On 2013-10-12 13:48, BrianMillerMagic wrote:
I'm kind of offended that someone even believes there's a way to skip the painful learning process, developing an act, materials, making connections, getting repeat clients, and gradually growing the business.

I'm still in the early stage of my career, and the very guys in this thread have been helping me do it for almost 8 years. They watched and helped me transition from a teen with ambition to a young adult with potential to a full time pro traveling and doing 250+ dates/year. Many of my dates are at the price range you're describing (and higher), but still lots of them aren't. They've watched me succeed tremendously and fail equally so. All of it was crucial.

If you've got a way to skip all that (and everything that lies ahead), you let me know.

On 2013-10-12 13:48, BrianMillerMagic wrote:
I'm kind of offended that someone even believes there's a way to skip the painful learning process, developing an act, materials, making connections, getting repeat clients, and gradually growing the business.

I'm still in the early stage of my career, and the very guys in this thread have been helping me do it for almost 8 years. They watched and helped me transition from a teen with ambition to a young adult with potential to a full time pro traveling and doing 250+ dates/year. Many of my dates are at the price range you're describing (and higher), but still lots of them aren't. They've watched me succeed tremendously and fail equally so. All of it was crucial.

If you've got a way to skip all that (and everything that lies ahead), you let me know.

On 2013-09-28 09:43, Mindpro wrote:
There is typically not just a progression as Scott mentioned but also the experience and education that goes along with the level of progression and growth that serve a purpose that will be skipped if doing it in the way you described.

We once had a very young performer, I think maybe 23-24 years old who was seeking representation from our agency. His family was very wealthy and well-known in our state. Very nice people. The father had spent tens of thousands of dollars for some of the best promotional materials I've ever seen - a five camera studio and location shoot, promotional photos from Paul Natkin and Anne Leibowicz (of Rolling Stone fame), beautifully printed and gold embossed printing on deep burgundy gloss folder, a fantastic business card and the excellent promotional pages. Absolutely stunning for the time period in the early 1980's. He had testimonials from Chicago's Mayor Richard Daly, comedian Steve Allen and two U.S. Presidents (Carter & Ford). This thing couldn't help but get my attention. He also had two versions of his promo materials including an a completely separate AF set as well.

It came accompanied with a letter offering a willingness to pay a 30% booking commission which was far above the standard 15-20% at the time. They wanted to target only Fortune 200 companies. They had one of the best business plans and marketing strategies I'd ever seen at that time. It too skipped the normal progression.

We were both very excited. We met the kid and his father in our office. We were able to book the kid on five bookings in the first month. About six weeks later the first booking arrived from one of our very top clients. It was terrible. Embarrassing. He was a nice kid, carried himself well, but just simply didn't have the performing experience, no literal experience in any aspects of performing (staging, blocking, stagecraft, audience management, relatability, believability, no performer's persona which comes from regular and continuous performance experience, and just an unnatural and inexperienced aspect in almost every area of his performance and persona on and off stage.

He became one of the very first people I was ever asked to coach. I was paid handsomely. While the money was nice, the real reason I accepted the task was because I had him booked for four other of our best corporate clients over the next three months and I could see how this kid could cost me tens of thousands to maybe even hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost business if he caused us to lose these top clients. While we were able to help him improve, I would by no means say he was ever a good performer. It just created a terrible situation with horrible ramification (stories for another day).

The bottom line is "paying your dues" is not a bad thing like many people want to think. There are MANY benefits that come from this, only one being experience - a place to fail, be bad, learn, grow, evolve, etc. To demand high fees has to be warranted and substantiated.

Can your idea be done? Probably. Is it a wise choice and a choice without consequence? No not at all. Performers have a hard enough time working the natural progression, your idea would become even harder. There are levels of expectation from an artist performing on the upper levels. These expectations usually come as a result of the progression, experience and evolvment.

I guess if you had a lot of money, hired a coach, mentor and great creative team, it could be done. You would learn the "hows" but you can't teach the "whys" - levels of experience that get one to that level. Very difficult indeed.