Shameless (And Convenient!) Self-Promotion

If you want to get booked, or if you need to promote your latest show, have the information ready and accessible!

So you've practiced your makeup skills and twirled your twirls across the living room until you feel like you're ready to take to the stage. But how do you get there? Let's walk a little bit about promotion!

We live in a world where every bit of information we could ever want or need is available at our fingertips, and yet it's easy to get overwhelmed or to fall victim to search fatigue. The same is absolutely true for your show audience, including show directors.

Here are my tips for helping to promote yourself and what you do to potential venues and directors, as well as making it easier to promote your current appearances.

1. The Gallery

This whole post was inspired by a quick convo I had with a show director for an upcoming show I'm appearing in. They asked me if I could send a photo for the poster. I always have a selection of photos on my phone ready to go for these kinds of requests, but I also feel a tiny bit miffed when I get requests like these. I mean, hello! I built an entire website with pages and pages of photos that are just ready and waiting to be used, and I don't know if the photo I send is going to work with the colors of the poster they're making, the theme of the show, etc. I made a joke about this to the show director, and they said that they worry that they would going to pick the "wrong" one.

That was a lightbulb moment for me. As I said, I have a ton of galleries on the site, but not every photo is going to be great for a poster, or for a facebook post, or for a website promo. And there are some photos that I wouldn't want used for that. I had created all of these resources, but I hadn't curated them in a way that made them easy and accessible! I wanted them to pick what would work best for their project, but I hadn't trimmed down the options and made them available in a way that was convenient and easy to use.

So, I created my Promo Gallery - a collection of images that I think best represent me as a performer, but gives the director or promoter a variety of looks, colors, themes, to select from and find what will work best with their design.

You may not have a website with multiple galleries, but I think this is a tip that any performer at any level can benefit from: have a collection of great images that you can have available to send to a director or promoter that represent you well. I know we all have friends in the crowd that take tons of photos for us, and occasionally we strike gold, but in general live performance pics are not the best for promotional materials. When we're moving, it's so easy to catch us with our mouths in weird positions (we are lip-syncing after all!), we're blurry because we're moving, the light can be too harsh or there are weird shadows, etc.

If you can invest in a photo session with a professional photographer, that is great. Some offer smaller, more affordable packages for people looking for headshots (like actors or dancers) so you can see if they have any specials. But our phones are amazing little technological wonders, and the cameras have gotten so much better! Make sure you've got good lighting, and snap some photos that show off your face and give a sense of what kind of performer you are. If you only perform ballads and all of your photos are neon and discoballs, it's not going to match up with what you present!

Consider creating a separate folder on your phone or computer with your best promo photos so you never have to search for them.

2. The Info

Make sure that you have any info you need for potential bookings at hand. It sounds old school, but you can get business cards for reasonable prices from websites like VistaPrint. Having all of your info in one easy place is great to hand to a show director, or if you visit a bar that you'd like to perform at, you can always leave them with the staff, or if there is a board for flyers/announcements, leave some there.

Also, make sure that the info you give is the most convenient to reach you. If you give someone your email, but you only check your email once a week...that's going to be frustrating. How do you prefer to communicate? If you are glued to Instagram but never open Facebook Messenger, invite people to contact you though your IG. If you never answer phone calls unless you know who's calling, don't give someone your phone number. If they specifically ask, you can explain that you aren't often able to answer your phone (if you're at work, for example), but that if they leave a message you'll return it when you can. That sets the expectation that they may have to leave a message.

3. Promoting The Show

I don't require people that I cast to promote the shows that they are in, but it is good manners. Most of us are on multiple platforms of social media, so you should promote the show as you are able on the platform(s) that feel the most appropriate. Facebook is where I have the biggest following, and it's also where I have more people who are local to the places where I typically perform, so I do most of my promotion there. My following on IG is more connected to my makeup and horror movie content on YouTube, so I don't do as much promotion there.

I already covered a lot of etiquette in my previous post about my Notes as a Show Director. This definitely goes along with a lot of this. If this is your first time working at a venue where you don't know the cast or the staff well, promoting the show on your socials in a positive, upbeat way is a great way to start solidifying that first impression and can help snatch future bookings.

And remember: it's not all about you! Name drop some of the other performers who will be in the show with you. Make sure you mention the name of the bar - not just so people can find you, but to give them some props for providing a space for the performance. This can help you ease in with a new cast. Remember that some of these people have know each other and worked together for years, so find ways to jump in and be a part of their established community.

Queer bars and spaces need our support more than ever, so be sure to throw them some promotion when you're getting ready to head there and make some money for yourself!

4. Social Media

Finally, I already talked about this in the Notes from a Show Director post that I mentioned earlier, but it bears repeating: show directors, venues, and other performers are definitely looking at your social media! They see not only the promotion that you are doing (...or not doing!), but they also see all of your other posts. I've said before that there are great performers who are super talented that I won't book because their social media is filled with drama and fights with other performers, venues, etc.

But beyond that, think about what your social media presence says about you. For me, I am fairly political, and I post and re-post a lot of content about my politics. I stand behind my posts, and I know that my outspoken attitude is not going to be for everyone. I'm absolutely certain that my posting has cost me some opportunities, and I'm ok with that. As you are thinking about how you want to promote yourself on social media, think about how willing you are to potentially lose a booking over a meme you think is funny, or a TikTok that is making the rounds.

So, these are my tips to help you as you're thinking about self-promotion and how to get more gigs, and promote them once you do! All of the images in the post are from my promo materials gallery, and they help show a range of my looks and convey a sense of my personality and the persona I've created.

I hope you found this helpful, and I can't wait to hear about your next show!

XOXO -

Miss Jaye