Tuesday Tease: Mother’s Day Burlesque?

May 7, 2013
By Brown Paper Tickets

I met Seattle-based burlesque producer/performer Whisper De Corvo at the Brown Paper Tickets class at The Great Burlesque Exposition in Boston a few weeks back. She told me about a Mother’s Day burlesque show she was putting on and, I have to admit that initially, I didn’t really associate Mother’s Day with burlesque. But as I talked to her more, and discovered that she was a mom herself, it started to make sense to me.

Ultimately, burlesque is a celebration of femininity and so it makes sense that daughters would want to celebrate their femininity and to pay tribute to their ultimate feminine role model, their mother. Also, as Whisper says in her interview below, it gives mother’s a chance to enjoy a night out that doesn’t revolve around child-rearing. It’s a chance to celebrate other aspects of her femininity: her beauty, her sensuality and her lust for life. And, with the burlesque revival now in its second decade, many of today’s mom’s are burlesque dancers themselves. If you want to get tickets to this one-of-a-kind show, pick them up here before they’re gone!

I tracked down Whisper last week so I could find out more about her show. Whisper also produces a number of shows around Seattle and I predict she will be a burlesque producer to watch. She certainly has original ideas and is passionate about the art of burlesque.

So, without further ado, I give you Miss Whisper De Corvo:
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Arts >

The Mid-Week Beat: Modern Traditionalists

April 24, 2013
By Jimmy Berg

American music is something that has always managed to incorporate many, sometimes disparate, influences. A lot of this has to do with so many different cultures living and working together in the American “melting pot.”

Probably the quintessential American music, jazz, incorporated elements of European brass band music, African tribal music and southern blues. Bluegrass blended English reels with African-American blues phrasing. Rock and Roll blended country with rhythm and blues. Hip hop blended American funk with the Jamaican sound system’s thundering bass lines and dancehall toasting, eventually incorporating electronic music, rock, jazz and a myriad of other genres into the mix as well. Taking all of this into account, what we call “American” music is, in fact, a blend of influences from around the world, brought together on American soil and affected by the American experience.

Musicians are constantly looking to re-define what is thought of as “traditional” music and today I focus on three upcoming shows that feature artists that effectively blend traditional music with modern styles. Two are firmly rooted in American roots music while the third takes Eastern European music and mashes it up with experimental and global styles.
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Music >

Part 1: Hard Tickets? What You Talking About!

February 11, 2013
By Jerry Seltzer

Today, we have a guest post from Jerry Seltzer, often referred to as “The Commissioner” of Roller Derby. His father, Leo Seltzer, invented the sport in 1935 and Jerry has followed in his footsteps since 1957, going from Roller Derby promoter (SF Bay Bombers) to television syndicator, to co-founder of BASS tickets, to Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Ticketmaster and now, finally, to Brown Paper Tickets, where he is serving a role as an Outreach and Sales Representative. We are honored to have a living legend as part of our team and Jerry has a ton of great stories on Derby history and the history of the modern ticketing industry as we know it today.

Today’s post is the first in what, we hope, will be an ongoing series. So, without further ado, I give you Jerry Seltzer, the Roller Derby Jesus!

I first handled box office for Roller Derby in San Diego in 1957. They were having games every night at Jack Murphy Stadium, and we ordered 20 sets of tickets from Globe Ticket Company, which included all 3000 reserved seats; the remaining General Admission tickets were sold off of rolls, different colors each night.

We would have to “rack” the tickets in wood holders, by section and row, which took an endless amount of time, put on sale a week of games at a time. Tickets had to be counted out and given to cashiers for each night. Customers would have to go from cashier to cashier to get the section they wanted, and then we checked them in, did a box office statement after counting the unsold tickets (“deadwood”) and putting them in a box to save for any IRS or city tax audits.

In 1959 when I started operating Roller Derby in the San Francisco Bay Area, we established some outlets at various private box offices around the area, and paid them commission for each ticket they sold. Again, customers who wanted a specific section had to chase around to find it. And we had to pick up unsold tickets the day before the event so we could have all tickets on hand for the cashiers, losing sales in outlying areas.

