Q & A Answers - Customizing Your Show for Libraries

The response to my Q & A was terrific. The first one came from Rebel Entertainer Smarty Pants. If you haven’t seen him perform, you should. He’s hilarious and has some great routines.

Smarty writes:

Hey John,

“How do you handle marketing when dealing with library summer reading themes?

The problem in this area is that some libraries use a common theme (Scare up a Good Book this year) and some definitely don't (some librarians hate this theme) - and some use a completely different theme (there's a Surf up to the Library theme floating around too)

We're in a difficult spot in that by committing to one theme, we're excluding libraries not using that theme for a particular summer! Looking forward to hopefully you taking on this topic in your blog!”

Great question Pants.

I understand how difficult it is coming up with great routines. They take creative time, effort, props and performance time to make them work.

Although I do recommend creating a new show every so often to keep things fresh and offer your markets another service, I also know that a new show for every summer reading program becomes tiresome. I did it for a few years. I no longer do.

Here’s your answer:

If you’re new to the market (which I don’t think you are), you should definitely customize your first show to the theme. Maybe even customize it the second year. This will book more shows the first two summers and get you known as the person they can depend on to constantly bring in something new.

If you already have a name within the library market, there’s a different answer.

Anybody performing for libraries should have ONE STANDARD SHOW that they become known for. The show should promote checking out books and should be some of your best stuff.

Notice, I said the show should promote CHECKING OUT BOOKS. It doesn’t have to be a reading show, and quite frankly probably shouldn’t be. There are enough of those and they’re perceived as boring. It should be crazy fun and draw an audience.

Within that show, you should have 2-3 routines that can easily be “adjusted” for just about any theme. Just by changing a few words and few actions, it will appear like they are customized for the theme.

Example: Most of my Animal Magic Shows start with the lines “When you’re out on safari. And you’re gonna be gone 2-3 weeks at a time, what’s the most important thing to bring?”

Well, the altered version is this ““When you’re out on pirate ship…. “ or “When Santa’s flying around all night long…” or “When the Easter bunny’s hopping around everybody’s yard…”

And being a balloon artist, you should also be able to easily alter the particular sculpture that you do with the same story. “This is the story of a bird that had a fear of flying” or “This is a story about a fish with a fear of swimming” or “This is the story of a little girl that had a fear of reading books”.

Truthfully, most librarians won’t know the difference AND the audience will be mostly new the following year anyway.

This way, every year you can say “Here’s my brand new summer show called ‘Scare up, and blow up’. The most amazing balloon show customized to your summer theme”

“And remember, if you want something a bit different from the theme, you need my very own Smarty Pants Super Duper Balloon Party Show. It’s the one that has gotten glowing reviews from 100’s of libraries just like yours…”

Something like that.

Also, you won’t be forced to carry 3 completely different shows in your car. Well, you are carrying those shows, but they’re actually one show cleverly disguised as two or three.

Oh, and lastly. If you knock it out of the park every time at every library. And children run to check out books. NO MATTER WHAT KIND OF SHOW YOU OFFER, YOU’LL BE ASKED BACK AGAIN AND AGAIN.

Hope that helps.

I welcome your comments.

- John Abrams
Rebel Entertainer and Library Performer
www.rebelentertainers.com
www.facebook.com/rebelentertainer
www.twitter.com/johnabrams1