Concert Pulse: Comedians, The Bard Make An Entrance

David Vincent/AP, file – Bob Dylan
Les Vieilles Charrues Festival in Carhaix, western France.

Jim Gaffigan, Jeff Dunham and Bob Dylan have all submitted new data to Pollstar, thrusting them onto this week’s Global Concert Pulse chart.

The Rolling Stones finally fell off the chart so Paul McCartney is at No. 1 with $5,145,629 in average gross and 38,605 average tickets in 14 cities. He was followed by the usual suspects of Bruno Mars, Roger Waters, Guns N’ Roses and Lady Gaga.

The first new entry on the chart is the comedian Jim Gaffigan at No. 33, with an average gross of $456,906 across 11 cities. We have reports from three-night stands at Chicago Theatre in Chicago, The Wilbur in Boston, and Austin City Limits Live At Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. All three of those shows were well attended, but the biggest payday was the 5,921-capacity Chicago Theatre, which grossed more than $1 million Oct. 12-14, his highest report on the year.

While Gaffigan sold multiple nights in theatres, he also did arenas and had a very good night at Phillips Arena in Atlanta where he grossed $478,698 and reported 8,474 tickets moved.

Bob Dylan is the next new entry on the chart at No. 37 with an average gross of $352,945. His average ticket price was $92 and he reported 12 cities, including 5 nights at Beacon Theatre in New York, for a $1.5 million gross and 13,485 tickets reported. Mavis Staples opened nearly all of the Dylan dates in October and November.

The other comedian entering the chart this week is Jeff Dunham, who brought his puppets into 11 cities in the last few months and averaged a gross of $254,806, enough to get him to the No. 49 spot on the chart.

Both Gaffigan and Dunham, along with many other comedians on the list, Jerry Seinfeld (No. 27), Gabriel Iglesias (No. 50), and Ron White (No. 72) all kept average prices in the $50-$60 range. John Cleese (No. 63) went a bit over that with an average price of $82.

Other new entries on the chart this week are Alt-J at No. 53, Dream Theater at No. 69, and John McLaughlin / Jimmy Herring at No. 87.