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GLOBAL PANDEMIC
In early 2020, COVID-19 cancelled all live events worldwide. Clubs, festivals, theaters, museums, cabarets, studios, and other venues for live performance shut their doors without any idea when they would - or if they ever could - reopen. The loss to global arts & culture was incalculable. Some of our favorite venues and festivals died, as well as some of our favorite performers, never to come back. The loss of cultural connection points was heart-breaking, as was the loss of income for performers worldwide.
In times of despair we turn to the arts - comedy, music, poetry, dance - to heal us. Yet, if the performers can’t earn a living, then they can’t continue the work of healing, and then the whole world goes on hurting.
Many venues made the switch to pandemic proof their business: disinfecting routines, operating at half capacity, offering private tables, or having queues of limited customers on scheduled appointments. So how can individual performers pandemic proof their business? Can live performers earn a living without a live audience?
Across the globe, live performers had to pivot to livestream to stay alive. Some things worked and some things didn’t, but we’ll never go back to the way things were. Pandemics will happen again, and the entire world economy has shifted in order to accommodate the moment when it happens again.. The things we’ve learned about pandemic-proof creativity, will apply again in the future.
The answers will always change for the individual, but the questions remain the same. Who are you? Who’s your audience? And what’s the best way to reach them?
DOCU-SHORT
PODCAST
QUOTES
illustrated by @grimdrops
DISCUSSION
Different performers had different results from switching to livestream. Patrick Hakeem says, “If I can’t have the aggression of a live crowd and that energy, it’s not stand up comedy to me”. Yet Derek Fergie was able to accomplish a virtual comedy telethon, that he’d been unsuccessfully planning for years as a physical fundraiser. As Quisha Wint said, “Sometimes we need to press the reset button in our lives”.
Q: Do you need to press the reset button and change your channels? If so, how?
Ellevan says he was able to make brand deals during the pandemic, but cautions artists to “look for brands that are applicable to you”. He embraces the change to sustainable livestream or remote gigs, saying “I think the way that brands leverage entertainment is going to shift, that’s primarily the space because those are the two benefactors, and just follow the money.”
Q: If you need a sponsor, what brands are applicable to you? How will you follow the money?