Here is the transcription of my fourth video blog, all about my horrifying Hollywood Fringe sign:
(And here’s the audio on AnchorFM if that’s your jam)
Well, hey, everybody, this is Queen Mab. This vlog number…number four or five, I’m not really sure [it’s four. Dang it!]. Um, and I’m gonna go back and finish what I was talking about in my first vlog, which was Fringe festival publicity, and what an incredible enigma it is for me.
So in the first episode, I was telling you that I bought this kind of ridiculous, terrifying, fancy sign, in order to promote my show at Hollywood Fringe, and I put a QR code on it so people could scan it so that they could buy tickets. I’m going to tell you right now I’m still a little salty about the fact that at Hollywood Fringe, not every venue does box office for you. Every other Fringe festival I’ve ever done, the venues do box office, so that was kind of an adjustment, and it was a little hard on my neurodiverse brain to have to deal with tickets on top of all the other small alligators that one has to deal with when producing a solo show…but anyway, enough about that! Let me show you my sign.
(Oh, please, let this work!)
YES! Okay! So I’m going to do a verbal description for all of the folks that are listening to this on Spotify, which is probably like, nobody…but I’m still going to do it. So it says “Yes, No, Maybe So” at the top in big green letters, and it says, “Consent – We All Suck At It,” and there is an image of me in a yellow shirt shrugging, and I’m holding two little me’s that don’t have any legs. And one is green and is doing like “YES!” And the other one is red, and is holding up my palm like “NO!” And then there is a QR code, and then it has the show dates.
Okay, so, I got that sign done for me at Kinko’s. And that was probably not the cheapest place to get it done, but the reason that I did it there is because I used to work there, and so I understand their lingo, and the way they think, and the way they do things, and I knew also that they would do a good job and get it done pretty quickly. But this is what I was worried about, okay – I would shell out the money for this sign, and then the festival would be over, and I would be stuck with the sign, and I would have nothing to do with it – okay – no purpose to use it for. And then also, at the actual festival, there weren’t even…I don’t think there was anyone who used the QR code, so, um, I don’t know if I’ve even tried the QR code. I don’t know if it even works.
So that’s always the struggle for me when I’m doing publicity for a Fringe show is – what’s even gonna work? And I will let you in on a little secret. It’s probably not that much of a secret, because I talked about it once on facebook, but when I did my very first ever Fringe show, it was called “International Man of Mystery,” and it was basically just a song cycle of me singing songs about a guy that I’m still not over, haha…while playing my vibraphone and playing my pandeiro. I had it hooked up to a loop pedal, so I would loop the pandeiro, and I would play the vibraphone, and I would sing my little songs, and…yeah, I have an amazing voice, so…that was a really good show. Anyway, but…I worked really hard to promote it, and I hired someone to tell me what to do and all those kinds of things. And I sent lots of individual messages to people, because that’s really the only thing that works is sending individual messages. And I will say I think I had a decent turn out for a first run. It helped that I was doing the Fringe festival in my own city where I live. But I worked really hard, and I printed postcards, and I wore a costume every day, and I walked around and I handed out postcards, and I went to other people’s shows, and I promoted my show, and it was really, really intense, and I did five performances. And at the end…I kind of had…like, a mini-breakdown.
Because what you’re trying to do in a Fringe festival is you’re trying to get either a review or an award – right? And I did not get either one of those things, and it was just…I think I had this delusion that “Oh my God, I’m gonna do this show, and it’s gonna be really good, and I’m going to tour with it, and then I won’t have to teach middle school anymore, haha!” And none of those things happened. So…yeah. It was a little hard. I think my expectations were, um…not the healthiest, so that’s why with Hollywood Fringe, I’ve really been keeping my expectations super low. I know I’m an out-of-towner, I know that it’s COVID, I know that my show was not well attended. I did get reviews, which I’m happy about. It’s really nice when people come to see my show and say their opinion. Even if their opinion sucks, I’m still really glad that they took the time to write about my show. So I guess I’m already ahead of where I was all those years ago with San Diego Fringe, but…it’s not easy to promote a show. So I think that’s all I have to say. Thanks for hanging out, and I’ll show you my terrible sign one more time…OH MY GOD, three little “me’s,” so scary! Thanks for tuning in…bye!