Recently I was approached by a music and club promoter who will remain unnamed, no free press for you pal. He invited me to perform at a local club here in Queens, and it really caught my interest. The venue looks really cool and I wanted in.
I wrote him on Facebook, and we exchanged phone numbers. A few days later he called me up and asked me if I wanted to do the show. I explained that I did and then he inundated me with information about the arrangement. I tried to catch everything, but he was just dropping way too much info on me.
At the end of it all, he says listen man, give me your stage name, and your home address and I’m going to get these tickets printed up for you. They’ll come to your home address and then you can begin selling them. I replied that I wasn’t clear on all the details and asked if he could recap everything for me in writing via email. He replied, well we usually just do things over the phone, that’s our way. Go ahead and give me your home address. I replied once again, I respect that, and I’d love to work with you guys, but I don’t feel comfortable giving my home address to someone that I just met over the phone. Please send me all of the details via email so that I may verify who I am dealing with.
Now he begins his attempt to intimidate and strong arm me. “Hey man, we do things our way, if you want to be part of this show, you gotta do it this way. It doesn’t sound like you want to be part of the show. You don’t wanna be on the show? That’s what it sounds like to me. So what’s up?”
He was starting to piss me off, the mere belief that his tone and method would work on me was a huge insult. I’m a Boricua who was raised in the South Bronx. I’ve had guns pointed at my face. Blades put on my neck. I’ve been jumped more than once in my life time. I went to boot camp. I survived several street gang initiations. Give me a break, homie. I kept my cool and I replied, you are right, it doesn’t sound like I want to be a part of this show. You expect me to give you my home address under this pretense that you are going to feature me at a show? Do I look like a doe eyed child to you, homie? Thank you for your time, and I hung up at that point.
Let me tell you something, I love to perform, and I’d love to get out there more. However, I will do it on my own terms, I will not bend over for you promoters. Your self appointed importance doesn’t mean a damn thing to me! Get the FOH!
Just a life long New Yorker sharing the journey through my lens. Please take note of a post’s date. The views I express here are subject to change and evolving as I grow and learn.
too many jerks in the biz! Stay strong and true to your talent
Absolutely Mariana, no fool like that will get me to bend. I’ve seen way too many hustlers out there. I put this experience up for the younger generation who may not be brave enough to stand up for themselves. I don’t want jerks like this guy to take advantage of inexperienced people.
A lot of promoters who do indie showcases rely on the ticket sales by participants, but this guy sounds like a real lame. He should have had all of his golden rules in writing for you, and he def should be performing his job as customer service, because you are also a customer. Sorry that happened to you!
I was insulted that he even believed he could intimidate me.
I would NEVER give out my home address to ANYONE! And for him to not even think about putting anything in writing is shady.
and that’s why I told him to buzz off. LOL. See what I did there?