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| Eric Feldman Comedy Director seecomedy@umd.edu |
My name is Eric Feldman. I am a senior engineering major at the University of Maryland and as part of my campus involvement, I am the comedy director of Student Entertainment Events. As Comedy Director, I selected Aziz Ansari for the Homecoming Comedy Show and Seth Meyers for our Spring Comedy Show.
Since I was a freshman, the SEE Spring Comedy Show has been held in the Grand Ballroom. Freshman year, SEE brought Zach Galifianakis. I decided to go 20 minutes before the show started and I had a great time. My sophomore year, SEE brought Dave Attell and Jo Koy, two very successful Spring Comedy Show events that were held in the Grand Ballroom. Last year, we brought Gabriel Iglesias. We priced tickets at five dollars and held the show in the Grand Ballroom. The show sold out and everyone visibly had a great time as Iglesias performed for an hour longer than anyone had expected.
We have now arrived at the Spring 2012 Comedy Show and I would like to share with you all my side of the story and what led me to proposing Seth Meyers. For starters, the Spring Comedy Show has always been placed in the Grand Ballroom. So it is no surprise that I associate this show in my mind with the Grand Ballroom and thus, when I proposed the event, the Grand Ballroom was the natural venue of choice. Second, I had the unique opportunity to book Seth Meyers for our Spring Comedy Show; an opportunity that students would be overjoyed with—and I was thrilled. While The Diamondback is correct and Seth Meyers tied for first place on our previous comedy survey, I just could not pass up the opportunity to bring Seth Meyers to campus. He was in our budget, popular and would bring with him a great show. I didn’t feel that it was right to bring a less popular comedian and put him/her in the Grand Ballroom, leaving many potentially unsatisfied. I do want to apologize for bringing someone that people wanted to see according to our research and putting him in too small of a venue. But I wanted to assure everyone that I was doing the best job that I could do with the budget and opportunities that I had.
Our job is to please the students. After all, I am a student and no different than any one of you. I am trying to please everyone to the best of my ability. So why would I do anything that would intentionally make people upset by depriving them the opportunity to see their favorite comedian? I wouldn’t.
The truth is, as an organization housed in the Stamp Student Union, utilizing venues in the Stamp, such as the Grand Ballroom, is very economically feasible for us. Special grants for the Homecoming Comedy Show are what allow us to house the show in Cole Field House. However, due to the costs of the stage, lights, sound, video, security and more when we produce an event in Cole, it is difficult for us to afford it for any other comedy shows for the year. If I wanted to put Seth Meyers in Cole Field House, we wouldn’t have been able to bring The Second City in the fall, and we wouldn’t have been able to bring another comedy event in April to be released at a later date. Our mission, as stated on our website, is to program diversely throughout the year. To us, that does not mean two large shows, it means providing the campus community with several diverse shows.
Economic majors may agree that charging more for tickets now will make up for the difference in the production costs associated with a larger venue. And you’re right. However, SEE operates with strict financial and spending guidelines, with few exceptions. As such, we must have the money in our programming line before we can book the talent, venue, etc. That means that charging students more money now for tickets will help us for future shows but will not for this show. This is partially why we raised ticket prices slightly from last year, so that we can ever so slowly build our programming budget to one day be able to bring big talent at big venues all while still fulfilling our mission. Additionally, the talent cost is dependent on the size of venue they are performing in, so SEE would not only experience a jump in production costs bringing Seth to Cole, but also a jump in talent fees.
As much as many of you would like us to charge 30 dollars a ticket now and place the show in Cole, we also recognize that not everyone can afford to spend 30 dollars on entertainment and that students deserve to pay a fair price for tickets. The complaint that tickets are too cheap is selfish and unfair to students on a budget. People complain when tickets are too expensive, when tickets are too cheap, when the venue is too small, when the venue is too big, when the performer is too unknown and when the performer is too recognizable. We want to make you, the students, happy, but it is difficult when the feedback is unconstructive and without research and understanding.
My name is Eric Feldman and I am senior at the University of Maryland. I have done the best I can as Comedy Director for SEE, and on behalf of SEE, I hope that by working together we can develop a mutual understanding of the programming process and continue to bring great acts to campus.
