Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada
Often when one is performing at a festival or an event that runs over a number of days there will be opportunities to do special media hits. Interviews with local newspapers, a chance to appear on TV as part of the evening news or perhaps the morning breakfast show, visits to the local radio station, you name it, a chance to get out and plug not only your show, but the event at which you’re performing.
The dreaded breakfast TV spot is by far the biggest challenge I’ve encountered on this front. Waking up at the crack of dawn to head to either some predetermined location or to the studio and then getting the energy and momentum up at an hour when the thing I’m really most excited about is the prospect of putting my head back on the pillow not interacting with the often too friendly and excited morning host…
But what’s the real down-side to it? Loosing a bit of sleep? Not the end of the world, and if you’re lucky enough to get decent press coverage at the event you’re working at it can help build a very impressive portfolio to help promote your show to other events thus feeding a cycle of getting more gigs and doing what you love to do – performing. Not only that, but event producers understand the challenges of getting performers to wake up early, so if you make the effort to do so you’ll leave a very good impression with your current employer and open the door to repeat bookings.
Finding ways to creatively interact with the media can go a long way to getting your picture in the paper or making a great impression on that appearance on TV as well. Anything you can do to have a fun, positive and memorable interaction with the person who’s doing the interview is great! You want to do something that packs a bit of a punch so that the TV hosts continue to talk about you through out the show and anytime they mention the event you’re at.
Especially for caption shots in newspapers, there’s usually a ‘Ta-Da!’ moment in your show (usually something to do with your finale) that the photographer who’s working for the newspaper will want to capture. If you’re able to perform the ‘Ta-Da!’ moment on command in a specific location for said photographer, to stage the shot that they’re after and work with them to get the ‘money shot’ you may well become the darling of the media and be asked to do multiple shots.
I have a friend who used to blow fire as part of his show… He was keenly aware of the best angle and position for the photographer to be in to get the most dramatic shot of him with fire leaping from his lips and that shot showed up in just about every newspaper around… Mind you, the moment happened so quickly that it wasn’t as good for TV, and there wasn’t an easy way that a TV host could interact with the fire blowing, so he typically did some other part of his show for TV hits…
In the end what you’re after is creating a buzz about your show so that more people come to enjoy it. Using the media to your advantage to help build that hype is a art in and of itself and learning how to get the most out of this opportunity will take you a very long way.
