Went to the Comic’s Lounge, North Melbourne last night. Thanks to our buddy Mal for organising a group of us to see the Clayton Fletcher (US) & Gab Rossi show. Had a lotta fun & left without settling my tab at the bar. Better get back there today & sort that. Biggest thing that struck me, comedy aside, was the slick organisation of the show. They ran like clockwork, never missed a beat – regularly promoting the comedians & the club, announcing the next act, large monitors with comedian’s name at the sides of the stage, friendly bar staff, prizes, gold-passes to be won, feed-back pages at every table (collecting email addresses), brochures showing upcoming events, ‘Facebook’ photos being taken by staff. The list goes on.

‘Facebook’ pic taken by staff at Comic’s Lounge, North Melbourne last night. (Courtesy Mal’s FB)

As musicians, we couldn’t help being a little awed by the experience. And the several hundred people who paid $30 on a Wednesday night. We left inspired to run our shows, or any other shows for that matter, a whole lot better. To labour the point, when you go to see bands you can often count on disorganisation, bands starting late & running over-time, not knowing the name of the band you’re watching, bad sound, a general lack of communication and so on. In an era of fierce competition for the ‘entertainment dollar’ we need to seriously improve how we do things, musicians & pubs alike.

Fires out.