Corporate comedy is not an easy career by any stretch. It’s competitive, a hard industry to crack, and the corporate audience is a completely different beast to the pub crowd. But for many comedians and entertainers, it’s a ticket to doing what they love, and living a lifestyle they’re comfortable in.
Despite the challenges, there are corporate entertainment success stories. Aside from the Vince Sorrenti’s and Judy Carters of the world, there are successful corporate entertainers right here in Melbourne, Wacky Entertainment, for example. I visited their headquarters recently to learn more about them.
I’m welcomed by the real live version of the plush velvet curtains presented in cartoon form on Wacky’s website. The curtains frame a room full of Wacky’s wardrobe – stilts, human size turkeys, crackers, puddings and ponies, and a line of trench coats on a rack awaiting a gig the next day.
Wacky began in 1995, as the Wacky Wild Wind Machine (a Roving Quartet with only 1 costume, coloured overalls). In 2000 Wacky performed at the Sydney Olympics, and 2001-03 saw Wacky give regular performances in Hong Kong and Singapore, and the development of feature shows for events including Melbourne Cup, Grand Final and Australian Open Tennis. 2004 saw the purchase of Wacky headquarters in Port Melbourne Vic and 2005 saw Wacky score a gig warming up the red carpet crowd for Logie awards arrivals. Wacky now have entertainment contracts with Qantas and Melbourne Aquarium.
So how do Wacky achieve such success? Cameron, Artistic Director of Wacky Entertainment, says “The way we’ve developed this business is that we don’t wait for the phone to ring. We will create… and that’s why we have over 75 different acts for what is effectively 3 guys, plus others when we need them.” “We love saying to people ‘listen, we’ve got a great show for your event, you’re going to love this one’.”
Colin says “We tend to do quite a lot of research before we walk into a meeting with a client. ... Our specialty is creating and performing comedy solutions for audience movement, warm-up, corporate message enhancement as well as feature shows. Basically we sit with clients and pitch how we can enhance their event using comedy.”
Far from your standard stand-up, Wacky’s tailor-made acts range from stilt-walking, to roving musicians, wacky waiters, Elvis impersonators and… shower man. Colin says “I came up with Showerman for the Caravan and Camping Show in Melbourne a few years ago. Once we’d done a few gigs for these guys I suggested the character to them. They loved the idea so I did it. Showerman hid in caravan’s showers then burst out shouting at people for invading his privacy and complained that the Caravan Park was crap. He was great fun to do.”
Colin describes another crazy Wacky act, “We have an act where we’re called the wobbly waiters, really bad waiters, but it starts extremely subtly and builds…someone all of a sudden starts napkining people, grabbing a white napkin, giving it a shake and then placing it down and then suddenly replaces it with a big pair of men’s undies.” You’ll also find the wacky waiters vacuuming during the CEO’s speech from time to time. An enviable task.
When creating acts, Colin says, “The name Wacky Entertainment, the one thing we’ve done is we’ve always stuck true to that.” It’s an approach that’s worked. Colin says “What’s starting to happen now is in terms of the growth of the company, we’re starting to get a lot of third parties involved. We’re starting to get a lot of comedians on board for the non-musical acts. What we’d love to do is get more and more work for the Melbourne Comedy and Melbourne music community.”
After ten years in corporate entertainment, Colin’s recently taken to the stand-up stage. He says “the weirdest thing for me is having to plead for an unpaid gig, that’s a humbling experience”. He adds “What I’m also finding is that working within the confines of the comic scene is also helping my compering a lot in the corporate side”.
Stage, screen and radio stars Troy and Zara Swindells-Grose are another example of corporate entertainment gone right. They relocated to Melbourne from Perth after finishing up their high profile breakfast radio show. Now married for nearly 10 years, Troy and Zara first met in entertainment. Troy says “We met at Zara’s family’s theatrerestaurant in Brisbane, called ‘Crazies’... I was a character waiter working my way through acting college and Zara had returned from a failed relationship in Sydney and we met – DESTINY!! I was offered the tour to PNG, as a cast member – when I returned – there was the first male vacancy in the regular show cast in 6 years! I stepped in to the show… and we both began doing stand-up comedy.” It was the beginning of a wonderful partnership both personally and professionally.
