"Zero Tickets Sold" Proves Flyering Remains Undefeated

Comedian Ray Lau fills up a venue without using social media

Hello and welcome to the 68 new subscribers since last time!

Just thought I’d pass along this awesome mini-documentary from comedian Ray Lau:

Directed by Sam Skolnik, this 40-minute YouTube video is extremely up the alley of anyone who reads me, and is worth a full watch.

The premise is this: Lau has booked a 40-seat venue in Seattle next week, and has to sell it out without using social media to promote the show.

Lau and fellow comedian Josh Ocean Thomas sell the vast majority of these tickets by doing the impossible… going up to strangers and talking to them.

It’s easy to see why anyone approached by the duo would quickly be charmed enough to buy a ticket.

They’re genuine, their enthusiasm is infectious, and they’re visibly out in the streets, hustling.¹

In the age of TikTok and Instagram Reels, many people seem to think having lots of social media followers is some silver bullet that guarantees butts in seats.

Sometimes, all that “following” means is those people follow you online, and like looking at you on their phone from the comfort of their own home.

They also might be 12 years old, broke, and/or live on the other side of the world.

The beauty of flyering or barking or whatever your local scene calls going up to random people and trying to get them to come to your show is, you’ve solved the hardest part: the people you’re talking to are already there.

Not only that, but they’re the kind of people who actually leave their house and go outside, as evidenced by the fact you met them when they were already out and about.

This may seem like an obvious point to make.

But the local people Ray and Josh chatted to in the parks of Seattle are a radically different type of audience than the type who spend all day scrolling on TikTok.

Most of the people they spoke to were not die-hard stand up comedy fans.

It wasn’t like they were deciding between Ray and Josh’s show, Mark Normand’s show, and some local improv troupe’s Harold Night.

Instead, it was probably either go see Ray and Josh’s show, or go see a movie, or go out drinking, or go bowling, or smoke weed and play video games at home.

By the way, this is the majority of people who end up at the average comedy show.

Most of them are simply looking for something fun to do that doesn’t break the bank.

Don’t Tell Comedy’s whole appeal is that the audience don’t know where the show is, nor who is performing on the lineup ahead of time.

And they pack out hundreds of shows every week, across the country.

---

I’ll never forget seeing the rapper Noname perform at a random poetry night at my high school in 2013, and being so proud of her success over the years that followed.

She was only on SoundCloud at that point, and still went by the name Noname Gypsy.

I didn’t know her at all, but I was minorly invested in her career from then on because I felt like I “discovered” her, three years before she released her debut mixtape, Telefone.

I’ll also never forget being hilariously flyered by Guy Montgomery in 2017 at Perth Fringe World for his show, “Let’s All Get In A Room Together”. And now I still take a small amount of pride in his TV series Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee blowing up in Australia and New Zealand, nearly a decade after seeing his first show with hardly anyone else there.

People are like this with athletes, musicians, stocks, authors, TV shows, Broadway plays, and – increasingly over the last few years – comedians.

By going this route, Ray and co. not only filled the venue and had a great show.

But more importantly, they earned 40 new fans.

And those 40 fans are far more likely to bring their friends the next time these boys are in town, than someone who never made that personal connection.

Because they’re rooting for you, and feel like they discovered you.

This is true whether you’re barking for a one-off date in Seattle like Ray, running a series of shows at the recent Hollywood Fringe or Fallout Fringe Festivals in Las Vegas, or flyering every day at the imminent Edinburgh Fringe.

More on that last one, soon.

1. It also helps that tickets were only $10.