Internship Portfolio Comedy Works Inc. Antoinette DeGeorge Spring Semester 2010
I. Introduction:
This semester I held a position this semester as a Marketing and Public Relations intern at Comedy Works Inc., Colorado’s premier comedy club. I was fortunate enough to work under their Marketing Director, Susan Collyar, who has been with the company for 17 years and has a wealth of knowledge on the business. I chose this internship because as a dancer I have a lot of interest in the performing arts and this was an avenue to bring my work in communication together with a personal passion of mine. Through my internship I gained experience in business etiquette, learned how to target the best media outlets for specific demographics, and how to generate the largest response from an ad campaign. Another focus was how to effectively use popular social networking and blogging sites to reach a wide audience and what kind of language generates the greatest response. I also had the quality of my “phone voice” brought to my attention, an asset I had never considered that can be a valuable business tool. I also had the benefit of coming along to casual business meetings with representatives from the Westword and the Onion newspapers. Being able to observe how Susan interacted with their representatives was a great example of how important it is to establish a good relationship with individuals you work with on a regular basis. I saw the power of Susan’s likeability work in her favor in numerous situations throughout the semester.
This is me at Comedy Works with comedian Ben Bailey, my boyfriend, and best friend. We are all huge fans of his show Cash Cab, so it was so exciting to be able to see him perform his stand up and meet him in person!
II. Work Samples Some of my projects included blogging and social networking weekly for upcoming comedians, brainstorming and designing marketing plans to target the varying demographic of each comedian, creating and distributing concierge packages to surrounding hotels, updating comedian bios on the website, updating the hold script used heard when customers are placed on hold, breaking down the cost of marketing materials to deduce how much was spent per comedian, and trading with local businesses. Susan said the amount of trade I produced surpassed any other intern they have ever had. I also created a spreadsheet with information on over 100 businesses for them to use in the future. The major comedian that I headed completely on my own was Bo Burnham. Bo, at 19 years old, is the youngest comedian to ever record his own comedy central special and requested that his shows allow 18+, an incredibly rare occurrence at Comedy Works. Due to this unfamiliar demographic, a lot of trust and responsibility was placed on my shoulders to reach the younger age group. I arranged to have enter-to-win boxes placed at several local colleges, put fliers up at dozens of high schools and colleges, and arranged a promotion in the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria Campus. This promotion included table tents on all of the tables in the Tivoli, a large banner, and a TV that screened Bo’s youtube videos. The Tivoli sees nearly 40,000 people per day so this was a huge success in promoting the comedian to a demographic that the company does not usually deal with. Comedian Biographies – Using information sent from comedian’s publicists to update their bios for the Comedy Works website.
Chelsea Handler Chelsea is the star of Chelsea Lately, her own show on E!. Now, a three-time published author, she has written the best seller "My Horizontal Life: a Collection of One Night Stands," "Are you there Vodka? It's Me Chelsea," and her latest book, “CHELSEA CHELSEA BANG BANG,” set to hit the bookshelves March 9th. As one of the nation's fastest-rising female stand-ups, Chelsea has performed to sold-out audiences at venues and festivals across the country, including, most recently, the prestigious Carnegie Hall. Her comedy mixes fearless honesty, ironic riffs and selfdeprecations with an abundance of always fresh material. Chelsea was the star of Oxygen's Girls Behaving Badly and has starred in several films, including National Lampoon's Cattle Call and has made appearances on Comedy Central's Reno 911, ABC'S My Wife & Kids, FOX's The Bernie Mac Show and The Practice
Hold Scripts – Taking information from comedian biographies and formatting it into a conversational script to be recorded and used when customers are placed on hold. Thank you for calling Comedy Works Downtown! Denver’s premier comedy club located in downtown Denver’s historic Larimer Square. Comedy Works has shows Tuesdays through Thursday at 8, Friday there are two shows one at 8 and one at 10 and on Saturday we have three shows at 6:30 8:30 and 10:30, Sunday we have one show at 7. Comedy Works is just minutes from 1-25 at 1226 15 th Street, that’s between Lawrence and Larimer on 15th. Do you know where to park? Comedy Works offers Parking validation across the street at Writer’s Square Parking Garage and it is only $4 a car after 5pm. Ask your customer service representative for details. Come See Dave Attell, March 19th and 20th. Known best for Comedy Central's Insomniac with Dave Attell, Dave was recently named one of the “25 Funniest People in America” by Entertainment Weekly Magazine. He has also appeared in Chris Rock’s film "Pootie Tang” and his own half-hour Comedy Central Presents special. Don’t wait; tickets are going fast for Dave Attell, March 19 th and 20th. Join us for the YouTube sensation Bo Burnham. Named one of the “12 Rising Stars of Comedy” by Entertainment Weekly, Bo is the youngest comedian to ever record a Comedy Central Presents special! Since Bo is just a kid himself, all shows will allow 18 years and older, and ALL AGES Saturday at 6:30 (recommended for 13 years and up). Don’t miss out on the witty and fun Bo Burnham April 1st – 3rd, buy your tickets today! Come spend the night with Steve Rannazzisi. Actor/comedian Rannazzisi got his first taste of television success as one of the smart-ass cast members on MTV's Punk'd. Now, you can see him on FX’s hit show The League or in the 2009 blockbuster comedy Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Don’t wait, reserve your spot today for Steve Rannazzisi April 8-10! Advertising Allocation – Going through ads published to promote upcoming acts and recording how much money was spent per comedian for that medium. PUBLICATION: Westword WEEK: February 4, 2010 11 x 2 ACT Jo Koy Aziz Ansari Norm McDonald Kevin Nealon Joan Rivers Howie Mandel
SIZE .16 .16 .16 .16 .16 .16
ALLOCATION
ALLOCATION $94.16 $94.16 $94.16 $94.16 $94.16 $94.16
TOTALS
1.0
$565
Concierge Letters – Create updated letters to be used in the packages going to nearby hotel concierges. Packages include 10-15 free tickets for guests, calendar of events for 2 upcoming months, fliers, and cards from Susan.
