As someone who works in the theatre and gig industry, most of the work I made online has had two eventual main goals- to cultivate an audience, and to hope that online audience will lead to physical ticket sales.
That’s not to say my work online has an ulterior motive, but it’s not behind paywall because my live performances are, and it’s how I make money off doing what I love.
It’s like an unspoken deal, you make work for free and put it online and hope that when you make a show, the people that have been engaging with your work from afar will buy a ticket. Since lockdown, that deal has been broken, and figuring out how to make money from what I’m good at has been difficult, as has the incentive to make work for an online audience, and figuring out how to make our kind of performance unique from, well, film and television.
It’s hard to justify asking for money in an online space, going from competing with other nights and shows in London and across the country, to the apps on your phone. Never in my life have I wanted to directly compete with Kendrick Lamar for your attention.
I created an online audio show a while ago called “See You When I Get There” it’s a series of short stories set predominantly on the London Underground. It’s a show that when lockdown started, felt lucky to already have had in production as it's an online only project and It has done well, but I haven’t been asked about it anywhere near as much as another project I started during lockdown.
That project is about virtual dating. After watching so many people do instagram lives, it brought me back to one of the first live streaming sensations- twitch plays pokemon. Where the commenters on the livestream controlled the game- this would result in hundreds of thousands of people inputting commands for a computer to translate.
My idea was that everyone watching my livestream would be playing the part of my date, and I’d ask you questions and try to… chat you up. Along the way we’d figure out who this character was, what their name, age, gender was and also what questions they’d ask me. It was just a funny idea for me, and I think I wanted to do something a bit silly during such a heavy time.
While SYWIGT took way more time to create and make, the show people keep asking me about is the virtual dates, and I think it’s because Virtual Dates does something my audio show (or Kendrick Lamar haha) can’t, and that’s create work that directly engages with your audience.
In many ways SYWIGT there is so much closer to my work on stage, it’s a written and rehearsed piece of writing- that I love- have I told you- I love this show- that only requires the audience member to listen.
Virtual Dates on the other hand is very different to my usual work, nothing is scripted, it’s half an hour of improv comedy where the audience are making most of the jokes. What makes it closer to gigging though, is that when you’re at a gig, the engagement is a given, you’re in a room with people, you talk, they listen, and an energy is created- an energy of togetherness- that we now have to not take for granted when making work, but make sure it’s implemented in every project during lockdown.
It’s why watching someone monologue for an hour doesn’t quite work, it’s not entertaining because that type of performance without a stage is just bad tv.
Bringing this back to the question of a paywall, I’m still figuring this out. Luckily I’ve had time to breathe with Strike a Light supporting me in more than a few ways, and with my run being cancelled at the BAC, they’re supporting me for the money I lost.
At the moment though, it’s hard to figure out how to justify charging people to see your work when you know you need more eyes on your projects. Some people have Patreon and I think that’s the right way to go.
To anyone reading this though, if there’s an artist who’s work you love, there’s a guarantee they’ve missed out on so much work. Please think about buying their book, album, even if you have it, re-buy it as a gift. And if there’s nothing to buy just reach out and let them know about a piece of work they made that you love. It won’t put food on the table, but no doubt it’ll let them know the work they made hasn’t led to nowhere.