of them are very good and all of them are hungry. A goodly number will do a set for free because they are still learning their craft. (Comedy clubs are outstanding in this regard, by the way. You will learn quickly how to make your show "go." I think they are the best training ground on the planet.) Besides: doing comedy clubs is just plain fun.

Many of the clubs are gone -- which increases the available talent and further feeds the glutted market.

There are a LOT more entertainment options available now than there used to be and this, along with the smoking ban and the "new sobriety" Danny talked about in his excellent post -- have further gutted the market -- since smoking drinkers were the core of the comedy club market.

You do comedy clubs because you want to or because you're learning your craft...because it's very difficult to make a living doing them.

Add to this the fact that performing at them is an art unto itself. Doing a club date is NOTHING like doing a corporate booking. In many ways a comedy club is much more difficult. Your audiences will either be hard-won-but-true fans who will support nearly anything you do...or meat eating ego rending monsters with the attention spans of hyperactive terriers. And the vast majority of them don't give a rat's *** about magic or mentalism -- so whatever you do had better be really good FIRST and amazing SECOND. It's all about presentation and interaction...not effect

STILL -- I got a tremendous education in comedy clubs. It was the best entertainer's university available. Still is. The things I learned there, often under direct fire, still serve me today. There's no way I'd possess the skill set I have without them. (When I say this, I'm not bragging. Just stating a fact.) You learn FAST in those clubs.

You'll learn how to keep their attention. You'll learn timing. You'll get feedback -- both brutal and wonderful -- from the audience. You'll learn how to judge a crowd within the first thirty seconds and how to pace your show -- and where to put what...and which material REALLY suits you as opposed to the stuff you just THINK is cool.

You will meet the most fascinating people on the planet. Comics are serious and often neurotic people. But they CARE about what they do. A lot of the discipline to plan and carefully choose EVERY word and every pause that I use today, I learned from them. Comics can be back-biting small minded vicious little people -- but they can also be kind and true friends that stay with you no matter what. I still count several of them as my trusted friends.

And even having said all this -- I'd advise any new performer, anyone who is ready to cut their teeth with a "real" world environment to seek out a comedy club. Go ahead -- perform for free. You'll learn more in a month there than you will in ten years of "polite" bookings. And it's going to be a performing "adventure." Seriously.

David