Bringer Shows Must Go

When starting out in comedy you will find very few opportunities to do a booked show in front of paying guests, that many will quit before they even gave it a fair chance. And I get it. Toiling in the sewers of the stand up world, buying an item, paying $5, or just waiting for a bucket filled with tickets to determine your fate like a Magic 8 Ball sounds awful. So you try to fast track your success by taking a class, befriending more successful comics, or doing the infamous bringer shows. The first option (class) is probably the best way to meet like minded people and at least get some guidance, if only for a one time experience. The second (attaching to a headliner) might feel like a fast track, but can lead to a lot of heartbreak and demoralizing activities. And the last one (bringers) will make you quit after a while, but only after making you feel taken advantage of and left potentially friendless. Forget the short cuts to success, and remember, slow and steady wins the race, and Bringer Shows are NEVER THE ANSWER. 

Soft Bringer v. Hard Bringer 
Often, comics will call every non-paying show a bringer, and that isn't true. A hard bringer is when the producer tells you to bring X number of guests or you're off the show. A soft bringer is when the producer says if guests don't come, then there is no show. When I was Flappers, late shows (or last shows) were canceled because there wasn't enough guests to justify keeping staff around to serve 2-3 guests. But during my time, no one got bumped for "not bringing." But many were not booked again for a while - and that is a different conversation for a different article. 

Hard bringers are more sinister. This is where the show has plenty of guests, but the bringer producer/booker kicks you off the lineup for not making him enough money. Even if you think these shows are helping you, they are not. They actually ruin the comedy experience for newer comics and force older (age not experience) comics to maintain a roster of friends to bring to shows to get their 5-7 minutes of stage time. They take away the joy of performing and replace it with the burden of promoting. 

Bringers Make Authentic Shows Feel Less Than
When you perform in a bringer show, you are depriving yourself of a real audience. No one came to see comedy. The guests there create fragmented audience pockets only there to support their friend. Spending money on tickets, drinks, food, parking, etc. - they put money in the pockets of the producer and the comics on the lineup don't meet comics getting booked on regular shows with comics playing the grind, meeting other bringers instead who learn about other bringer bookers. 

Yes, the bringer producer got you on a stage in a big comedy club, but the only one watching you are other bringer producers or an unscrupulous comedy school teacher who tells you about their class and how it showcases in front of industry at The Comedy Store or Improv. That industry? Just more bringer producers who funnel young comics into their system. 

Bringer producers run their own classes, pitch fake schools, and, of course, run bringer shows. They get washed up hasbeens like Tom Arnold to "headline" it. And while it might be exciting to feel like you are on a big stage, the sad reality hits that your comedy didn't get you there. It was your five friends.

Bringer producers would book your grandma if she brought 5 friends from church before a ten year vet from another state without any local fans or friends. Think about that. No really. Think about the absurdity of that.     

A veteran comic who has played all over the country but is unknown in LA will be told by bringer producers to DM him after he gets a few "local fans" to support him. 

But what makes these experiences worse is they create unrealistic standards if you want to build a career. Because once you do the main stage at The Comedy Store or Ice House, you won't want to do the real work in smaller venues. Comedy careers aren't built in the fake bringer rooms. They are built in the back rooms of restaurants, bars, tiny night clubs, casinos, and strange venues you didn't even know existed. 

Because that's what the road is. Weird little venues where audiences demand excellence. Besides the venues mentioned above, I've played camp sites, RV parks, shopping malls, gyms, theater lobbies, elk clubs, old folks homes, golf courses, and rotary clubs. And each of them paid me good money. Good money most of the time. I've also played a lot of road clubs. But before I got to play the big rooms on the Main Room showcases in 2018-2020, I did the dirty work. I was ready to handle anything. And I savored the opportunity more. 

Bringer Producers Ruin Comedy For Your Friends and Family And You 
The structure of a bringer show is essentially like a multi-level marketing scam. Imagine you got a job at McDonalds and you had to bring five friends to buy food and drink. And then your boss told you if you didn't you wouldn't get paid your wage and you'd be taken off the schedule until you felt ready to promote the McRib better? You'd walk away laughing. 

Imagine if you got a job where it was commission only but there was absolutely no marketing behind the product and anyone could work there regardless of their sales experience or skill set. You'd think the place was the Titanic. A sinking ship.  

The old con artist line, "There's a sucker born every minute" applies to everyone involved in these bringer shows. The booker cons the comics willingly. The comic unwillingly cons their friends into giving the booker their weekend money. And after they spend $20 on the ticket, $50 on the food and drink, and $20 on parking, it's a $100 a person easily.

Eventually, the bringer comic needs the rush of the sexy venue and begins to beg friends to come see them. Because they don't want to lose the booking. Some comics even buy the tickets up front after being harassed by the booker and give them to their friends for free. Like a drug addict, looking for their hit, many bringer comics I know bought 10 tickets ($100 total) and then showed up to perform 6 minutes and the booker said no one showed up so you don't get up. Because while the bringer comic got the ticket sales, the venue didn't get their food and drink money. There's more to it than just selling the ticket. It's a vicious circle of exploitation.

