How Long Should Your Program Last? / Filthy Does Not Mean Funny!

Booking Too Long Of A Presentation

Scheduling too long of a program is a mistake many event planners make. It’s important to remember that it is not like people are going to a theatre or to the movies and want to see a two-hour program. In many cases, attendees will have been in meetings all day and will be tired.

Even if your event is “dinner only”, your guests will have been sitting for at least 45-60 minutes before the show even starts. If you add a cocktail hour, an awards presentation, and/or a speech from the company president, the length of the event increases dramatically.

Bottom line: The ideal length for the entertainment portion of your program is 35-minutes with a maximum of 45-50 minutes. This will keep your event moving along at a nice pace and keep everyone energized.

Make Sure The Presentation Is Clean

This is so important especially in today’s day and age when people are offended by the least little thing. It is vital that you make sure that the performer’s material is absolutely clean or trouble brews for you on the horizon.

I recently did a stage show for a well known insurance company who had also hired a comedian. The comedian was hilarious and the audience loved him but then he let a few very minor swear words slip out. In fact, I didn’t even catch them...but the wife of one of the company’s big-wigs did. She stormed out of the program and dragged her husband with her. The executive shot an extremely upset look at the poor event planner.

The event planner came up to me and said, “Oh great, now I have to spend tomorrow smoothing all this out. That’s just what I need.” He had asked the comedian if his material was clean and the comedian told him that it was. It wasn’t!

Bottom line: You need to not only ask whether the performer’s material is clean, you have to insist and emphasize that it MUST be clean.

Until Next Week

Cody S. Fisher

www.CodyFisher.com