Fake people, fake jobs, a fake world.
Real work pays you, happens where other people can see it, and has a number before the date. Here are the traps a comic meets on the way up, from the first paid spots to featuring and the first headline dates — the hotel-room “meeting”, the fee up front, the showcase you pay for, “we'll pay you if you kill”, exposure, the discount people — how to spot each one and what to say, and, for comics under 25, what the comics wish they'd known. The book: “Vague exposure is not a currency.”
Promises without paper
Everyone knows somebody, everything is about to happen, and nothing is written down. Here is how to tell a promise from an offer — and the comics who learned it the hard way.
The comics who met it from their own interviews on WTF
Meetings belong in public
An audition, a “general”, a talk about your career: where it happens tells you a lot about what it is.
On the record
In the comics' own words from their interviews on WTF
Fees up front, and paying to be seen
A manager or an agent is paid a share of what you earn, after you earn it. A fee to be represented, to be “submitted”, to be seen — or a check that pays you too much — is the business running the wrong way.
Paying to be seen showcases, contests, festivals, bringers
The comics who paid from their interviews on WTF
Exposure, discounts and free tickets
If the pay depends on how it goes, there is no pay yet — only a promise. Here is what each of these sounds like, and a reply you can copy.
The comics on exposure, favors and free from their interviews on WTF
Before you say yes
Tick whatever is true about the offer, the person or the meeting. Nothing is sent anywhere and nothing is saved — this is for you.
For comics under 25
Taxes, contracts, the first big check, the people around the scene — the things that get learned the hard way. And the one that can't be rushed: a life to write about.