FAQs for The Ivy League of Comedy’s Corporate, Charity and Theatre Shows

The cost of hiring comedians for a comedy show depends on several factors. For a theatre show in the NYC area from The Ivy League of Comedy it would depend on the night of the week and the size of the theatre. For shows that sell tickets we can often work for a percentage rather than a flat fee or a fee plus bonus.

Location matters too. Almost all of us from The Ivy League of Comedy are in the New York City or Los Angeles area. If we can drive there and not stay overnight, it's less expensive. If we have to fly and stay overnight, we have to build that into the cost.

The cost of a comedian or comedians for a corporate event also depends on when, where, how many attendees, and which comedian. We’re not all the same price. We are quite good at meeting a variety of budgets. If you want a ballpark range, figure $1,000 to $15,000, depending on the comedian. A name you recognize will cost more than that.

Our fee for non-profits is much, much lower than for-profit organizations and industry groups.

And most importantly, I’m not greedy. There are agencies that take most of the money for themselves and pay the comics very little. So the $5000 (as an example) that you’re paying? They’re offering the comic $750. I’m a comic and I’ve seen that happen frequently. I don’t ever want to be one of those selfish greedy awful guys. I’m not secretive— I’ll tell the comic what the gig pays. There’s nothing in my agreement that prohibits a comedian from discussing pay with the client.

Recently I had a comic tell me that for all the work I was doing on a particular gig I should take 15% instead of 10%. I appreciated the offer, but I refused. I got into this business by accident— basically to provide clean comedy shows and to get myself and my friends more work. Not to get rich. I make most of my money when I’m on stage.

So to not really answer your question, the best and easiest way to find out the cost of a comedy show is to call or write The Ivy League of Comedy and ask. I'll ask you where, when, for whom and how many and give you a quote.

We at The Ivy League of Comedy generally like to quote a flat fee because that makes it easier for you, even though it adds risk for us as airfares and hotel costs change. But it also avoids any sort of figuring out what the costs actually are, if a comedian is coming from, or going to, somewhere other than home. And sometimes comics want to stay with a friend even though we tell them we’ll pay for a hotel.

Oh, here’s another example of my lack of greed. I booked a comic for a charity gig. I paid for the airline tickets. Then she booked a comedy club gig for the next night and said she’d split the airfare with me. I said no, you got another gig, that’s great, let me just change the return date. I did have her cover the slightly higher cost for changing the ticket, but it was way less than half. She did the work to get more work and both of us were happy with that. Though I did appreciate her offer to split the airfare.

The wiseass answer is: That depends. Are you in New York or California? Unfortunately, most comics do gravitate towards the two cities that provide the most opportunities. Not only to get noticed by industry, but also to have lots of performing opportunities. There are a lot of comedy clubs in New York and Los Angeles, and they typically have a lot of shows every week and many comedians in each show. Your local comedy club has maybe four or five shows a week, it's the only one in town, and the show is two inexperienced local comics and someone who came in for the weekend.

When I'd been performing for only a few years I went on a trip to Europe. I performed and the audiences really liked me. More than I deserved, frankly, for my level of skill at the time. I found out that there were only two open-mic nights a week in that decently-sized city. No wonder they liked me. In just a few years I'd gotten more stage time than one could get in a lifetime in that city. In NYC if you hustle you can get to several open-mics a night, every night of the week.

(FYI: "stage time, stage time, stage time" is to comics what "location, location, location" is to real estate.)

My record for the most booked shows in a night (booked professional shows, not open-mics) is six. That's less than half the actual record for NYC.

So to get back to your question. I, or you, might find a comedian in your area who is a decent professional. And if you're looking for someone decent for a fundraiser, that'll probably be fine (but not as good as getting a really good comic who performs full-time and gets on stage a lot, in front of tough audiences). I suggest that you vet the comic as best you can.

But if you're looking for a comedian for a corporate event, one at which the audience didn't choose to be there, has already been sitting all day listening to strangers lecture them, and they'd really rather be at the bar bad-mouthing their boss, or flirting, or back home with their family, then that's a tough audience and you want someone with a lot of experience. Not a teacher or accountant who moonlights as a comedian.