Mid-Week Beat: 2013 – The Year of the D.I.Y. Musician?

January 23, 2013
By Barb

2013 is starting to look like a very good year for D.I.Y. musicians.

There was once a day when most musicians longed to be “discovered,” which really meant “marketed and paid very, very well” simply for performing, creating and sharing their art. Those musicians had no interest in becoming entrepreneurs, and gratefully allowed others to take the reins of the business side of their career, in exchange for a cut of the profits. Using that model, both the artist and the fans were paying quite a bit for the privilege of finding each other. Most times, it also meant compromising your artistic vision in order to become more accessible to a mainstream audience.

Today, it has become easier for a gifted artist to keep control of the reins of his or her career: booking gigs and tours, selling recordings, interacting with fans and avoiding the “middlemen” of the industry. Artists can do this armed with nothing more than a solid work ethic, a laptop and a sufficiently large core of faithful supporters and fans.

A recent example of this is Seattle rapper Ben “Macklemore” Haggerty and producer Ryan Lewis. The duo have taken a D.I.Y. approach to gradually building a fan base. They shot and edited their own video for “Thrift Shop” which now boasts more than 50 million YouTube views. Macklemore and Lewis avoided signing with a major record label, turning down potentially large advances to put out “The Heist,” their second album, which debuted at #1 on iTunes and #2 on the Billboard charts. In the past, it would have been literally unheard of for a self-released album to achieve this level of success. Also, Macklemore and Ryan decide for themselves which shows they will play and which services they will buy/use to promote themselves. By doing this, they stay true to their art, and the messages they are sending through their music.
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Music >

Spit Take Saturdays: Kevin Pollak

November 10, 2012
By Brown Paper Tickets

Welcome to Spit Take Saturday, courtesy of Brown Paper Tickets’ Comedy Doer Julie Seabaugh and her professional comedy criticism site The Spit Take. Julie’s goal with the site is to “elevate the public perception of stand-up comedy to that of a legitimate art form, and to enable comedy criticism be taken as seriously as that of theater, film, music, food, even video games. No ass-kissing. No bias. No mercy. Just honest, unfiltered, long-form reviews written by professional, knowledgeable comedy critics.”

Every week Julie will select an entry from the site to be included on our blog and hand-pick some related events happening that week that she feels all you comedy lovers out there will appreciate.

So, without further ado, let us introduce you to this week’s Spit Take Saturday!

Kevin Pollak has led an enviable existence. He’s enjoyed a high level of success as a stand-up comedian and an actor, and his memoir, How I Slept My Way to the Middle: Secrets and Stories from Stage, Screen, and Interwebs (Lyons Press), features a long list of icons and mega-stars with whom Pollak has worked with and/or enjoys a close relationship. Many of them—including Steve Martin, Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks, Kevin Smith and Mark Cuban—offer supportive or sarcastic quotes sprinkled throughout the text (as does his Mom, and Pollak himself, in a few asides). There are stories about Warren Beatty, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Johnny Carson and Jack Nicholson. It would all be so very chummy and schmaltzy if not for the fact that Pollak is so god-damned charming.
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Comedy >

Three Ways Brown Paper Tickets Empowers Communities.

March 26, 2012
By admin

Image source: http://jayroeder.com/2011/06/22/uncategorized/622-do-good-work/

On my blog Spark Change, I’ve been featuring ways you can improve your office and for my final post in this series, I thought I would take this time to examine some things that Brown Paper Tickets does to make a difference in our communities with the hope that other companies will take a piece or two of what we do and create new ways to make their office more giving.

A relatively easy way to make an impact on your community is to make a financial donations to local schools or non-profits. Brown Paper Tickets takes 5% of our quarterly profits and donates that amount to a non-profit. We have also been a part of setting-up micro-loans with Kiva and helping to support people across the world. Look at your profits and give what you can every quarter or every year. Whether it is $10 or $100, the donation will make a difference.

