The Driver is the central organizer/curator who picks the Crewmembers and coordinates the show details with the Agents.
It really helps to go through both this and the Agent's guidebook to get a sense of the whole thing before you start. This guidebook is very much a work in progress. Please email the Navigator with any questions as you go through it so edits can be made for clarity and completeness.
Two and a half months before the first tour, invite people who you'd like to go on the tour to signup as Crewmembers via perpetualmotionroadshow.com. Even if you know them, it's best to get them to sign up via the form: not only are key things communicated to them this way, but it will give you an indication of their level of seriousness. A huge part of Driving is setting up milestones for people, and gradually increase the level of commitment: if they cannot fill out a form, they will almost certainly pull out later in the process. This not only makes things stressful for you to find a replacement, but also limits who can go on short notice. A little bit of flakiness is inevitable given the nature of the project, but you can limit it by listening to your instincts and keeping the lines of communication open. Of the sixty people who've gone on the Roadshow so far, only 4 people have pulled out a month before the tour they committed to.
At the same time check in with the past Agents (east or west coast) and introduce yourself and see if they're into doing another 3 months. They may well not be, and if you haven't heard from them in a week you should assume they'd rather not. If so, let them know you'll be shooting them specific dates in a few weeks and if there's any concerns on their end with specific days of the week. If they decline, thank them for helping out and check to see if there's any Agent applications for the right city, or a city nearby enough to replace it in the Driver e-mail account (see below). Contact people you know there who might be into a three month stint and point them to the Agent Handbook for an outline of what an Agent does. You can also email past Roadshow alumni in the cities you're looking and ask them for suggestions--use the search function on the site for the city you're looking for. If they're in the city you're looking to get an Agent for, you also could ask someone you're considering as a Crewmember to take it on. If you've shaken all your trees and you're still short an Agent, email the Navigator and they'll massmail the audience members who've signed up for show notifications.
Now review the applications. When people sign up to be Agents or Crewmembers via the website forms, they go to driver@perpetualmotionroadshow.com. Go to www.nomediakings.org/webmail/ to access the account, logging in as "driver" and using the same password that I've given you for this account. When these forms come in, it's nice to email the applicants to let them know a human's received it. Check out the URLs they've provided to get a sense of their stuff, or email them requesting they mail you a sample of it. (If you like their stuff but can't send them on tour, email it back to driver@ with your comments so the next Driver can consider them.)
Email everyone who seems suitable what months you're booking for, and tell them that if they're interested to get back to you within the week with A) any dates they absolutely could not go; B) times they'd like to go. Because it's a long process, it makes more sense to email everyone that's appropriate (via an individual [but perhaps cut and pasted] invitation) -- just make it clear that it's still in the planning stages. If you think you might be short on Crewmembers, email the Navigator and they'll send out a massmail to the previous Crewmembers seeing if they'd like to go again.
There are several variables you want to juggle when thinking about who to put together, the key thing being variety.
Once you've got three crews of three together, email them the approximate dates and say that if they want to confirm their spot, send a hundred word bio (no longer) w/website ending with what they'll be doing on the Roadshow. They also need to send you their mailing address so the Navigator can send out PMR postcards for use in their promotional push. Give them a deadline of a week -- people hate writing bios but you'll need them to give the Agents the full info, so follow up scrupulously. Again, if they can't get a bio together you're better off booking someone else.
The 15 minute rule is an important one and essential to the variety/non-boredom tenets of the Roadshow. When people go over, I routinely get complaints. So at this point, if you have a muscian, remind them that they signed up for a 15 minute performance, which is an usually short set -- 3 or 4 songs long. If you tell them at this point they don't get wedded to a particular set list.
After they confirm, check to see if they've indicated on their application that they know a local act in certain city, and ask for the local act's contact info, website etc.
Six weeks before each show, you need to email navigator@perpetualmotionroadshow.com the following for each city:
Now it's time to schedule specific dates. Depending on where people are coming from, try to schedule the shows starting or ending in wherever the most people are (ie, if two people are from Chicago, it starts or ends there). Minimize border crossings mid-tour--if the tour starts in Chicago, it ends in Toronto.
