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Tours de Farce: Alphabet Soup
And we can understand the confusion, for at one time we only considered those applicants that had attended an unaccredited college or university. Yes, there was a time when you needed a B.A., a B.A.A. or a B.S. degree to properly comprehend the tour date sciences involved with entering dates for Mia Doi Todd or Dog Fashion Disco.
But as life became more complex, so did the art of tour date gathering, causing us to seek out only the best and the brightest in the land to manage schedules for bands like Bon Jovi and Pearl Jam as well as artists like Mark Hummel, Kool Keith and John Wesley Harding. Our work force was made up of M.B.A.s to handle changes in the schedules for Stone Sour and Rasputina, B.M.O.C.s to catalog the support acts for Guns N’ Roses and B.M.F.s to liaison with the agents and managers representing
However, we soon discovered that having a fancy diploma from Harvard or Yale wasn’t enough to handle the influx of dates, cities and venues that comprise the touring schedules for arena shows for Cher or club shows for Popa Chubby. So we turned to the world of medicine so that we could fill our miles and miles of cube farms with dependable workers that not only could enter dates for Bela Fleck & The Flecktones and Shemekia Copeland, but also understand the underlying physiological components of each venue and market. Yes, there was a time when we were piled high and deep with PhDs, and M.D.s as well as workers possessing dental degrees, veterinarian degrees, even third degrees, thus elevating the tour date sciences to the high standards that it is known for today.
But it didn’t stop there. As the tour date sciences grew, we reached out to various scientific specialties so that we could better understand the routing mechanics and secondary market hydraulics involved when scheduling dates for Tuck & Patti or adding shows for Taj Mahal and Ricky Skaggs. And although not definitely a work requirement, an all purpose doctorate degree encompassing Cartography, Radiology, Astrology, Zoology as well as years of Yoga experience (for those hard to master physical positions while dealing with the concert industry) is definitely a plus when applying for work at Pollstar.com.
In other words, you don’t have to have be a C.R.A.Z.Y. to work here, but it helps.