Don't let a captive audience go to waste!
Take advantage of it!
CASE STUDIES 

Hartford Stage: Hartford Connecticut's only Tony-winning theatre.

  • The Need: HSC wanted to motivate families to attend their plays during their Santa Saturdays, Taste of Hartford and First Night family activities. I performed kid-friendly, adult-pleasing skits that informed families of the upcoming plays.
  • Result: HSC got to advertise its plays to hundreds of families, and those families discovered that HSC wasn't just a place for serious drama for adults, but an institution that offered theatre for the whole family.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: The famed Frank Lloyd Wright-designed museum in New York City and one of the world's leading cultural institutions.

  • The Need: To inspire families to enroll their children in the museum's after-school programs. My skit illustrated the variety and depth of the Guggenheim's after-school programs; specifically their interactive workshops, hands-on projects and experimental media classes.
  • Result: Families were informed of the many after-school programs the museum has to offer and the countless and inspiring things that could be learned there.

CBGB's: The legendary Rock 'N' Roll club in New York City.

  • The Need: To entice people to visit CBGB's website. My skit proved how visiting the site was the next best thing to going to CBGB's itself; by showcasing their online store, cybercasts, live streams, chat rooms, message boards, archives and email update list.
  • Result: People were inspired to visit CBGB.com after seeing the plethora of information, merchandise and activities offered on their website.

Wadsworth Atheneum First Thursday: An "open house" the museum holds the first Thursday of every month to attract new patrons. Dozens of families were visiting.

  • The Need: To motivate the families in attendance to participate in the family programs the museum has to offer. My skit promoted the children's programs. I also made art jokes to appeal to kids and adults, featuring Cubist Cornflakes and Abstract Expressionist Toothpaste and Hair Gel.
  • Result: Families were informed of museum programs they might never have heard of.

Bradley Airport Welcome Center: A Center to promote tourism in the largest airport in Connecticut.

  • The Need: To encourage travellers to visit the Center to take its free Connecticut travel brochures and visit sites in Connecticut. My skit promoted the virtues of the Welcome Center and the "irresistible" free brochures it held, by presenting a heartwarming comic romance: "The Trials of Melvin."
  • Result: Travelers became humorously inspired to take brochures and ask questions.

The 17th Annual Charlestown Seafood Festival: They didn't need advertising. People from all over New England have attended the festival for years. And, many entertainers had been hired. But each year, new attractions were added.

  • The Need: How could the festival's organizers inform their captive audience?
  • Result: The Thing Machine did a five minute skit advertising ALL the attractions & events - thus inspiring the audience to seek out new attractions.

The New York International Fringe Festival: An award-winning, critically acclaimed avant-garde theater festival in New York City was having a "Busking Bonanza" of street performers in Tompkins Square Park.

  • The Need: To intrigue park-goers to stop and see all the performances. My skit not only advertised the performers, but included jokes about theater to appeal to young and old alike. The skit featured "Sid, the Culture-Hating Uncle;" "Marge, the Theater-Mad Housewife" and "Insta-Hip! - a three-day course in theater hipness."
  • Result: Intrigued park-goers sought out the performers.

The Connecticut Historical Society: A family-oriented museum specializing in genealogical research, was presenting "Parade the Circle," a free family-themed event.

  • The Need: To entice the captive audience to revisit the museum as paying customers. My skit advertised their genealogical library and research services, by creating characters like "Billy, the spaced-out teenager," "Sid the (Used) Time Machine Salesman," and "Caveman Ug" to promote the concept of researching your family's past at CHS.
  • Result: People were informed of CHS's capabilities, and were enticed to come back. This skit was re-performed at Big E 2001, and this time I placed CHS brochures nearby, so as I performed, people were inspired to take a free brochure.


Don't let potential customers walk away!
Let me capture them for you!

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