There are a lot of talented musicians, many of whom work part-time as musicians and don't perform that often. That really doesn't work for comedians.

Sorry for the long answer, but I had a lot to say.

Oh, and if you have a local comic in mind I'm happy to offer my thoughts, even if you don't have the budget to even consider working with me.

Oh, absolutely, if we're already traveling to your area, every show we get lowers everyone's cost. Often when I book one show I'll start looking for more in the area before I buy an airline ticket. And you can help with that. Do you belong to a country club? A house of worship? Do you have a favorite charity that could put together a comedy show fundraiser? We're happy to provide guidance.

Comedians from The Ivy League of Comedy perform all over the world. Small towns, big cities, it doesn't matter. You'd be surprised how affordable a great comedian can be.

And no, we're not coming from NYC to tell jokes about subways and how much our rent is. We know that a joke about a $4,000-a-month apartment with no room for a couch isn't going to get a laugh when the audience pays $2,000 a month for a whole house. We know you'll think we're idiots. We don't want that.

Oh, absolutely. Virtual comedy is way less expensive than even if we’re performing just across town. Comedians from The Ivy League of Comedy are quite experienced at doing virtual shows- we’ve figured out how they’re different from in-person performances, and we’ve adapted our performance accordingly.

That depends. When you work with a comedy production company like The Ivy League of Comedy for comedy at your corporate event, you get a full, complete, turn-key night. We provide the comedians, we give you promotional materials, we give you ideas for how to best make people look forward to the event (founder and CEO Shaun Eli has been doing this for over two decades, and he majored in marketing at Wharton). We even give you guidance for how to set up the room.

We can, and sometimes, with our expertise, we can get them less-expensively than you can. Because the comic knows that we know that they’re not the only ones around. Whereas if you call Comic X, they know you might have already decided on Comic X. But we might know someone similar for less. Ask us. We’re happy to do what we can.

Last year a new client told us they wanted a comedian but an agency (not the comic’s agent, just some middleman) told them $5,000. I’m friends with that comic and said I’m sure they’d be happy to get $5,000, but since it was beyond their budget, now the comic’s revenue was zero (it was a Sunday). I think we agreed on $2,500. The agency? They’d rather occasionally get the comic $5,000 and look important to the comic, who’d never know that they turned down $2,500.

Making sure that the comedians you hire are clean is often a main concern. And it’s why I got into this business and founded The Ivy League of Comedy— people were saying “You’re clean but the other comics at the club weren’t. Where are the all-clean shows?” There weren’t any, so I started putting them together.

We do shows in churches and synagogues, including for some very devout audiences. We’ve been doing this a long time. I can’t absolutely guarantee that a comedian won’t use the S word in a theatre show, for example, but it’s quite unlikely to happen in a house of worship. We’re all very experienced clean comedians. Do note that some of us are clean when it’s appropriate, and not clean when that’s allowed or called-for. So if you saw one of us curse or do edgy material in a comedy club, that’s not the act you’ll be getting from us.

But to be clear, our shows aren’t for children. Kids won’t understand a lot of the jokes and they’ll get bored, so we recommend our shows for ages 14 and up.

We can, but we recommend against it. I (Shaun Eli, the owner) really don’t like roasting unless the person being made fun of specifically asks for it in a private conversation. Most people don’t like being picked on. At a comedy show they may play along to avoid further embarrassment, so you don’t know that they were unhappy about it.

Yeah, that’s kind of the point- corporate comedians are funny without profanity or cringy topics! And it’s why I formed The Ivy League of Comedy. There’s nothing inherently funnier about dirty or edgy comedy. Sometimes a curse word helps a joke, but if the joke can’t survive without it, it’s probably not a very good joke.

Sometimes the laughter comes from the shock value of a dirty word or phrase rather than from something funny or clever. That’s not what we do.

There’s obviously overlap between a clean comedian and a corporate comedian. A clean comedian would be any comedian who avoids curse words and edgy topics. A corporate comedian should be clean but also have experience with corporate audiences and corporate norms and practices.