The west coast is tricky, since it's a line and not a straight loop, so getting back car rentals to the originating city requires either someone willing to drive it back alone or for the tour to do three cities one way and four cities on the way back. Probably worth checking in with the crewmembers as to what they'd prefer, otherwise they might just think you're a sadist. At this point you'll want to come up with a descriptive and intriguing phrase for them and run it by them -- you're better off coming up with one and saying they can pick a different one if they want. People have real difficulties coming up with their own catch phrases, for good reason. Also confirm where they're from & if you have two people from the same area try to find where they were born, etc., variety is the key. Get their website if you don't have it.
Schedule a day off in the middle somewhere, preferably a Fri or Sat since venues are harder to book on the weekend, although sometimes venues do better on certain days.
OK, now you have the tentative 7-city-8-day dates for the three months, email the agents in each city to book those 3 dates, also sending them the roster and bios for the next three months and the contact info for any local acts in their city the crewmembers have suggested. Ask them to confirm the 3 bookings and the 3 local acts by a week from today. There isn't a lot of flexibility time-wise, although there's a day or two wiggle room in the middle (ie. you could switch the day off in the middle to Friday if that was a better day for the venue than Thursday). Ideally you'll want to get the same venue to confirm for three dates, for consistancy and simplicity's sake, but you might have to mix it up a bit.
The thinking behind booking three months at once is so once it's done, you and the agent can forget about it. It's always a hassle to get the person at the venue in front of their calendar, so it's better to try to do it all at once. The importance of the local act is really important in getting new people out to the show, and often makes the difference between a sad smattering of people and a decent crowd.
The trick with getting stuff confirmed without ripping your hair out is to give people a deadline of a full week, tell them why you need it then, and follow up scrupulously one day after the deadline. If you do it systematically while still treating people respectfully you can get it done without losing sleep. Give people only the info they need (ie. don't "think out loud" unless you really need to).
Once things are confirmed, you'll want to send navigator@perpetualmotionroadshow.com all the info for all three months, with confirmed venues and local acts, six weeks before. That way they can get the handbills made a month before, and they'll have the info for when they send out the massmail to the Roadshow mailing list.
Essentially, you're almost done. Send out the One Month Hence! email, making sure to paste the Media and Agents list to the bottom, and field any questions the crewmembers have.
Hey CREWMEMBER, CREWMEMBER, AND CREWMEMBER!
Here's your finalized schedule, spread far and wide:
[PASTE IN THEIR SCHEDULE] ...Perpetual Motion Roadshow #WHATEVER...
LA: Sat. Apr. 16, 7pm. Flor y Canto (3706 N. Figueroa Ave.)
San Jose: Sun. Apr. 17, 8pm. Anno Domini (150 S. Montgomery St., Unit B)
Eugene: Mon. Apr. 18, 7pm: Feinstein's Museum of Unfine Art (537 Willamette)
Seattle: Tues. Apr. 19, 7pm. Confounded Books (315 E. Pine St.)
Vancouver: Wed. Apr. 20, 8pm. The Butchershop (195 26th&Main)
Portland: Thurs. Apr. 21, 7pm. Reading Frenzy (921 SW Oak St.)
San Francisco: Sat. Apr. 23, 7pm: Modern Times (888 Valencia St.)
All shows are pay-what-you-can.
At the moment, the perpetualmotionroadshow.com front page is still the previous month and will be changed over to your info when their tour is over.
This is all killer, no filler: please read it all, and email if there's confusion. You don't want to be on the highway a month from now realizing you missed out on this crucial info.
Hopefully you've gotten your packet of PMR postcards in the mail: email is well and good, but it really helps to mail your people in the cities you're going to something physical. Write in your show details and a hello. If you have some left over, they can also be good context for media packs.
