One of the styles of acts/shows that you don’t really see at a fair (aside from grandstand shows) are comedians. I think there are several reasons for this, but the main one is that comedy doesn’t really work before about 6pm and it needs a lot more attention than a juggler or magician.
Last week there was a comedian at the fair that I was at!
The comedian was Dan McGowan, and I was usable to catch his shows his first day, but ran into him at the grocery store that night!
I recognized him because he was wearing the same shirt he’s wearing in the video on his website! We chatted for a bit and he’s super friendly! I came in early to the fair the next day to catch a little bit of his show.
Dan is a solid comic and blended material with going off script and doing crowd work with the audience. Performing a show at 12:30pm is not for beginners, I think this is also another reason that you don’t see a lot of stand up comedians at fair is that the experience level you need to be at, there aren’t a lot of people that can do it.
A huge challenge for Dan was the gap between the stage and the audience. There was gap was huge, so it’s extremely hard to make a connection over that “moat”.
Dan had a lot of obstacles and he overcame them!
Many fairs that I perform at have a gap between the stage and the audience and it’s a HUGE challenge to overcome. Usually what I will do when I encounter this is do in my in the grass in front of where the audience is sitting. Sure, I’m in the sun, but the way I see it, I’m being paid to be there, so I can stand in the sun.
If you’re thinking of performing at fairs, you need to figure out the best way to handle a gap between you and the audience for your show or style of performing
-Louie