Sound Guys…

There are tons great people that run the sound at fairs, however most of them don’t understand much about what makes a show or contest work. A good example are simple things like having music loud or quiet during your show. The tend to strive for an even volume throughout and that’s not necessarily what the act wants.


Another good example is how I run my fair show, I like to select my audience, versus trying to hold the audience from the previous show. The reason I want to turn the audience is that if you are there to see the classic rock band, you’re not there for my show. Sure I can try to win you over, however if I don’t you’re eating a seat for someone else that would be a better base for my audience. I’d rather have a smaller starting audience that builds to a bigger audience at the end than a big audience that walks leaving me with a small audience at the end.


When the sound guy gets on the mic and tries to bring people in by saying, “if you can hear me, come fill up the seats for the magic show“, they aren’t helping. First of all, they aren’t helping, I do my preshow in a very specific way. That is to build a base that’s committed to me and the show and weed out the people that will walk and not be down with what I do. I’m not a show that’s for “everyone”, but no show is.


It was also interesting that the sound guy this week would only try to pull in people for the beginning of my show, and not the other acts. I also asked him to stop doing it on the second day as it made my job harder. What I was doing clearly was working as I had the biggest crowds on the stage all week. I’m sure he was just trying to help, and that’s good, however he should really ask before doing anything on the mic during my time, just like I always ask before I put anything into, or out of his equipment.