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Hi. This is David Jackel on behalf of Expert Village, and I'm here to talk to you about
what to do if a booking person gets flaky with you when you're trying to book the show.
Now strange as it may sound, musicians can actually be a little flaky sometimes. So,
that being the case, you have to have a plan for dealing with it. If you're trying to book
a gig and the booking agent's flaky, that's bad. It's a bad sign. But if you've already
got the gig and the person's being flaky, then you're in a lot of trouble. Because then
you could get into a situation where you need to get some last minute information to the
person and then they're not taking your calls, and you're trying to find out something like,
"well, what time is load in?" And they don't tell you and you don't know what time to arrive.
So it's really important to have good communication. And some people are terrible communicators.
Part of it's because they're very busy. Often booking is not someone's primary job. So they're
not going to give you the attention that you think you deserve. So what to do if someone
gets flaky? Well one thing you don't want to do is be a pain. Don't keep on calling
and calling and calling. If someone's not answering your calls, it's not that they're
not getting them. It's that they're choosing not to answer. If you're running out of time,
what you should do is call the establishment itself. Probably talk to someone at the bar.
That's usually the case, and explain your situation and say, "hey, I'm in this band.
I'm playing on Thursday night. I've got to find out about load in. I can't reach the
booking person." The person at the bar may have the information anyway, in which case
you're going to be all set. And you may discover that the booking person's been fired. That's
why you haven't heard from the person. I've experienced that before. Or you may hear that
the person's on vacation or whatever. So, it's good to reach out beyond your initial
contact when you're doing this. And also, the people at the bar don't want to have to
deal with this problem. So they may get right in touch with the booking person and say,
"hey, answer this person's calls. We don't need them calling the bar." If you finally
make contact with the person that's being flaky, don't make a big deal out of it. Say,
"oh, it was just a miscommunication". Because even if it's their fault, which it is because
they're being flaky, you don't need to point that out and create a bad relationship. If
a person continues to flake out on you, let it go. Don't ever deal with them again. Take
it as a lesson and move on.