Shaun Eli, the founder and head of The Ivy League of Comedy, is a working comic with a Wharton education. He worked in finance for almost two decades so he understands businesses. He’s learned that the same audience might have a different reaction to jokes depending on whether they’re told at a corporate conference or a comedy club. For example, a corporate comic should be self-assured. Self-deprecating humor could work well at a comedy club, but at a corporate event you don’t want a comedian to be a schlub whose entire act is putting himself down. You’d want more mainstream humor.

What equipment does a comedian need to perform at a hotel banquet? A hotel or banquet hall probably has it all. We need a hand-held microphone (and a back-up mic, and if wireless an actual second mic, not just a battery pack). A stage and stage lighting are helpful, but if you don’t have stage lighting we can talk, before the performance, about how to light the room. Ideally the comedian should be lit from the front and the rest of the room should be dark. With any luck the light switches can make that happen (but sometimes the lights are either all on or all off, or they’re in rows). We’ll figure it out and make it work. If necessary you can rent or buy a spotlight, but those circumstances are rare. If you have further questions, ask us at The Ivy League of Comedy and we’ll be happy to guide you.

Yes, most of the comedians in The Ivy League of Comedy have experience hosting corporate events, and many of us can also emcee an awards ceremony or run an auction (at least one of us is a trained auctioneer). Please ask this before we hire someone. I once showed up at a charity gig and most of the way through the show they asked me to auction off a couple of items. I’d never done it before and frankly I was a bit nervous. But I came up with some jokes that worked well for the items being auctioned.

They had me auctioning off the items that nobody bid on in the silent auction, and they were quite happy with how it worked out. I think we sold all but one, and remember that these were items that nobody had bid on.

Our roster of clean comedians, with videos and bios, is on our Hire Comedians page. Many of us from The Ivy League of Comedy have experience in certain industries. By way of example, I (Shaun Eli) worked in finance for almost 20 years so I’m pretty good for those audiences. I understand that business more than the average person. Others of us were attorneys* or worked in engineering, advertising, architecture, publishing, education, etc. But it may not be necessary. I did a show a couple of years ago for a pharmaceutical company and had jokes about their new product. They were quite surprised. How’d I even know about it? I was on their website and read the press release (I had also read their annual report).

* Plenty of attorneys. It’s probably the most common former profession for stand-up comedians, at least in the NYC area. I wrote an article about lawyers who became comedians.

Yes. Right here on The Ivy League of Comedy’s website we have videos and bios for the comedians we work with. Mostly what we show are people performing on late-night TV. It might not be the jokes you’d get at your event but it gives you an idea of their style. And the lighting and sound are perfect. We’re not going to give you a clip from a cell phone camera in the back of a comedy club, with wait staff walking by, patrons talking, and other noises and distractions. We all have better clips than that.

The Ivy League of Comedy performs clean, clever comedy. Our comedians vary in style- some emphasize stories, others are more one-liner type comics, some are a mix. Some are observational, while others talk about relationships or their lives. All are hilarious. That's why we're booked for corporate events, financial institutions, industry events, charity fundraisers, houses of worship, theatres and private parties. It’s just what you’re looking for!

The length of a comedy performance depends on what you’re looking for. A full, 3-4 comedian show in a theatre from The Ivy League of Comedy is typically around 90 minutes. Plus, if you want post-show Q&A, however long that lasts. Sometimes it’s 3 questions. Our longest Q&A went on for around 45 minutes, but that’s not typical.

For a corporate show, which is usually one comedian, we recommend 20-30 minutes. Not really longer, because it’s not the main focus of the event and your attendees have already probably spent all day sitting and listening to people talk. We’ve had comedians booked for just ten minutes, but usually it’s longer than that.

For a charity event, it depends. If the comedy is the main focus of the evening, and it’s 2-4 comedians, 90 minutes. If the evening also consists of speeches, workshops or other activities, then shorter.

We can make recommendations based on our knowledge and experience, but it’s your event. How long do you want it to be?

After dinner is best. Having a comedian perform during dinner is not ideal. The Ivy League of Comedy recommends having comedy after dinner, because we don’t want a hungry audience. During dessert is acceptable if the desserts have already been served and they’re on the table.

