High Energy!

People like crowds. The bigger the crowd, the more people show up. Small crowd, hardly anyone shows up.

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As a comedian, you'd like to have a packed house every show. That's the ideal. It's not always the case. I have performed in front of ten thousand people, and in front of one person.

It never mattered to me how large or small the crowd, my opinion was that the person paid for a comedy show, and everyone will get the same energetic performance as if the crowd packed the venue.

That's rare. Normally, if the crowd is small, comedians have a tendency to be very low key and, instead of doing their act, they will ask the patrons what they want to talk about. Very low energy, and the audience, no matter how small, are not likely to return.

Jamie Masada, the owner of the Laugh Factory in Hollywood told a comedian who did that if they couldn't perform in front of a dozen people, they would never be given the opportunity to perform in front of a packed house in his club. I overheard the conversation and took it to heart.

I think that would be the case of all entertainers. The difference, of course, is if a promoter invests a lot of money on a show, but ticket sales are lagging, they need to cancel the show. If the promoter goes ahead with the show, the performers should still give it everything they've got.

At the heart of the problem is that the performers are doing a disservice to the audience and themselves. Entertainers need to energize the audience, not the other way around. If the audience is full, they might be energized, but I've seen large crowds who had no energy. In every case, the entertainers are responsible for charging the crowd so they have a good time.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an audience of two toy schnauzers who need to be entertained.

See you tomorrow.

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