I wonder what challenges working with your partner creates. Troy says “The biggest one I can see is that (believe it or not) some people resent you for having a successful relationship – that certainly proved difficult in stand-up together”.
Troy shares some of his corporate entertainment stories. One entertainment firm he worked for “were always spending 100K+ (for a night!) of other people’s money on entertainment! Things have calmed down since then… but it’s still happening every night, somewhere.” He recalls the firm “did a Sydney Bar mitzvah with a $350 000 entertainment budget – we flew in elements of the Moscow circus (for a kids party!); we took 16 actors and a complete show to Hamilton Island for a week (only one show though!) for Sony; we took a 12-piece band, 10 actors and a crew of 8 to Taipeii, then were joined by 120 of the client’s (Hyatt) F&B staff (all in costume!) to put on a themed game-night/show four times to 2000!! Wild stuff!!”
I ask whether Zara and Troy have taken many risks to get where they are today. Troy says “A lot of risks!! Just choosing to be in ‘entertainment’ is a risk… but we’ve earnt a (good!) living from an industry that everyone said was impossible to do – we’ve also been Equity (MEAA) members since 1990 – and I recommend everyone in the industry to do that – especially since Howards’ screwing the common man – Union power is being deliberately diluted – so support for them is more important than ever!”
So apart from being funny, what makes a great corporate comic? Justin Hamilton says “I think the best ones in Australia are usually people like Vince Sorrenti who are funny, quick and very clean…” Wendy Little flags the importance of “researching the organisation you are employed by and including key people in your material”. Matt Elsbury says “an ability to grab and maintain attention is key – also helpful is reputation. A comic with a higher profile is more likely to have people willing to stop their evening and pay attention”.
Corporate is a completely different beast to other forms of comedy. Gavin Baskerville says the biggest difference is, “You get paid”. There’s also a difference in audients, as Justin Kennedy says, “Many corporate types would never have been to a comedy club before … so you may face some reluctance to laugh initially. Having said that, they may also be more responsive to clever material than your average comedy club, which is probably why a lot of successful corporate comics were never very big on the comedy club circuit.”
A corporate comedy environment is also different. Justin Hamilton says at a corporate gig, “they usually put you in a bizarre place (next to a raging fire etc) and you do your thing.” Justin Kennedy adds there’s “often no stage, hopefully a mic but not always, often lights on everywhere, sometimes no introduction.”
So why throw yourself into (or dangerously close to) the corporate fire? While it’s not the same for all comics, for most, they’re in a corporate environment for the same reason as most of other inhabitants of that environment. Money. Corporate gig money is at usually at least fair, and at best, amazing. Colin says “In simple terms a headliner with no TV profile gets $400-$1500 and a Headliner with a profile gets $2,000 to $5000. A TV profile that’s hot (currently on the air in a top tv show) gets $5000-$10,000 for a basic spot.” Other comedians indicated anything from $200 as a minimum, to the magic $10,000 per gig rumoured for someone like Dave Hughes. High prices won’t necessarily make you less popular either. Troy says “You can undervalue yourself in corporate land – if you’re too cheap – they’re wary!” I’m told Judy Carter reported to attendees at a workshop that her recent best gig rate was US$10,000 for 2.5 hours, whilst corporate comedy pin-up boy Vince Sorrenti is rumoured to pull a cool $1million per annum largely from corporate entertainment. When you compare that to the high risk, high cost venture of a festival show, or a few hundred dollars for a gig in a room, it’s not hard to see why comics are lining up at agents’ doors.
Getting into the industry isn’t easy though. Relative newcomer to the corporate scene, Justin Kennedy finds it a challenge “getting work. That is, differentiating myself from the crowd of comics wanting to break into the corporate market … Even getting my name on the list of comedians to be considered is a big challenge.” Mark Butler sees the biggest challenge as “Getting regular gigs”. Another corporate newcomer said “Perhaps a lack of information is the biggest challenge facing corporate comedians. I would give my right eye to be apprentice to a professional corporate comedian, but I can’t find that opportunity anywhere.”
