Modified On August 31, 2009
This is a review of a website (it’s currently in beta) that seeks to be a one-stop portal for musical gigs– a place where everyone involved in gigs, from the artists to the bookers to the venues to the road crews to the print shops to the legal counsel.
It’s called MyMusicCircle.
Although the site’s features run deep and wide, the premise is simple: Create a profile (focused on finding either talent or paying gigs), and search for what you need. Projects and opportunities cover the entire breadth of the music industry, from promotion to road crew to performers to print shops to venues to arrangers to legal counsel to graphic designers and beyond.
What caught our eye was comment number one after the article:
Neat – I can see the same platform being used for standup comics, too.
It was provided by Vancouver-based Rob Cottingham, who claims (in his Twitter profile) to be an “Online Strategist, Cartoonist and Comic.”
We are aware that there’s a site or two out there that seeks to do what MyMusicCircle hopes to do. But are they working? We also seem to recall that the cyberhighway is littered with the wreckage of similar projects over the past decade or so. Some were more ambitious, some less so.
Is there something about standup– The size of it (small, relative to the music biz)? The orneriness of its inhabitants (on both sides of the booking equation)? The solitary nature of comedians?– that obviates a site like this one? Or is it that comedians have never really had to do what rockers and others have to do to make a living, to get a following, to sign with the label?
Let’s face it: Comics (with some exceptions) don’t have to print up and slap posters around town. They don’t have to cajole friends into showing up at gigs. They don’t have to examine lengthy contracts. Comics have largely enjoyed a situation where they secure the gig, show up and do their thing, get a check, go onto the next gig.
It is only when they attain some level of notoriety– either locally or regionally or nationally– that they might have to consider things like contracts, door deals, promotion, legalities, etc. And when they do attain such notoriety, they have probably long had some sort of management and/or representation, so their need to muck around with such details are near zero.
Individuals use the new technology just fine (although they were kinda slow to adapt). Almost all comedians now have websites (of wildly varying quality and utility) and almost all offer their necessary promo materials via the WWW. However, there is no unifying portal that seeks to join bookers/venues with talent.
It’s not the fault of the comedians. The success of such a venture depends on filling a perceived need on the part of the major players– club owners, managers, agents, bookers… not just comedians– and apparently that need isn’t there.
We recall a failed effort to unify comedy club owners and bookers way back in the late ’80s. It was called NAACO. We can’t even recall what the initials stood for, let alone what led to its inevitable downfall. But it wasn’t anything the comedians did to kill it.