Program Board loses more than $26,000 on comedy act
A total of $37,500 was spent by Program Board to bring in comedian Nick Swardson for his Sept. 25 show in Plachta Auditorium. An additional $5,000 was spent on his support act, Ashley Barnhill.
Selling 1,042 tickets for a total of $16,400 in revenue, the concert was shy of selling out the auditorium by 184 seats.
Although a $26,100 deficit was taken on by Program Board, paid out of their $295,000 budget, Director of Student Activities and Involvement Damon Brown said success is not measured in terms of money made, but student enjoyment.
“(Losing money) on these shows is pretty standard. Our vision and goal as an organization is not to make money off of students," Brown said. "We're provided our fund through the Campus Programming Fund because students have already paid into that fund (through tuition), so our goal is to bring concerts, comedians and other shows to campus at low or no cost to students."
Tickets for students were sold at $20, $17 and $12 with the more expensive tickets being closer to the stage. The concert was originally planned to be in McGuirk Arena, but was moved to Plachta, downsizing the crew to eight or nine people working lights, sound, backstage and doors. This reduction in both seating and crew size brought the costs of production the show from an additional $25,000 to just $4,500.
Brown said the only show which Program Board has profited from in his eight years as director of Student Activities and Involvement was T-Pain in 2007.
“(Program Board) goes into shows thinking 'what's a reasonable amount to be willing to subsidize?'” Brown said. “We never go in with the intention of making money off of our students, because we know (CMU) students just aren't going to pay past a certain level. It becomes really tough for students to make commitments to those types of shows once tickets pass $20.”
Program Board attempted to initially bring Swardson to campus three years ago. Due to a scheduling conflict, in which Swardson was to be appearing in a movie, the show had to be cancelled.
This time around, Swardson requested in his rider an “adequate quantity of soda, diet soda, tea, coffee, milk, sugar, etc., full bar set up with complete snacks and sandwiches,” for his dressing room, along with a “full-length mirror for exclusive use of (the) artist.”
A “one bedroom suite at a deluxe hotel” for at least two nights was also requested, along with a limousine for his own personal use “to and from airport,” and “between hotel and venue.” His first-class, round-trip airfare arrangements were made by his agency, with reimbursements and pick up from the airport paid for by the university.
Requests like this aren’t unusual, Brown said. The university works in partner with the artist’s agent to meet most of the items listed.
“You always hear those crazy stories of an artist wanting something like M&M's in (their dressing room) but no green ones - luckily we haven't come across any of that,” he said. "We haven't really had any strange (requests) like that."
Alcohol and condoms fall under just some of the things Program Board would not supply for artists.
Currently, Program Board is planning for its spring concert line up. A finalized list is set to be released in November.
