I recently finished a grueling but successful run of my solo-show-chat-show-spoof "Late with Lance!" at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I did 22 performances for an average of 30 audience members each day who "paid what they wanted" at the end of the show. By the end of the run I made about £680. Between travel, food, housing, PR, production and festival fee expenses, I spent about $7,000US. Basically, I lost about $6,000. But, I did receive glowing notices and created business connections with producers and promoters around the world.
Performers don't come to the largest Arts festival in the world to make money. Well, some do, but they are clueless. The majority of us come to hone our craft, network, be inspired, and take advantage of the global marketplace that is the Edinburgh Fringe. We hope our shows get picked up and move on to other theaters, tours and further development.
Not only is my a show a one-man show, but I am too. I did the majority of my own PR. I spent at least 2 hours a day flyering potential "punters" on the streets of Edinburgh. I was on panels. I did 18 blogs for The Public Reviews. I appeared in dozens of other shows from 11am to 2am. I was a marketing machine. Yet, I did not get reviews from a dozen of the biggest publications covering the Fringe. So I had to work extra hard to get noticed amongst the 3,000+ other shows happening during the month of August.
Imagine my surprise on the last day of the festival to receive an email from the marketing folks at NBC! I thought they were offering me an opportunity of a lifetime! And they were! They were offering me the opportunity to help them do the marketing for Neil Patrick Harris' new NBC show Best Time Ever.
Below is the email they sent me, requesting my help, because I am (according to a previous email from them) a "Broadway influencer"...
Hello Peter,
I hope this email finds you well! As a means of introduction, my name is Blair Laurie and I work on the marketing team for Best Time Ever With Neil Patrick Harris, a new TV show premiering on NBC this Fall.
I know my colleague Rachel Weiss reached out to you last year about helping us spread the word about Peter Pan LIVE! and we would love to ask if you could do the same for Best Time Ever. Given Neil Patrick Harris's connection to the theatre world, we think this show will definitely be of interest to the Broadway industry and Broadway fans.
Could you possibly post to your social media channels leading up to the premiere on September 15th? Ideally we'd be looking for posts in three stages: a pre-post between now and 9/8, a lead-in post between 9/9-9/14, and a day-of post on 9/15. But whatever you can do would be helpful!
Enclosed in the below link are all of the assets, but of course feel free to adapt in your own style:
https://www.dropbox.com/XXXXXXXXX
Please let me know what's possible! If you have any questions, I can be reached at XXX-XXX-XXXX.
Thanks!
Blair
More information on Best Time Ever:
http://www.nbc.com/best-time-ever-with-neil-patrick-harris
Spotco Blair Laurie | Marketing Account Executive
SPOTCO | spotnyc.com
114 W. 41st Street, 18th Floor | New York, NY 10036
I immediately responded with this...
Sure thing, Blair! Happy to help!
In exchange, since my following is slightly smaller than Neil Patrick Harris' and NBC, could you reach out to your social media followers and mention my "Late with Lance!" show on Monday, Sept 7 at the Arts Theatre in London? I would greatly appreciate it. The ideal mention roll out would be today, tomorrow, and every day leading up to the one-night only performance on Sept 7. I would love a full house cuz some industry is coming to see it cuz they missed it in the 5-star reviewed production at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Here are the deets: http://artstheatrewestend.co.uk/whats-on/late-with-lance/
Cheers!
Peter Michael Marino
I am looking forward to lending a hand in promoting Neil's show, and I hope that they return the favor. It's really all about supporting one another in our valiant attempts to share our art with the world. And NBC needs me! And so does Neil! And Broadway! How can I let them down?