For now, if you want the media outlets to get a chance to look at and write about your materials, you should send it in the next week or so -- it'll take at least a week for them to get it via the post. You'll also want to e-mail and fax in the event details soon if you want it to go into listings and such, the leadtime for most weeklies is two weeks. You might want to team up with your tourmates on this. Agents can be helpful for working their local contacts, but they will not get you media coverage -- you have a better chance of putting together an intriguing media pack than the Agent who's been doing it for months. It's more fun to arrive in town and see your name in the listings than trying to figure out why it's not there.
It is MOST recomended to also send along (via mail or weblink) a catchy, high-resolution visual/photo -- this makes the weeklies much more likely to give you a plug, since they're always short on visuals. This has worked repeatedly for crews in the past.
The posters for each of the confirmed cities are at http://perpetualmotionroadshow.com/handbills/ You'll want to include the proper city's handbill in media you send out, and it might be a good idea to print out the Globe and Mail PDF: http://perpetualmotionroadshow.com/pmr-globeandmail.pdf ...to include to give a bit of background on the Roadshow. There's also a template press release, which you can reformat with your own info: http://perpetualmotionroadshow.com/pmr-pr.rtf ...really, though, feel free to do whatever you like to get the word out and catch the attention of the media, these are just tools. Remember that the Roadshow has probably come through their town several times and the novelty may have worn off -- sell them on your material, not the tour itself.
Now also is the time to consider shipping materials ahead to LA and Vancouver. Canadians are not allowed to make money or sell things in America without costly visas, and the same with Americans in Canada. So if they search you and find that you have things to sell or equipment to perform with (projectors, instruments), they can turn you back on a whim. There will be more tips sent on border crossing the week before the tour, but in the meanwhile:
In terms of car rentals, you'd obviously want to get one with unlimited mileage and no stipulations regarding going across the border -- I've found Avis to be good in both those regards. You'll want to figure out how you want to divide up the gas costs and such ahead of time.
Below I've listed the agent in each city. They'll be doing what they can in terms of promo, as will the venue people and the local act -- they'll have handed out handbills at this month's shows. However, you should also do everything that you can do to get the word out and get people coming to your show. Don't neglect your own city -- have handbills in your pocket leading up to it, and let any media folks you know about the tour early.
As you know, the Roadshow doesn't do any promo beyond sending out a massmail and making the resources available to you, and the agents only do what they can -- so make sure you shake all the trees you got. It will be what you make of it.
If at any point you're unclear on Who Does What in the Roadshow, check out this handy chart:
http://perpetualmotionroadshow.com/whodoeswhatchart
You're pretty much on your own now, I'll be happy to answer questions or whatever but it's up to you to figure out the remaining logistics amongst yourselves -- you should get in touch with the agents ahead of time if you need a place to crash. They're prepared to find it for you if they can't put you up themselves, but you must arrange it with them ahead of time.
Watch your email a week before the tour for more tips!
Mail out the Week Hence email and the three separate Your Special Job! emails to the crewmembers.
Hi XXXX--
Because you're not crossing the border like your tourmates are, I'm giving you handbill duty. You need to print out and copy 50 handbills per city for the next show, so you can hand them out to the people who came out to see you (just like the last Roadshow did last month for you guys).
The pdfs are at
http://perpetualmotionroadshow.com/taxonomy/term/1
Just print the ones with next month, not your month.
You'll want to make 25 double sided sheets for each city and chop them in half, making 50 handbills. Usually l do them at a .03 copy place and then chop them at Kinko's -- they have an electric chopper than can do up to 500 sheets at once for $2-3. But whereever you do, make sure you get compensated from the PWYC hat.
Please pass them around the audience between the second and third act. Whatever's left at the end of the night, give them to the agent--they're meant to be a starter pack for them.
Hey CREWMEMBER, CREWMEMBER & CREWMEMBER:
I know you're really super busy now with only a week to go before the tour, but you'll want to read these suggestions below.
I'll be sending you separate emails with your Special Job.
