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Monday, August 6, 2007
Tips or no tips?
Do you accept/encourage your audience to tip during your show? This seems to be a region by region difference, much like saying soda vs. pop...
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
We've always been a "no-tip" show, and I think most of the shows in our area are... just to differentiate ourselves from the strip-joints. It just seems like you give the performers more respect when you don't throw wadded-up dollar bills at them.
It's a venue thing here. Some places do it and some places don't. Either way is fine with me, as long as they don't interrupt a choreographed number. At some shows there is a tip bucket passed by one of the performers, and audience members usually love the interaction.
We also have a go-go-dancer culture here that occasionally mixes in with our burlesque shows. It can be really amazing and creative.
I'm a no-tip girl. While I like money (who doesn't?), I really don't like getting dollars thrown at me while I perform. Our show is generally produced in an actual theater space, so it's a little out of place to have tips thrown anyway.
We didn't take tips in Newfoundland, because I could get a venue that fit a slew of people for cheap to free, and the cover was enough for to pay respectably.
I don't know if you'd do well on cover alone at some of the bars in NY, though, so I'm always happy to see the bucket go around... and happy to pitch into it when I'm in the audience.
It is a culture thing, though... I was in an audience recently where a few girls kvetched about the tip bucket being tacky. I don't think it's tacky if it's necessary, and I think in this scene, it is. If I ran a show and charged $25 or more for a ticket and there was a lot of pressure to tip after that show, I might find it tackier. But you can see a boatload of amazing stuff here for $5, and it's nice to know that people will contribute voluntarily because they recognize what a great deal they're getting.
Agreed-and definitely a big difference between dollars thrown on stage and something more formal like the passed tip bucket! In New York, the tip bucket really helps to pay performers what they deserve, especially when the typical admission price is 5-10 bucks and most of the venues are small. The monthly Pinchbottom Burlesque show always works the arrival of the tip bucket into the show's theme/dialogue before intermission and the end of the show, which is a great approach.
5 comments:
We've always been a "no-tip" show, and I think most of the shows in our area are... just to differentiate ourselves from the strip-joints. It just seems like you give the performers more respect when you don't throw wadded-up dollar bills at them.
It's a venue thing here. Some places do it and some places don't. Either way is fine with me, as long as they don't interrupt a choreographed number. At some shows there is a tip bucket passed by one of the performers, and audience members usually love the interaction.
We also have a go-go-dancer culture here that occasionally mixes in with our burlesque shows. It can be really amazing and creative.
I'm a no-tip girl. While I like money (who doesn't?), I really don't like getting dollars thrown at me while I perform. Our show is generally produced in an actual theater space, so it's a little out of place to have tips thrown anyway.
We didn't take tips in Newfoundland, because I could get a venue that fit a slew of people for cheap to free, and the cover was enough for to pay respectably.
I don't know if you'd do well on cover alone at some of the bars in NY, though, so I'm always happy to see the bucket go around... and happy to pitch into it when I'm in the audience.
It is a culture thing, though... I was in an audience recently where a few girls kvetched about the tip bucket being tacky. I don't think it's tacky if it's necessary, and I think in this scene, it is. If I ran a show and charged $25 or more for a ticket and there was a lot of pressure to tip after that show, I might find it tackier. But you can see a boatload of amazing stuff here for $5, and it's nice to know that people will contribute voluntarily because they recognize what a great deal they're getting.
Agreed-and definitely a big difference between dollars thrown on stage and something more formal like the passed tip bucket! In New York, the tip bucket really helps to pay performers what they deserve, especially when the typical admission price is 5-10 bucks and most of the venues are small. The monthly Pinchbottom Burlesque show always works the arrival of the tip bucket into the show's theme/dialogue before intermission and the end of the show, which is a great approach.
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