Source: Radio New Zealand
New Zealand audiences are “shocking” when it comes to buying tickets at the last minute and aren’t prepared to fork out for a show during tough times, making it harder than ever for artists, says comedian Tim Batt.
Batt, who has been working in the business for 15 years and hosts podcast The Worst Idea Of All Time , says times are “brutal”.
“It’s always been difficult to be a creative artist in New Zealand, but it honestly has never been harder from my perspective,” Batt told RNZ’s Morning Report .
Tim Batt is currently performing a series of shows across Australia.
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He said the costs of being a touring comedian include flights, accomodation, festival registration and marketing a show. Then, once tickets are being sold, the festival clips that ticket.
He said comedians, musicians and actors know what they signed up for, but that doesn’t make it easier.
“It’s not like we’re under any illusions getting into this professional pursuit, but it really has never been harder to keep your head afloat and do the thing that we want to do and put shows on for people than it is right now.
“All of these costs really do stack up. That is so that you can realistically put your fingers crossed and hope to get 15 people to come and see a show that you’re doing for every night of the month.”
He reckons the New Zealand scene is a particular worry, as ticket prices haven’t nudged up the way they have overseas.
“Average ticket prices over here [in Australia] for a comedy show that’ll be in the festival now, once you put the ticket fees on, are around that $40 mark. In New Zealand, from my perspective, people just aren’t really willing to pay that amount for a mid-tier comedian.
“About 15 years ago, I would have been charging $20 for a comedy festival ticket show, and now it’s like $28.
“The costs have absolutely skyrocketed over that time, but Kiwis just don’t have enough money in their pocket to be able to pay enough to cover all of those costs.”
It doesn’t help, he said, that Kiwis are last minute ticket buyers.
“New Zealand audiences have always been shocking with that,” Batt said.
“Even that has become more dramatic recently, which makes things very scary, both as a comedian when you’re checking your ticket sales, but I also do a bit of promoting and producing as well. It is very scary looking at your budgets when you’re two weeks and one week out from a show going, ‘holy smokes, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to even make our money back on this one’.”
Batt is worried for the future of performing arts in New Zealand as times get tougher.
“I think we still haven’t sort of borne the brunt of those increasing costs yet, and I think that those prices are going to settle in to be a lot higher for the long term quite soon.”
While it becomes increasinly tricky to lure international acts to New Zealand, there’s a bright side to that for Kiwi comedians.
“It is lovely for us to get the big acts and the people that you see on British TV shows and Netflix specials, but I would really encourage people to go and take a punt on some New Zealand comedians they may not know about, because we have a really great scene here.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