Enjoy yerselves!
WHAT TO BRING
==============
-Your act. Remember, we're looking for a 15 minute lively act here. Compelling, punchy, polished and not boring is what we're after. You're going to do it 7 times so put some time and thought in. When you practice it, PLEASE time yourself to confirm you won't go over 15 minutes. Leave people wanting more. Something that's very entertaining at 15 minutes is mildly so at 20 and boring at 25.
-Terms of how many books to bring, on my last US tour (17 cities) I sold about 40 books.
-Bring your passport AND birth certificate or driver's licence. Canadians are not allowed to make any money in America without a work permit and vice versa. They can search your car, so try not to have flyers if you're saying that you're just going to visit friends, and don't offer more information than what they ask. Remember they can (and have) Googled crewmember's names, so if you have a prominent website with your tourdates listed you will want to take that info off of it for the border crossing.
-I've found Mapquest really good for directions right to each venue, it also gives approximate drive times, add an hour buffer: www.mapquest.com... other people have suggested a real map backup, however.
-People who find the floor a little hard to take might like to have a blow-up matress. A sleeping bag is your own little personal space. A towel is also a good idea, which can double as a pillow.
-Your car might need stuff -- the January 2005 crew ran into snow on the west coast and were legally obligated to buy chains.
-Having something free, like a flyer or sticker, means that interested but broke people have something to remember you by. Bring any extra PMR postcards you have to spread the word about the project. Also a good idea to have a donation bowl on the table as well as passing the hat.
-Power bars and peanut butter & bread was suggested as a good backup.
-An alarm, either on a clock or a watch is very handy.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'RE THERE
============================
-What we've done at some bookstores in the past is brought some beer to sell at the show -- brings in a few bucks plus lends a festive atmosphere (drunks laugh more). If this appeals arrive early enough to talk it over with the person in charge of the venue. Obviously you can't sell beer at the bars, but you do get to keep all the money from your sales.
-When doing a show in a store, the regular split on what you're selling is 60% to you and 40% to the store. Please respect this, zine-friendly bookstores are some of the most enthusiastic and stable venues the Roadshow's had. If a few sell you might want to offer a 50% discount to leave a few in the store. If your stuff is in a publisher's catalog, you might want to bring a few along to leave with booksellers so they can order your stuff that way.
-Passing the hat for gas money has worked well for the crews that have done it -- make it fun, like a cartoon head or a hubcap, and it won't be a chore.
-In some situations, the Agent will host the show, but often it will be up to you to introduce your fellow Crewmembers. You can ask the Agent if they want to do it, but having a fellow Crewmember introduce you is better than an unsure Agent.
-Handing out books in smaller crowds helps sales -- they get to look it over without braving the merch table. Always the chance that someone will steal something, however.
-Document it if you can! Getting pics, video and audio gives it a life beyond the moment! Crews who don't take pics always regret it.
-Set order -- who goes first, second and third? This is an annoying ego-charged detail that had to be settled every night. To avoid this, go with alphabetical order for your first show, then rotate.
-That said: in an ideal world, everyone would stick around for everyone, but if it looks like most people are there for someone in particular ask that person to go last. Local acts, too. They're not necessarily opening acts, and the set order can mean the difference between new people checking out your act and you playing to a suddenly empty room. Afterwards, if you liked their stuff, give them a PMR postcard and encourage them to sign up to go on tour & mention they were a local act. If you did OK with the pass the hat it would be awesome to buy them a drink to thank them for performing.
-Pay Phone Tour Diary: whoever goes last that night makes the call after the show. (206) 309-7325 is the number, get a $10 phone card for this purpose and just pass it off to whoever's doing it. Cells are fine, just make sure you have a clear line. At the beep, just leave a message saying how the show went, or an anecdote about the day's events, which will then be posted on the site... the appeal of this is the idea that the listeners kinda get to go on tour with you.
-As well as the Diary number, it's also a good idea to have a list of the agent's #s in your wallet in case you get split up. This has happened before.