If bringer shows worked then your friends would keep going and you'd build a fan base out of those crowds. But the data proves otherwise.

Then there is the treatment of comics by bringer producers. The constant harassment and texts asking to confirm guest lists. The way bringer producers like Vargus Mason and Jimmy Shin and others will threaten to pull comics from the lineup if they don't get their friends to come is both unethical and cruel. I've seen the texts.

Many of them are infamous for trying to sleep with comics, use their bringing to attract other comics to do their shows, and the hound them for stage time as openers on the road is a perpetual circle of comedy sleaze. Shin is currently being exposed all over the internet for his crimes, and his fat, bald, middle aged hack male bringer comics are defending him. Because if he goes down, they lose their spots they kidnap their families to see. Such sad, little men. You can track this on IG: MicCheckMvmt 

I've already gotten one guy to take down his comments. And I encourage you to share your stories with that account if you know anything else.      

Why Do Comedy Clubs Allow Them? 
That is a great question. Because...money. Selling 4 shows a night in a two room club or six shows a night in a three room club or even two shows in a one room club is really hard. There are only so many locals and a lot of options for entertainment. In Los Angeles alone there are theme parks, multiple sports teams, restaurants, movies, night clubs, church events, and live music all over town. Plus there's three major comedy clubs in Los Angeles, various B clubs, and theaters with major headliners selling tickets for big profits. We haven't even discussed Pantages Theater, the Hollywood Bowl, and every museum and art gallery to visit. 

And most of these options have huge marketing budgets, with digital marketing, billboards, and a team of experts. They offer better food, cheaper drinks, and bigger names. So the bringer show appeals to the empathy of your friends, wanting to support your new venture - until they can no longer support, and just like you don't want to cancel the booking due to lack of support, your friends don't want to cancel on you due to lack of funds and desire. So they start to ghost you, avoiding the "no" to save a friendship that has become transactional. 

So comedy clubs will take the promises of a con man and prostitute the room for a little extra dough. And while they would never say they support the tactics used to coerce comics into dragging friends and family to see them, through text threats to empty promises of fame, they will look the other way, distancing themselves from the devil they made a deal with.     

So What Should Comics Do?
First, there is no timeline on being successful in comedy. Since I started 12 years ago, the entire landscape changed. The writing jobs I wanted are gone. The late show opportunities are dead. And the comedy clubs care more about the wrong metrics than the long lasting ones. 

Yet, the tried and true methods still work. Go to open mics. Enjoy and embrace the grind. Network with other likeminded comics. Get a good five to ten minute tape. And build a reputation that gets attention. And be prepared to have your heart broken by a system that changes it's mast every few years due to the winds of industry temperament. 

But if you can build an act that bookers trust, you can get a lot of substantial work. You can play venues that just want the best comics. There are road clubs and bookers that just need great hosts, features, and headliners. And no one got there by being a bringer comic. They played all the rooms they could find. Took pride in their work. And didn't try to buy their way to the top. 

Be weary of a booker that puts himself at the center of show. Be weary of a club owner who needs to be the face of the operation. Be weary of those who will discard others as soon as they have no financial value. Because when you no longer bring, they'll cast you aside too. 

Are There Any Exceptions to Bringer Participation? 
Yes. If you are over 70 and know that no one is going to give you the opportunity to work up to being a passed member of a club. That's it. Or it you're dying. And your dream was to play The Comedy Store. Then fine. So old age or the insurmountable looming reality of a near and fateful death. 
After that, just do open mics and build a network. Either you die the headliner or you live long enough to become the bringer producer. 

Final Thoughts 
Why anyone would want to work for a comic who has a reputation of exploiting comics and discarding them after sucking their friends dry needs to see a therapist. In the words of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, "You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away—a man is not a piece of fruit!" Don't let anyone treat you that way, and don't support those who do.

Don't be swayed by false promises or delusions of grandeur. You're better than that. Yes, you will see comics get to play big rooms, but it isn't real. It might last a year, and then they get out. They don't survive. They get burned out. They become frustrated and quit. And the idea of starting over at open mics and trying to rebuild a brand of comedy that they can take anywhere becomes overwhelming. 

Now, you aren't a bad person if you do a bringer show. You aren't going to hell. The producers of them...they're cooked! God will judge them, no doubt. 

James 5:4: "Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty."    

Deuteronomy 24:14-15: "Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy..."

2 Peter 2:3: "In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping."

​I've said this before and I'll say it again, Comedy is a marathon, not a sprint. So run the race with dignity and pride. No reason to run with the foxes when you can fly with the eagles. Nothing against foxes, but there's a reason we ask "who let the fox in the hen house?" when talking about destructive souls. And when you play with fire...well you know how that cliche ends too.