FYI one of the most distracting things I’ve experienced at a comedy show was a dessert cart. The server whispers to every person, everyone else at the table is trying to hear, and every other table wonders “Are we next? Why are they going to that table? Why not our table? Is there ice cream? Is anything gluten-free...”

After the awards would be okay if it’s not too late, but often after an awards ceremony people just want to go home (or to the bar).

Comedy works better later in the day, so after lunch, or as a mid-afternoon break. It’s better not to start with comedy early in the morning.

Of course; comedians from The Ivy League of Comedy have experience with corporate and sales conferences. Shaun Eli, the founder of The Ivy League of Comedy, majored in marketing at Wharton so he understands business. Whether you open or close the conference with comedy depends on timing, as comedy isn’t ideal early in the morning. Let people wake up first. If you don’t want to close your event with comedy then have it sometime after lunch. Or, if it’s a multi-day event, after dinner on the first night.

Typically The Ivy League of Comedy recommends booking comedians at least three months in advance, but it depends on your event. If you have a last-minute need, call (don’t email or text) and we’ll see what we can do. In general we suggest that it’s not so much about us as about giving you enough time to market your event to your audience/subscribers/congregation/donors. And three months is good for that.

In our two decades in business, The Ivy League of Comedy has learned that the busiest times for comedy shows are in December and around the Jewish holiday of Purim. So while we work with enough great comics that we can find appropriate comedians for your event, it is better to book earlier, especially for Thursday through Saturday evenings. But the best thing to do is to give us a call at (914) 487-3866 or to email Shaun (at) TheIvyLeagueofComedy (dot) com with your proposed date(s).

People tell me it’s funny. I think it’s just me. Also my lawyer has a good sense of humor, although I don’t know that anything funny was his contribution. My contract is written in plain English and it’s friendly. I specifically told my attorney that I didn’t want a one-sided contract because I didn’t want push-back or to have to negotiate anything.

It also covers a lot of contingencies, because, well, it was explained to me that a contract starts out at a half-page, and then every time something goes wrong you augment your contract so it doesn’t happen again. And then after ten years the contract is really long. Mine actually isn’t.

But here’s an example— I added a clause to The Ivy League of Comedy contract to say that the show may not be moved from indoors to outdoors without my express written permission which I’m unlikely to give. Why? Because someone moved a show from a nice room with a sound system to an outdoor balcony where the audience was only to either side, and the sound system had only one speaker. We ended up pointing one way, and shouting our act in the other direction. It was a really good show, but it could’ve been much better.

And our tech rider isn’t onerous either. It’s divided into Must Have (sound system, seated audience, stuff like that) and Would Be Nice To Have (stage lighting, stage, etc.).

Yes, The Ivy League of Comedy can book the entire line-up, and unlike most comedy shows, every comedian on ours is a headliner. That’s what most of our theatre and charity shows are. We handle all the coordination with every comedian, so you get a complete, turn-key show and deal with just one person.

For a typical corporate event you can probably afford three comedians but you also probably don’t need to, because it’s unlikely you want that long of a show. But if your event is specifically an evening of entertainment rather than having a comedian perform as part of a conference, of course we can book multiple acts for a full, 90-minute show.

Depending on your event, it might be beneficial to have more than one comedian. A corporate event is typically one comedian for maybe a half-hour. A golf club show or a charity fundraiser is often 3 comedians for a 90 minute show.

But it doesn't have to be the typical comedy club structure of an opener for 15 minutes, a middle act for 30 and a headliner for 45. That's just how comedy club shows in America have evolved, partially just because of the economics of running a comedy club. And audiences have grown to accept it (not like they have a lot of choice). The Ivy League of Comedy shows are all headliners. All very experienced comedians, any of whom could easily perform great material for over an hour. It doesn't cost that much more money to have a way stronger show. In fact it may not cost any more money, because the guy in charge isn't greedy. He isn't lusting after a bigger boat. He doesn't even have a boat.

