I worked six nights a week for many years, about 40 in fact, in night clubs and dinner clubs, some of which I owned.
Also, for several years I traveled to almost every small town in Louisiana doing big shows at nursing homes. We funded the shows with advertising sales to local merchants. It was quite lucrative, and it didn't cost the nursing homes or residents anything. I laid out and printed a program for the show and the merchants' advertisements were in it, along with photos of previous shows and stories about myself and my partner Dean Mathis. We had the nursing home mail one to every family of each resident. They also sent letters before the shows inviting families and friends. And we and they put up posters and got publicity in the local papers and radio stations.
We also used residents of the homes to play "parts" of Grandpa Jones, Minnie Pearl, etc. All they had to do was wear the glasses or the hat with the price tag and tell everyone what was for supper or say "Howdeeeee, I'm so proud to be here!".
I went to dollar stores and bought teddy bears and gave one to each of the ladies while I sang "Teddy Bear". We got the activities directors and administrators involved by having them dance with the residents when possible or by helping us with a song. For example we might do Mustang Sally and have them lead everyone in the Ride Sally Ride part.
We did no more than two shows a year at the same facility, usually one. Our shows were generally the biggest thing they had happen all year. Sometimes we just had the two of us. I played arranger and Dean played piano, fiddle and pedal steel and we both sang. On really big ones, we sometimes used a guitar player, often Dean's son who is a REAL picker. With the aid of the vocal harmonizer we were able to do a few of Dean's big hits, like "I Like Bread and Butter". I did the high parts by using the female voice an octave up.
A few times Wild Bill Semilivemusic went with us too.
It was so much fun and so gratifying, but it also involved a lot of work, selling the ads, designing and printing the programs, traveling up to 150 miles one way. One time we were asked to visit the room of a young girl who had no control over her arms and legs. Bill took his guitar and we sang several Elvis songs to her. She had his pictures on every wall. She was crying tears of joy. So amazing for us, to be so fortunate as to bring a little light into her life. I'll never forget that.
What got me started relating this is that we would sometimes book two to three shows in one day. ONE time we did four. One was at 10:30 a.m., the next at 1:30 p.m., the third at 4:00 p.m. and the last one at 7:00 p.m. All Christmas parties. The facilities were about 20 miles apart from each other. It was a hectic day! Never again!
There are lots of ways to make money playing music! We grossed from $1,000. to $3,000. per show. Take away transportation costs, sometimes motel, food, etc., and the net was reduced somewhat but still really good.
Now if you figured my hours in doing all the program work and sales work. . .?? But it was still worth it, mostly to see the joy we brought to the residents and their families.
Sorry to ramble so, but as Gary says, I love this business!
P.S. Oh my goodness, I just googled and the old web site I made for this is still live. Haven't checked it in years.
http://donnymason.tripod.com/
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