-Please jot down any ideas or suggestions you have for future Roadshows somewhere. We'll be bugging you after the tour for them!
Have fun, ask any questions you might have, and keep in touch with each other!
You're in charge of passing around the hat and letting people know that while the Roadshow runs on pure volunteer power, it also needs dirty dirty gasoline to get from place to place. Prob. the best time to do it is before the last reader, and it's OK just to let people pass it to each other during the last reader.
Other Roadshows have passed around something fun--a hubcap, a paper-mache head... (A pint jug from the bar works in a pinch.) Other people suggest also putting it with a PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN sign and putting it where people can see it when they come in, and other people suggest also leaving it at the merch table after the show in case people feel like throwing in an extra couple of bucks. S'up to you how you want to do it.
Remember to split the proceeds with the local act (i.e., three touring crewmembers and one loca act get 1/4 each of the pot)
Hey XXXXX--
You can get the banner from XXXX, he's at XXXX.
XXX
You're in charge of the sign-up sheet and the banner.
Let people know that the Roadshow is an indie press circuit that goes to seven cities in seven days once a month, and if they want they can sign up for a spam free notification of who's on the next one. Then get the audience to pass the signup sheet around with the clipboard and pen. This works better than just having it on a table somewhere.
This really helps keep the Roadshow going -- gets audience members coming back and sometimes even helping out and going on tour themselves.
Then draw attention to the Roadshow banner (which you've hung behind where you guys are performing before the show) and let people know if they're interested in getting involved in the roadshow, either going on it or helping out, they should check out www.nomediakings.net or www.perpetualmotionroadshow.com. Also tell them they can follow you on tour by checking out the Pay Phone Tour Diaries.
A good time to do this is between the first and second act.
When the crewmembers phone in their Diaries a .wav file will be emailed to the driver@ account. Listen to it and allow the emotions to run through you like the wind. Then download it to your desktop, name it something like pmr-oct05-tor.wav (depending on when/where it's from) and then go to the tour page in question. Login, click the edit tag and slide down to the bottom -- here you can upload the .wav file and give it a title, something like:
Liisa from San Jose: "Our compadre Ryan was lost, lost in the twilight zone between the US and Canadian border..."
Once you've put that in the Title: field, Browse to the file and Add it, then hit Submit (remember that last step!). The first time you do it you want to put in the body text something like: To hear the latest Pay Phone Tour Diaries from the folks on the road click Attachments below! Then logout and verify that it's there for everyone's listening pleasure.
Give the crewmembers a week to decompress, and then email them for feedback, e-mails from the signup list. When you get the responses, put them in the Post Mortems folder in the driver@ account.
It's an important step to get in touch with people when their memories are fresh and they're still excited about the project.
[PUT ANY FEEDBACK FOR THEM YOU'VE HAD IN HERE TOO!]
[REMIND THE PERSON WHO HAD THE SIGNUP SHEET JOB TO SEND YOU THE E-MAIL ADDYS IN THE NEXT WEEK OR TWO. YOU MIGHT HAVE TO FOLLOW UP.]
Do you have any general feedback about the Roadshow? What could make it better?
Can you send along any neat photos or media that we could use to promote the Roadshow?
Did any of the local acts strike you as someone we should offer a tour spot to?
Do you have words of wisdom for the next tours, things you'd wished you'd thought of/brought?
[IF THEY'RE ON THE CIRCUIT] If your city needed it, would you be able to be an agent for three
months?
Would you consider being a driver (organizer) for three months?
Did you use all your PMR postcards? Could you have used more?
Some other ways to help the Roadshow out:
-recommend the project to people who would be good on the tour -- when they sign up on the
site, mention they sent you.
-put this button on your website and link it to your month's tour:
http://perpetualmotionroadshow.com/PMRbutton.jpg
http://nomediakings.org/pmrwebbutton.jpg
-arrange free ad space for the project somewhere-- we can supply the artwork
Let us know if you think up other ways you'd like to help out.
