GUEST COLUMN: How I Move Tickets For My Monthly Stand-Up Show

Comedian Jonathan van Halem shares his insight into what actually puts butts in seats for your local monthly.

Jonathan van Halem is a Brooklyn-based stand-up comedian. His writing has been featured in Clickhole and McSweeney’s, and he’s opened for Rory Scovel and Sabrina Wu. He’s achieved moderate success online with several various pop-culture oriented videos. He also has a Substack of his own called Jonathan van Halem: Entirely From Memory, where he writes about pop-culture and stand-up comedy.

Hi, my name is Jonathan van Halem. For the past four years, I have hosted a monthly comedy show in Brooklyn called Hot Gossip. First it was a free show at Pine Box Rock Shop. Then it became a ticketed show at Littlefield, and then a ticketed show at Union Hall.

Hosting and producing Hot Gossip is one of my great joys as a comedian. I love that I’m able to both reliably get stage time and showcase comedians who I think deserve recognition. Month in and month out, the crowd is friendly, energetic, and sizable, in which I take great pride. Comedians often ask me how I’m able to get butts in seats so consistently, and since I think it’s a shame how opaque people in comedy tend to be, I’d like to share with you all my tactics for selling tickets. Please feel free to replicate this formula and use it to build a high quality stand-up show of your own!

Before I get started, I should note two things. First, building Hot Gossip didn’t happen overnight. It took some time to get the show to the point I wanted it to be at. There were a few clunkers in the beginning, and the rare clunker still. But if you stick with it, you will see progress.

Second thing, a lot of my tips will seem obvious, and that’s because they are obvious. But a lot of comedians and producers don’t do these obvious things, and then are disappointed when their show only moved single-digit tickets. So let me tell you about the obvious things you already know, and maybe one or two things you haven’t considered.

Ready? Here we go.

You Gotta Build an Email List (Seriously)

Obvious, right? But do you have one? Do you collect all of the email addresses from the venue after your show? Are you downloading that stupid little file from Eventbrite when you get your ticketing report? The best comedians caught wise to this years ago; the only sacred thing left in this world is email. In terms of show promotion, Twitter is dead. Instagram suppresses your reach when sharing a comedy show poster on Stories (in my experience, at least). I sell more tickets from the email I send to the 800 or so people on the Hot Gossip mailing list than I do from any other tactic. Plus, with email you can track who your repeat attendees are, who I’ve found to be crucial for the continued success of my show.

What if the venue won’t share the email addresses with you? In that case you got to pass around a clipboard at your show to collect people’s email addresses. I know it’s cringey and honestly a bit intimidating, but that’s just how important email addresses are. Anyone willingly giving you their email is the exact type of email address you want the most. Get their email once and you have it forever. You won’t regret it!