23.10.2007 08:27 - That's Showbiz, Dahling 2: The Corporate Gig
Most comedians make their living from two types of gigs. There's the normal gig, at comedy clubs, and then, there's the corporate gig. Corporate gigs are peculiar. Basically, they consist of a roomful of executives or middle-management on a jolly, or even worse, "favoured customers". This means that you can't use blue material, you can't really put down the hecklers the way you can in a club, and it means that there's a bit of a strained atmosphere which you don't find at a normal gig. In addition to this, you and the other comics may not be performing at the optimum time for you to be well-recieved, being sandwiched, for example, between the main course and the sweet, or even before the meal, meaning that you're not guaranteed a good reception from fifty hungry people who have been bored senseless for an hour by the boss. However, corporate gigs are very, very lucrative.
Like last night for example. My first Corporate gig. A strange night, with a load of middle-management for a drugs company, none of whom spoke English as a first language. Comedians were in the ten minutes between courses, which meant the audience were constantly going off the boil, so to speak.
But like I said, very, very lucrative.