Colin says that the sure-fire way is to “get a TV profile. Failing that, you need to work the agents. You don’t have to work them all immediately, just get to know one or two and find out what makes them tick. Get a gig or two and always try to tape them. Then approach other agents with your tape.” Troy recommends a having a great website, and a “corporate manager with expertise in selling to the market. We do that and pay 25% for the privilege… but it’s great money – I’d rather 75% of a good rate than 100% of a crap one!”
Troy shares his mottos on selling to corporate clients, “we comics are an ego-centric lot – they don’t care how great you are – they care how great you’ll either make them, or make them look!! ... ‘Tell me less about how it came to be, and more of what it means to me’ is the motto”.
So what is required of a corporate comic? Colin says, “A corporate headliner comedian has to know how to work the corporate crowd and potentially adjust their material accordingly. In a pub crowd, patrons rarely know each other. They therefore judge you individually or in small groups. You may alienate a small percentage of them but give them a killer joke and they’re back. This is not always so easy in the corporate scene. Most are there because it’s their annual function not because they want to sit and listen to a comedian for 40minutes. The comic is often a surprise. They sit next to their bosses and are often uncomfortable laughing at certain material that might implicate them. ... Therefore if your set ruffles their collective feathers, the corporate crowd can be a conservative group that can turn on you on-mass.”
In addition to clean, PC material, it’s also essential to stick to the brief. Colin says “If they say to you they’re starting at 8:37, there’s a reason why they’re saying 8:37; you get on that clock.” He says “For us, communication with the corporate client is the first most important distinction. We need to know the company’s aims and objectives, sensitivities, running order, priorities etc… We also have to know if the function is formal/semi formal, whether the audience is all male, all female, half half etc. We have to ensure that we meet the correct contact and that we know the hierarchy of the organisation and can put faces to the most important people’s names. I’ve listed each of these issues because we’ve been burnt over the years on each one!”
It’s unsurprising that the business side to corporate comedy is extremely important. There’s a lot more to providing an entertainment service to a corporate client than being funny. Colin comments on Wacky’s experience, “We’re almost having to have the knowledge of an advertising person or a marketing person… [We] have to be able to sell across a table”. He says the process of selling also involves “understanding the way business structures work. Who is that person actually going to be selling the concept to? Is she the member of the social club? Or, is she actually the decision maker? See this is nothing to do with entertainment”. Troy comments “research is increasingly important – you really are expected to know the brief company history, and that of sponsors/associates who may be in attendance.”
So because they’re paying the bucks – they’ll pay attention right? Not necessarily. Matt Elsbury says “at a corporate gig, the audience haven’t shown up to be an audience, they’ve gone to socialise. The mechanics of socialising (talking, mingling, getting drinks) are comedy’s natural enemy, and so the job becomes much harder.” He’s not alone in finding it hard to keep the corporate audience’s attention. One comic said it ” Can be fun but usually you’re counting the money as you do the gig. I never look at it as anything other than rent gigs.” Troy says to remember “The crap always passes – think of it as ‘fertilizer’ for a good career…you haven’t really gigged until you’ve got at least three ‘gigs-from-hell’ stories!!”
“We love performing” says Colin, and it would be fair to say that’s the motivating factor for most comedians. As with all things corporate, there’s a lot of money to be earned if it’s just approached in the right way. If that happens in a waiter’s outfit with a pair of Y fronts in your hand… so be it. If it’s with your wife and a guitar, fantastic. And if it’s in your best suit, with some safe, considered material – fabulous.
Many thanks to the kind, patient and wonderful “Colin Cameron” at Wacky Entertainment, Troy & Zara Swindells-Grose, Gavin Baskerville, Justin Hamilton, Justin Kennedy, Mark Butler, Matt Elsbury, Wendy Little, and Lesa Forsyth at Celebrity Speakers.