Another great way to make an impact in your community is to give time. Brown Paper Tickets empowers every employee with 40 hours of time-on. This means that each employee could help build houses for a whole week in Africa and get paid as if they were sitting at their desks, working in the office. Employees are also able to break-up their time-on and give one or two hours to their favorite non-profit every week. It is a great way to get people more involved in their communities. This is something easily applied to every company. 40 hours is a lot of time to give as an employer, but even giving 20 hours or even a full working day of 8 hours would make a big difference. It is also a great team building experience when a whole group works on a volunteering project together. Giving employees time to go volunteer takes away the common excuse of not having time to volunteer. Give them time and see what they can do!

In my opinion, one of the most amazing programs Brown Paper Tickets has is our Doer program. Doers, unlike a sales team, are not responsible for business development. Their sole purpose it to go out and help people in their industry, free of charge. They are change makers. Some call it a dream job and I would agree. They are Brown Paper Tickets employees, paid to go out and make a positive difference in our world. How amazing is that?! Now, this one may be a little more challenging to take and apply to your own business, but maybe start by scaling it down and allow some of your employees to take on projects that will make a difference in your community and give them four hours a week to work on that project. There are many variations of a program like this that you could make work for your company.

The more you are able to support your employees’ desire to create positive change, the better world we will have to all share. Go on. Change the world!

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March Madness – Roller Derby Style!

March 2, 2012
By Jimmy Berg

I know, I know. When you hear March Madness, you usually thinks of basketball but judging by the sheer number of roller derby events we got going on just in the first few weeks of March, I think that’s going to change. There’s derby bouts going on everywhere. You’d be hard pressed to find a corner of the country that doesn’t have a bout happening.

We are, of course, so proud to be part of the national roller derby movement and encourage everyone to go out and support this grass-roots, DIY sport that’s on the rise. Look for another list towards the end of the month featuring more derby madness!

Roll on guys and gals, roll on!

Saturday, March 3

All Girl Flat Track Roller Derby Bout – Prescott, Arizona Come on out as Prescott’s hometown roller derby girls bring another Arizona State Conference game!! NAZRD Whiskey Row-llers will be taking on Tucson’s Copper Queens in a hard hitting fast paced game of roller derby.

Bleeding Heartland Roller Derby Main Event – Bloomington, Indiana Come Watch this double header roller derby event between the Bleeding Heartland Roller Girls vs. Ohio Roller girls.

Demolition City Roller Derby: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – Evansville, Indiana To paraphrase Clint Eastwood, in the roller derby world, there are two kinds of people: those who hit, and those who get hit! The hits will be good, bad and ugly at the Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum in Evansville, as the rollergirls from Demolition City Roller Derby host arch-rival Black-n-Bluegrass in a wild derby showdown.

Moonshine Massacre – Redding, California Join the Redding Rollergirls as they bout against the Golden State Rollergirls for this high action Roller Derby event!

Roller Derby – North Las Vegas, Nevada The American Roller Skating Derby is proud to announce that Jim Fitzpatrick’s World Champion San Francisco Bay Bombers are coming to Las Vegas to take on Mizz Georgia Hase’s Brooklyn Red Devils and Ice Box’s Los Angeles FireBirds in a wild 3 team tournament. Fun and excitement for the entire family!

Roller Derby Bout – Stockton, California Over five years of hard work has paid off for the Port City Roller Girls, Stockton’s only Roller Derby league as they are into their 6th Season. They are ready to share with their community what they have learned from long hours of practice and some painful bruises as they take to the track to play an intense, fast-paced sport against other women’s athletic organizations. PCRG is owned and operated by the skaters, for the skaters. It is the motto of the flat track roller derby revival that’s been sweeping the country over the past several years. In this bout,the Port City Roller Girls will face off against South Coast Roller Derby.

LA Ri-ettes vs. New York Gotham Girls – Los Angeles, California Are you ready for some All Women’s Bank Track Roller Derby action? Then purchase your tickets now before they sell out to see the LA Ri-ettes take on Gotham Girls Roller Derby from New York. At the LA Derby Dolls – Doll Factory located in LA’s Historic Filipino Town. Trey Sandusky will be singing the national anthem. ATTALOSS will be performing at half-time in the Vendor Village.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD9PAoYDN7s&feature=player_embedded]
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Roller Derby >

Venue checklist

January 5, 2012
By Rachel

Venue Checklist

Whether you’re trying to find a venue for your daughter’s Sweet 16, or a place for your band to play, or a stadium for your touring show, finding the right venue can be tough. We know. We’ve been there! To help you out, we tapped some of the best and brightest minds here at the Brown Paper Tickets HQ to come up with a checklist of everything that needs to be considered when scoping out venues for your event. Download the checklist (PDF) here.