Greetings from your friends at Comedy Works! Our Larimer Square club at 15th & Larimer is open six nights a week and we look forward to treating your guests to a memorable evening. On a monthly basis, we will provide you with updated calendars and information on upcoming shows. We can be reached at (303) 595-3637. If you are assisting with a reservation, this is the number to call as well. Headliners this month include: Joy Koy: February 3rd – 7th (E!'s Chelsea Lately, Comedy Central Presents: Jo Koy.) Pat Dixon: February 10th -14th Valentine’s Day Specials! (Comedy Central Presents: Pat Dixon, Premium Blend, Very Funny Live!, and the Fox News program Red-Eye.) Aziz Ansari: February 19th and 20th (Parks and Recreation, I Love You Man, Funny People) Ben Bailey: February 25th – 27th (Host Cash Cab and Cash Cab: After Dark on the Discovery Channel, Comedy Central's Premium Blend, The World Stands Up) We truly appreciate your time and recommendation. We have included passes to hand out to customers and co-workers. If there is anything else you would like us to include, please let us know. Sincerely, Susan Collyar Marketing/Comedy Works 720-881-2422/ susan@comedyworks.com
IV. Exit Interview After conducting the final interview with Susan I gained a lot of confidence about my abilities. She described my overall performance as “really good,” going on to specify that I came in more than my required hours, applied myself during all the time I spent there, was able to multi-task and complete many projects simultaneously, I always finished what I started, and was self-motivated and able to work even without specific direction or supervision. She also said I asked intelligent questions when they were relevant, but was able to work through new or unfamiliar tasks on my own, which she appreciated as it made her able to focus on her own work by not having to “baby” me through mine. She noted my most major strength was my phone voice and etiquette. She said generally interns are not professional on the phone which limits the tasks she can assign them. She appreciated how my demeanor reflected the company and that she could trust me to speak to important business contacts. She gave the example of an ad campaign I researched on advertising on coffee cup sleeves. I was able to contact the company and get all the information necessary for her to make an educated decision and I did it in a professional way. She had a difficult time pinpointing an area in which I needed to grow. She came up with the purpose of writing materials I produced, saying that my writing skills were great, but for the purposes specifically related to Comedy Works they could be improved. She said knowing what information was relevant to use in many cases can only be gained through industry experience. Susan offered a lot of new insight on my abilities and reinforced many of my own beliefs about my character and work ethic. Her perspective definitely increased my confidence in my own abilities and how beneficial I can be to whatever company I work for.
VI. Networking Contacts/ Informational Interviews Cheryl Carter – Director of Marketing for the Auraria Higher Education Center Cheryl was the main contact I worked with in creating the ad campaign for Bo Burnham in the Tivoli Student Union. Cheryl’s position oversees all other marketing positions associated with any school or department on the campus. Her job entails keeping all information posted current and working with a wide array of organizations and student groups to book and promote activities on campus. She said her work activity is fairly constant, but she is always working on different projects, which is part of the appeal. People skills are essential for this line of work. Michelle Gibson – Publicist at Comedy Works Inc. and Owner of the marketing company Rock Your World Michelle’s job is to create media kits for comedians that come through Comedy Works as well as a wide variety of clientele for her own business. Similar to Cheryl, her work activity on a daily basis is constant, but from day to day she always has a different experience. As I learned in my experience interning for the company, each comedian has a different style and thus a different demographic. This is appealing to Michelle because her work is never monotonous because it is always changing. People skills and effective communication is highly important in this field as word choice in press releases can make or break the success of the event or person being promoted.
VII. Thank You Note Dear Susan and Alyson, I wanted to take a second to thank you both so much for my experience at Comedy Works this semester. Your guidance and help along the way has taught me many valuable lessons about not only the industry, but myself and my personal skills as well. I feel like I will be able to take the knowledge I’ve gained and apply it to whatever job comes next for me, whatever it may be! I am so grateful for all your patience throughout this whole experience, taking your time to guide me through all the various projects and building my knowledge from the ground up in some cases. I feel like I’ve definitely learned the ropes of your business and that will put me one step ahead in the next venture of my life. You are both amazing, beautiful, and talented women and I hope we can keep in touch in the future! Best Regards,
Antoinette