A month since my last blog about September's Hitchin Mostly Comedy, we've nearly reached the limit of what we can do to keep the club afloat, which is pretty inevitable in the current climate.
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| A video still of Doggett & Ephgrave performing at the first Hitchin Mostly Comedy (23.10.08) |
The sad thing is sales for October's gig had improved considerably in the week after our first show back. It was probably the simple fact that a gig went ahead after so many cancellations since Covid hit that had reinstilled people's confidence. But seven days later, in classic sod's law style, the faeces hit the air-cooling device. The main act pulled out for a better-paid gig and, because the other comic originally scheduled to appear had sadly passed away, the complete change to our line-up put us in a situation when we'd have to at least offer refunds to ticketholders first.
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| Doggett & Ephgrave interview Phil Cornwell (far left) at the last Hitchin Mostly Comedy (23.09.21) |
I did my best to book an equivalent profile act to plug the gap, which took a week of near-continuous texts and emails to no success. The brilliant Arthur Smith was unavailable for the 21st of October but could do the following Thursday, but the change to our bill and the performance date made the bookings even more vulnerable. We switched the bookings to the 28th and gave everyone a week to decide if they'd sooner have a refund than attend. We even included a personal message asking them to consider carefully before requesting their money back as too many refunds at such short notice would put the club's future at risk. But unfortunately, enough people opted for a refund for sales to end up lower than they were before the first act pulled out with just a week to go. We would have to either double our numbers in seven days to cover our costs or sustain a £900 loss, which we can't swallow. So the show was cancelled.
Unfortunately, there are multiple reasons for sales to be down at the moment, ranging from money being tight to a reluctance to attend a gig when Covid numbers are rising. But sadly, the loss of an odd booking here and there amounts to a sizeable dip in interest. Add the fact our sound costs have literally tripled since we closed in February 2020, plus we have a venue hire fee to cover, and there's little wiggle room left. Our decreased takings aren't even to do with the Covid restrictions we've introduced, as we're getting nowhere near our current half-capacity total. We budget each gig to make a profit once we pass two-thirds of our proposed capacity, but at the moment, we're not reaching that. And we can't afford for shows to go ahead at too heavy a loss as it cuts into the funds we need to cover our ongoing business expenses such as rent for our office/storage space.
It's no wonder my patience for the whole process has worn thin. I've put so much time into running the club while taking little money for it, and to what end if it's all stress and no income? This month's cancelled show would have marked our thirteenth anniversary, and I'd like that number to keep growing, but not just to feed my "it needs to carry on forever to be a success" mentality. And the fact is, the club's been more successful than Glyn or I ever envisaged and was still growing when Covid hit. And if something's going to force us to close, I'd prefer it to be an event totally out of our control, like a global pandemic. At least I can't blame myself for that (though I shouldn't have fiddled with those bats in my laboratory).