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Puddles Pity Party Books Series Of Live Streaming Shows, Takes Meet & Greets Virtual
Michael Tullberg/Getty Images – Puddles Pity Party
performs at El Rey Theatre on Sept. 1, 2018, in Los Angeles.
Puddles Pity Party, known by some as the “sad clown with the golden voice,” recently brought some cheer to fans with the announcement that he’s putting on a series of live stream shows, along with special VIP Meet & Greets.
The beloved performer had just unveiled the routing for a May-June tour in early March when the world as we knew it came crashing to a halt, with South By Southwest called off the next day, followed by nearly every other festival and tour being canceled or put on hold. The spring tour would have included stops at Denver’s Soiled Dove, Fox Tucson Theatre in Arizona, Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre, New York’s Gramercy Theatre and Philadelphia’s City Winery.
Now fans can experience all the emotions of Puddles’ show at home, with streaming shows scheduled every other Saturday between May 30 and July 25. Each event starts at 5:30 p.m. EST and Puddles has promised to deliver a different hour-long set each evening. Fans can make song requests via [email protected], with requests considered at least two weeks prior to the show date.
“I spend most of the year on the road, performing live shows. Not only is it my main source of income, but it also allows me to try new things in front of an audience,” Puddles told Pollstar via email. “In the past few months of not being on the road, I’ve really missed engaging in that workshop of regular performances,” Puddles Pity Party said. “What I like about the idea of a series of streamed shows is that it creates a deadline and something for me to look forward to creatively. My only other means of coping with quarantine has been watching back to back Costner movies, which I’ve really enjoyed. But it’s time to get back in the fray.”
Tickets, priced at $10 for spectators and $25 for patrons, are available via Veeps. Fans can also buy passes for the entire summer series – $50 for spectators and $125 for patrons. Ticketbuyers will also get the chance to watch the episode later at their convenience if they can’t make the 5:30 p.m. time.
“A lot of the platforms charge for a ticket and then put in a ‘tip jar.’ If you’re enjoying it and want to support the artist doing more of these, that’s the way you do it. We don’t have a tip jar, but we’re giving fans an opportunity to help out the cause,” manager Stuart Ross of Red Light Management said of the patron rate.
Puddles is selling tickets to virtual VIP meet and greets the day after each show, yet another example of how the live industry is taking a creative approach to putting on events while we quarantine and wait out the pandemic.
“The meet and greets at Puddles’ shows have always been a really big part of the fan experience,” Ross said. “He’d do a meet and greet before the show, which there’s a cost to that, where he’ll play a few songs on acoustic guitar, and say hi to everybody and take selfies. After the show he’d stand in the lobby and people would line up and get their picture taken with him, which he didn’t charge for, but there was always a high demand for it. So when we found this platform [On Location Live, which is using Looped for the backend platform] we decided we’re going to try this.”
Ross explained with On Location Live, VIP ticketbuyers don’t have to “wait in line” for their chance to meet Puddles. “They actually get a call or a notification at some point, they pick up and then they’re face to face with the artist. It looks like they have solved an awful lot of the problems about doing meet and greets remotely.”
Priced at $35, the VIP Meet & Greet experience will give fans 1 minute to chat with Puddles and take a selfie via the app. THe VIP tickets are limited to $200 per event.
“Of course, Puddles doesn’t speak,” Ross adds, “but he finds a way to communicate with people.”
Puddles says, “Meet & Greet sessions have always been an integral part of the Puddles Pity Party shows and I really miss them. I feel like the virtual meet & greet is the best way to stay connected to the P3ers since we can’t enjoy fellowship in a theatre setting. Social media can be impersonal and a lot to keep up with. These special meet & greet sessions allow for some quality face time and a virtual Puddles Cuddle.”
Box office reports submitted to Pollstar for Puddles Pity Party include a Nov. 2, 2019, show at The Waterfront at Harrah’s Atlantic City that sold 748 tickets and grossed $31,416.
Tickets for the live stream can be purchased via Veeps HERE, and the VIP Meet & Greet tickets can be purchased via On Location Live HERE.
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