Book Clean Stand-up Comedy for Theatres

A lot of theatres have older audiences. The Ivy League of Comedy’s shows are great for this demographic, because we’re clean and don’t tend to talk about the stuff that’s the usual material at comedy clubs (the average age of a comedy club patron is in their thirties). Typical comedy club comedians have jokes on topics like marijuana, internet dating, video games. That’s not us. All of us are headliners, and with at least two decades of experience, that makes us all older than forty.

The Ivy League of Comedy’s clean, smart comedy is better for theatres than the typical comedy club type acts.

Oh, we’re way easy to deal with, says The Ivy League of Comedy’s Shaun Eli. We need a hand-held microphone and a sound system. You already have that. A stage and stage lighting are nice, but for a lot of the shows we do, like for corporate or charity events, we don’t even have that. We’re thrilled to work at a professional theatre. Even the ones staffed by high school students are great.

We do suggest having the audience as close as possible to the stage, ideally three feet. So if you have a big empty space upfront, if you can put chairs there, that’s great. Or add tables and chairs and make it premium seating.

Typically 90 minutes. But we have no opening or feature acts. All of us are headliners with at least two decades of experience. You get a much better show that way. With The Ivy League of Comedy you get 90 minutes plus a post-show Q&A with the audience. If you want longer we can do that, but your audience might need a bathroom break.

Most comedians in the U.S. hate intermissions because it breaks up the flow of the show. But I (Shaun Eli, the founder) have performed overseas where intermissions are standard in comedy shows. I learned how to make them work, and I’m fine with them. Especially if it helps you sell more drinks (I want you to make money!).

Of course. The Ivy League of Comedy shot its special in a 260 seat house.

That’s why The Ivy League of Comedy was founded— to provide clean comedy for theatres, charities and corporate events. You should absolutely have a conversation with anyone you’re thinking about booking, discussing any restrictions you might have. The Ivy League of Comedy does shows for houses of worship, so you can be confident our comedy’s clean.

That is exactly why The Ivy League of Comedy was founded (and why we chose that name). To provide clean, smart comedy for theatres and performing arts centers, corporate events and charity fundraisers. We take care of booking, give you information to market shows, and take care of our travel arrangements, a complete turnkey system for your theatre or performing arts center.

The Ivy League of Comedy has a lot of marketing strategies specifically geared towards comedy shows. Our founder Shaun Eli majored in marketing at Wharton and he’s been producing stand-up comedy shows at theatres for two decades. Marketing comedy is different from marketing music, and there are some things that make a big difference. He also has some techniques he’s developed, plus, if you sell drinks, a way to sell more drinks at a comedy show.

Oh, we’re also good at working with the press. It’s actually a requirement if you want to be one of our comedians— to be comfortable working with the media. We’re good at it, and reporters like talking to comedians because we’re fun to interview. You can read some of our press here, although we haven’t really kept that page up to date, because we figure there’s already plenty on that page.

That’s a question we get a lot at The Ivy League of Comedy. It’s one thing we’re not experts on, because you know your local market and demographics better than we do. We do suggest that a ticket for live professional entertainment should cost more than a movie ticket. And we also believe that your ticket price is more elastic than you think— people will pay $40+ for entertainment if they’re interested in it. That said, our ticket prices are typically from $30 to $45.

It depends on the act’s requirements. At The Ivy League of Comedy we’re happy with a flat fee, a fee plus bonus depending on ticket sales, or, quite often, a straight door deal. Contact us and we can discuss some options.

That really depends. If it’s a famous comedian they may draw a crowd, and the audience probably won’t care about any opening acts. But name acts are expensive (which also means a high ticket price). The advantage of a showcase line-up from The Ivy League of Comedy is that it’s all headliners, almost all of us with late-night TV credits and our own comedy specials, which are great selling points, but we’re not expensive.

The cost! To keep our shows affordable we don’t spend $5000 on marketing! Almost our entire budget goes to paying talent.