We’ve broken venue considerations into three categories: Specifications, Amenities and Logistics.

Specifications: When looking at the specifications of a venue, walk through the process as if a time-lapsed version of event night. Where do you load in? Where will the stage be? Where are the outlets? Will it be standing room only, or will there be seating? Is it big enough? Too small?

TIP: We’ve found that with any kind of event, a big crowd in a small room is always better than a small crowd in a big room. Patrons feel more comfortable around people and are more likely to participate or mingle. Big rooms with not many people can feel isolating and cold.

Amenities: Nice to have, but not every venue provides them. Think of amenities as extras. Different venues have different extras. Find out what those extras are, and identify which are most important to you. Are you looking for a venue for a band showcase? Ask if the venue provides the staff to check I.D.s and bouncers (just in case). Maybe you’ll have to staff some of these positions yourself. It’s better to know ahead of time rather than getting stuck working the door at your own event. When touring a facility, look around. Go in all the rooms. Do you need coat check? Is a huge, stocked backstage important to you? Is it important the bathrooms are graffiti free? Look around for these things.

Logistics: Like everything else, venues are a business. They have policies, fees, and restrictions. Find out what these are before signing the contract. When will you get paid out? If you need to pay performers that night, find out if you get paid from the door that night. Show needs to get canceled? Make sure you know your venue’s cancellation policy. There’s nothing worse than having to cancel a show but still pay for the venue in full. All venues have fees of some sort. Ask about them outright and request a printed list of all possible fees. It’s better to know ahead of time than to be surprised.

With so much to keep in mind while checking out a venue, it’s easy to forget something. Print out this checklist (PDF) and take it along with you. Need more help picking out a venue? Contact our Venue Specialist, Connor! He can help identify some of the venues in your area. He can be reached at Connor@BrownPaperTickets.com.

Event Tips >

An Interview with Comedian Ryan Stout

September 26, 2011
By Jimmy Berg

You may recognize Ryan Stout from his time as a go-to host on the MTV network or even more recently as a reoccurring guest on Chelsea Lately. Ryan is one of today’s hardest working stand-up comics and this week he will be headlining at the Grit City Comedy Club in Tacoma, Washington starting this Thursday, September 29 and going until Saturday, October 1. Be sure and pick up your tickets here before they’re gone!

Stout recently took some time out of busy schedule to conduct a short interview with Jon Hamilton for the Brown Paper Blog.

You’ve headlined in Kirkland and Tacoma and you have played Seattle while opening for Bob Saget. Do you have any fond, bizarre or horrible memories of the Pacific Northwest?

I’ve always loved the Pacific Northwest’s ability to sit and focus on the show. It’s not a skill that people have in every part of the country, but one that my performance requires. So, I’m always thrilled to come back.

As a teenager in Northern New Mexico you trained in the great art of drinking with a German student. Did this training benefit your life on the road?

First of all, teenager is a broad term. I was 18, which is deemed adult-age. Second, I didn’t know that drinking with a German student was an art.

Drinking on the road can be a terrible trap. You can end up getting black-out drunk six days a week, for free, nine weeks in a row. These days, I might have a drink or two and call it quits. But, even that amount, every night, is 14 drinks per week. Most medical insurance providers would take “14 drinks per week” under consideration when developing a policy.
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Comedy >

Secret SXSW Salons

March 15, 2011
By Brown Paper Tickets

Down at SXSW? You’re invited to come to Brown Paper Tickets’ super secret salons at the Driskill Hotel. You can meet some of your heroes, plus we’ll give you a copy of our first-ever vinyl double set spotlighting Brown Paper Tickets’ artists. Sweet!

Here’s the line up:
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