Today, I am yet again in San Francisco, where I play a show tomorrow at the Hotel Utah, Sept. 13th, 7:30 pm. Looking forward to it as I love that venue. My connecting flight in Minneapolis gave me little time- I found a $20 bill on the ground and told a gate checker. She said, "It's yours now and gave me a wink." Finder's keepers. Thought it was my lucky day. Thought about asking some of the people sitting over at their gate a ways over, then thought, let me check my flight real quick. I only had 20 minutes and had to go to F8 in another concourse, take the skytrain. That was no time at all- maybe it wasn't my lucky day, after all. I walked faster than everyone, even nearly sprinting for a half-second, but I watched my watch and just walked faster.
"You gave me no time at all," I told the gatekeeper. "I just got here."
"That's part of the Delta exercise program," he joshed me and closed the door right behind me.
The flight took off, and I watched a documentary about the behind-the-scenes struggles of stand-up comedians called Dying Laughing (a great doc, btw). It was still my lucky day.
Continuing the earlier motif concerning fliers, here's some below:
This one below is the final flier for the last show, which only came out at the last minute due to technical difficulties. My friend put it together, so Mario and I might reuse this next time- or retake it on another day- or who knows what we'll do.
These below are proof that I am not the cream of the crop at the promo game, as these are now several years old. This summer, I handed out what I thought was the last one and thought "I am finally done with all of these cheapo, flimsy paper, mini-handbills I made ages ago!" Then, back in Oklahoma, I ran across two more stacks. One was curled up and ruined, so I tossed them, but there's this one, still.
My economical idea was to put 10 on a page and print 100 regular black and white copies at the local Kinko's. It was just 10 cents a copy and with 10 on each page and 100 copies made, there were 1000 tiny fliers made for just 10 bucks.
In fact, he may have been pulling my leg, but I handed one to a fellow in SF once, and he said, "I never look at these things, but since this one is just SO blatantly crappy it actually makes me want to look at it!"
Being an indie musician, you will sometimes find yourself having to dicker with your own promo, whether you like it or not, and if you don't like talking about yourself all that much (I often prefer to talk to myself in private with my notebooks;) then... well, what do you do? I'm of the opinion now that promo should just be part of your art and have fun with it.
These italics were used in reference to the photographs, but they just kept on going (thoughts in parentheses in italics)
"You gave me no time at all," I told the gatekeeper. "I just got here."
"That's part of the Delta exercise program," he joshed me and closed the door right behind me.
The flight took off, and I watched a documentary about the behind-the-scenes struggles of stand-up comedians called Dying Laughing (a great doc, btw). It was still my lucky day.
Continuing the earlier motif concerning fliers, here's some below:
This one below is the final flier for the last show, which only came out at the last minute due to technical difficulties. My friend put it together, so Mario and I might reuse this next time- or retake it on another day- or who knows what we'll do.
These below are proof that I am not the cream of the crop at the promo game, as these are now several years old. This summer, I handed out what I thought was the last one and thought "I am finally done with all of these cheapo, flimsy paper, mini-handbills I made ages ago!" Then, back in Oklahoma, I ran across two more stacks. One was curled up and ruined, so I tossed them, but there's this one, still.
My economical idea was to put 10 on a page and print 100 regular black and white copies at the local Kinko's. It was just 10 cents a copy and with 10 on each page and 100 copies made, there were 1000 tiny fliers made for just 10 bucks.
In fact, he may have been pulling my leg, but I handed one to a fellow in SF once, and he said, "I never look at these things, but since this one is just SO blatantly crappy it actually makes me want to look at it!"
Being an indie musician, you will sometimes find yourself having to dicker with your own promo, whether you like it or not, and if you don't like talking about yourself all that much (I often prefer to talk to myself in private with my notebooks;) then... well, what do you do? I'm of the opinion now that promo should just be part of your art and have fun with it.
These italics were used in reference to the photographs, but they just kept on going (thoughts in parentheses in italics)
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