The comedians from The Ivy League of Comedy can weave your theme into our show, but custom-written material, if done right (and we want to do it right) takes time and it’s expensive. You probably don’t need that. It’s likely that a comedian we work with— we’ve all got more than two decades of experience— has a joke or two that touches on what you do, or will come up with something. And that’s really all you need. You don’t want it too much about you, because frankly you want to be entertained and take your mind off work.

As far as core values, most of us specialize in making people laugh, not delivering a message. The theme of a show from The Ivy League of Comedy is laughter.

The Ivy League of Comedy follows the industry standard, which is 50% on booking and the balance due at the event (a check or ACH transfer). We also take credit cards, but we have to pass our credit card company’s fee onto you, which is around 3.3%.

We will do everything we can to hold a date for you while we work out the details, but some comics are in high demand and won’t hold a date too long. So if there’s someone specific that you want, see if you can expedite it. We’re responsive— I usually get a contract out within 24 hours.

If it’s weather, that’s no problem at all (well, it kind of stinks, but we deal with it). If it’s low registration, that’s really on you. As we hope you understand, The Ivy League of Comedy can’t be responsible for your registrations. If it’s far enough in advance it may be no problem or we may keep the deposit. If it’s close to the show date, you might be stuck, although anything we can save from canceling flights or hotels would go back to you. It really depends on the comic. Some will say they didn’t have anything else for that date, so it’s no loss. Others have passed up other opportunities, or they just want to get paid for having planned for the event. As the guy in charge here, I’m fine with giving back my portion.

To avoid a distracted audience at a comedy show, we try not to start the performance when people are still eating, but if some people are still on dessert it’s not that drastic. We do require the audience to be seated, and I don’t really recall having people get up and network ever being a problem. Sometimes audiences get chatty, but it’s rare with our comics, because we’re funny.

And we at The Ivy League of Comedy are all experienced at dealing with all sorts of circumstances. That’s the benefit of two things— experience and common sense. The common sense comes into play because most of us are smart enough to anticipate what could happen, and figure out how we’d respond to it if it does. Risk management isn’t only for risk managers.

For what it’s worth, hecklers are pretty rare at corporate, theatre or charity shows. The style of our experienced comics tends to discourage it. If necessary, we deal with it.

We’d love it if you can arrange the room for us, The Ivy League of Comedy, but we know the world doesn’t revolve around our performance. If you can, generally the stage should be along the long wall. The audience should be as close to the stage as possible (really, like starting at 3 feet) and the tables/chairs should be as close together as possible. Not spread around the room. We really want the audience up front and close together.

If you get there and there’s a lot of room upfront, don’t start moving the rows forward. That takes forever. Instead, take the back row of chairs and move it to the front. Then take the second-from-back row and make it the second row. Etc.

And please pay attention to sight lines. Everyone needs to be able to see the comedian. If some seats won’t be able to see the comedian if the comedian moves back and forth, please mention it. They may ask you to tape the stage to delineate where they shouldn’t go. That said, most of us don’t pace around much.

If your event requires a dance floor space in front of the stage, well, that’s not ideal but we’ll make it work. The comedian might choose to stand at the front of the dance floor instead of on the stage. Please make sure the mic cord is long enough to permit this, and that the lighting can accommodate it, if possible.

We at The Ivy League of Comedy don’t pick on our audiences but some of us may ask questions to speak with the audience (we call it "crowd work.") If you don’t want any crowd work, please tell us. It’s not a big deal at all.

It’s nice to have someplace private and indoors to relax before the performance. For a house of worship it’s often the rabbi’s/pastor’s study or office, or a library. Theatres and performing arts centers have green rooms, but really even a chair backstage is better than nothing. For a corporate event there’s usually somewhere to sit quietly. We’ve sometimes been stuck in storage rooms, which isn’t horrible, but we don’t want to be in an active, noisy kitchen or hallway. Comedians from The Ivy League of Comedy aren’t picky but we do want to relax before a performance.

Expectations for food/drink/parking depend on the comedian. If we’re driving we will need a place to park, but if there’s only a parking lot two blocks away then that’s where we’ll be parking. If the event is around dinnertime we probably want something to eat. Most of us aren’t that picky, and if you’re not serving food then we could see what’s available to be delivered. These days that’s almost anything. Certainly most of us want a couple of bottles of water (and not those tiny stubby ones).

