Comic deals, settlement and profit — where you sell the tickets
Every other ticketing platform stops at revenue. This is what happens after.
Set what each comic gets, once.
Comedy pay isn't one shape, so there are seven structures rather than a box to type a number into.
Flat fee
A fixed amount, once or per showtime.
Percentage of the door
On gross, net, face value, or net after deductible expenses.
Guarantee
A minimum, regardless of what the show sells.
Greater of guarantee or percentage
Whichever pays more on the night.
Flat plus percentage
A base and a share on top.
Guarantee against percentage
The guarantee treated as an advance.
Custom
For the deals that don't fit any of the above, because some of them won't.
Amounts can apply once, per showtime, per set, or per ticket — so a feature on a Friday double isn't paid the same as a feature on a one-off.
"If we sell out, bump the headliner."
You agree it when you book them. It applies itself at settlement, whether or not you remember the conversation three weeks later.
- Trigger it on what actually happenedTickets sold, gross revenue, net revenue, sell-through, or profit.
- Then change the deal Set the percentage, add a percentage, add a bonus, or set and remove a guarantee.
- Priority-ordered when more than one firesYou decide which rule wins, not the order you happened to type them in.
- Base deal$400 guarantee
- If sell-through≥ 95%
- Then add10% of net
- Sold out — paid$627.40
Everything the night costs.
Room rental, sound, promotion, hospitality, travel, photography — categorised, and each one flagged deductible or not.
Which matters more than it sounds. A comic on 70% of net after deductible expenses is being paid on a completely different number than one on 70% of gross. If your software doesn't know which expenses are deductible, it can't work out either of them — which is why this normally ends up on paper.
The show, closed out.
Not a total. The whole waterfall, from what came in the door to what you actually kept.
Getting to net
- Gross revenuestart
- Discounts−
- Refunds−
- Tax−
- Service fees−
- Processing fees−
- Net revenue=
Then what it cost
- Show expenses−
- Every performer payout−
- Each one computed from that comic's own terms, with the winning method shown — so you can see why the greater-of landed where it did.
- Profit and margin=
Payouts are calculated, not transferred.
ComedyPass works out exactly what every performer is owed and tracks who's unpaid, pending and paid. Actually sending the money is still you.
Break-even, while you can still do something about it.
A settlement tells you what happened. This tells you what's about to, at a point where you can still add a push or move a comic.
- What it needs to sellThe ticket count that covers what you've already committed.
- Where it actually isSold so far, committed so far, and the projected net if it carries on like this.
- A status and a next moveNot just a number — whether it's healthy, and what to do if it isn't.
- Break-even64 tickets
- Sold41
- Committed costs$1,180
- Projected net−$310
Where the money actually goes.
One show closing out is useful. Twelve of them is a business you can see.
Monthly profit and loss
What the month made, not what it grossed.
Expenses by category
Where it went — room, talent, promotion, the rest.
Revenue and profit by show
Which nights carry the room, and which quietly don't.
Settle one show on it.
Put a night through with the real deals and compare what comes out against what you worked out by hand.