A couple of us are vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free. One of us is on a no-carb diet. That’s pretty much it.

And a stool on stage, where we can put down the water, is useful.

For what it’s worth I don’t work with divas. I thought it was surprising when a comic asked for both sandwiches and a fruit and cheese platter backstage, but the venue had no problem with it. I ended up eating most of the cheese so I was glad she’d asked for it.

Sure, our comedians can avoid topics you don't want as part of their comedy routine, but tell us in advance! No comedian wants to be about to go on stage and be handed a list of topics to avoid, and have to remember this when they're performing. The comedians from The Ivy League of Comedy have decades of experience and a lot of material on a lot of different topics.

If it’s for a theatre show, we can get there before the doors open, which is typically only a half-hour before show time. We’re not picky— sound and light check is usually “Can you see me? Can you hear me? Okay, see you in forty-five minutes.” Sometimes we may ask for an adjustment— house lights down but not off, or louder sound. But it’s quick.

If it’s for a corporate or charity event, and it’s been going on all day, the comedian probably won’t show up several hours early. So we’ll be relying on you to make sure the sound works. Please have someone available to speak about the lighting, someone who knows how to adjust it. And someone should be listening at the start of the performance, so if the comedian wants it louder they can do that.

If it’s too loud we can talk more softly or hold the mic farther away, but if it’s not loud enough there’s not much we can do except ask you to turn it up (which we may arrange in advance by agreeing on hand signals so as not to interrupt the performance). Comedians generally like it loud, so we can speak softly but get loud for emphasis when we want to.

It’s your event, so you tell us. Comedians from The Ivy League of Comedy vary in what we wear on stage, so if you have specific requirements (coat-and-tie, black tie, no sneakers or t-shirts, or whatever) please tell us before hiring us. Every once in a while one of us has lost or put on weight, or is traveling and won’t be back home before the gig, and doesn’t want to get a call the day before saying “Oh, by the way, wear a suit.” Note that I’m a guy so this paragraph talks about men’s clothing. The same holds for the female equivalents.

They’re not for little kids, because they won’t understand the show and they’ll get bored. Best estimate is 14 and up, with the proviso that a 14 year old probably won’t appreciate the show as much as the adults will. But in general we try to avoid cultural references that only certain groups or ages will understand.

So far in more than two decades of running The Ivy League of Comedy a comedian getting sick has happened only a few times (we’re healthy people— we get a lot of sleep). We have a roster of good, responsive comedians so when it has happened we got someone else very quickly. If a comedian cancels, I never want to be accused of bait-and-switch so I will try to get someone at least a little more famous, even if I lose money on it.

And here is something we do that no one else does- and it's in my contract. My contract says that if we show up with fewer comedians than the contract calls for, we will endeavor to give you the same length and quality of show, but will pro-rate the fee based on the number of comedians. What that means is, if it's a 90-minute, 3-comic show, and someone gets sick at the last minute, we will give you the same 90 minute show but you'll pay only 2/3 of the price. That's one great benefit of my working with true headliners- we can all perform top quality material for much longer than we're expected to.

A corporate imposter is someone introduced as an expert, but he or she is not. Instead they just get more and more ridiculous until the audience slowly realizes they’re being put on. I dislike this, so I don’t book corporate imposters. But if you want one I can make an introduction and leave you two to figure things out without me.

They will probably tell you at the event. The intro should be short— usually just “Please welcome ~” or mentioning one or two of their credits or things they’ve done. “She’s appeared on The Tonight Show, please welcome ~” or “He’s just back from a tour with Armed Forces Entertainment, please welcome ~.”

Please do not stand there and read the comedian’s biography out loud. I know that’s often standard for corporate events. For a comedian it’s not only unnecessary, it slows things down. We want to get on stage and get laughs as fast as possible.

And one more thing— the audience needs to know, in advance, that a comedian is coming. It’s not a good idea for you to surprise them with it. You want to build anticipation.

I’m thrilled you read all the way to the bottom! I listed questions we’re often asked, and I wanted to include as much as possible. If nothing else, it’s good salesmanship and risk management.