How to Get Gigs: The Ultimate Guide to Publishing a Show Call
Hey there, I’m Mat, the Bookings Lead at Side Door - a lot of my every day involves speaking with hosts and artists about their show ideas and dreams and helping sort out the path that can bring that vision into reality. In my six years here at Side Door, I’ve had a hand in something close to 1000 shows coming together, so let’s say I’ve got a pretty solid idea of how to make it happen! And the first step to every show on Side Door is the Show Call.
(A quick note: this guide will primarily be for artists looking to book shows on Side Door, but I would still recommend reading if you’re hosting - these tips still apply!)
Show Call
Show Calls are a powerful tool and the backbone for finding a new collaborator on Side Door. For those not in the know, a Show Call is essentially somebody putting their hand up to say, “Here I am; I’m looking for a show. This is where I’m looking to play/host, when, and what kind of show I envision.” Potential matches are automatically notified of the Show Calls in their area, have the option to respond, and if it’s a fit for both sides, a conversation and show booking can start. Bang.
However, in my countless conversations with artists and hosts, I’m often asked some variation of, “What should I put in my Show Call?” A good question: it’s important to put your best foot forward and improve your chances of finding a match, but giving a Show Call a shot for the first time is a new concept for many. I can’t necessarily tell you what will work - everybody is different, after all - but I’ve got a pretty solid idea of what to consider and how to think through your choices that’ll help craft the best Show Call you can.
2. Location
The first field you will be presented with when creating your brand-spanking-new Show Call asks for a location. Pretty straightforward: where do you want to be? If you’re going to be on the road and know your routing, even if it’s only a rough schedule, then by all means, put up a Show Call for a chunk of that tour. If you don’t have touring plans but want to sniff around and see what’s out there, any communities you’re curious about are viable options. And even if you don’t want to go anywhere at all, having a Show Call active in your hometown just as a means of having a presence on Side Door is fair, too.
When filling in this field, you’ll notice that a map pops up when clicking on a selection, like so:
Any pins on the map that fall within the shaded radius are hosts that will be notified of your Show Call, so being strategic with your placements may be helpful! For example, in the selection, my potential Show Call in Toronto also has Hamilton covered, so I know I don’t need to post another Call for Hamilton. But I can also see that some hosts in Peterborough would be left out - I might consider expanding and moving the Call’s location or creating another one to cover those hosts as well if that’s an area I’m interested in playing in.
There’s no limit on the number of Show Calls you can post, so don’t be shy about peppering a few wherever you’d like! I wouldn’t recommend going absolutely hog wild. However - having multiple Calls in Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, Oshawa, and Barrie where one Call in Toronto would’ve been enough might clog up a feed and give the wrong impression - but having some overlap is reasonable. And if there aren’t any hosts in an area you’re scoping out, no problem - we’ll get to sharing Show Calls later and how that can help uncover show possibilities in regions where Side Door hosts are less active.
3. Show Date
Your next option for customizing your new Show Call comes via the calendar. Again, simple enough: when are you looking for a show in the location we just selected? No right or wrong answers here since you know your schedule best. A day, week, even month, or more - let the people know when you’re free!
I usually recommend being as generous/optimistic with this field as possible, within reason. It can be tough to line up availability between two busy parties, so the more options for alignment, the better. If you positively know that you only have a single date or weekend in a city, here’s the time to be specific. But if you think you’ve got some wiggle room on either end, even if it’s still up in the air, I say go for it! You never know when a questionably free Thursday night inspires that otherwise-unavailable opportunity to reach out.
As for when you should consider setting up the Show Call, somewhere around two to three months before your desired show date is the sweet spot.
While short turnarounds are possible, and a hot drop can breed excitement in audiences and collaborators alike, most folks need at least a few weeks of advance notice to ensure their schedule remains clear and a month to focus on promoting ticket sales. On the flip side, posting too far in advance can be challenging as well - it’s hard for some individuals to know what their life will look like so far down the road, and viewing the same Show Call or promoting a show for months on end can lead to fatigue and become background noise.
4. Description
And now we’ve come to the real meat of the Show Call: the Description. This is an open-form field where you can enter stipulations, promotions, or ideas. It’s freestyle, baby! I’m going to sound like a bit of a broken record here - there’s no right or wrong answer about what you put in this field (so long as there’s enough for the reader to work with, i.e., a short bio might not do!), but here are some ideas to consider including:
The kind of show you envision putting on (Acoustic? Seated audience? Refreshments on offer? Time of day?)
The number of tickets you think you could sell
The selection of tunes that will be played (From your most recent album? A cover set? Two 45-minute performances?)
The kind of tech needed or provided - more on that in a moment
Your history with the location
A little promotional razzle-dazzle to pitch yourself (Maybe you’ve got a YouTube clip from your last time in town? A quote from a local critic? A crowd-favourite lyric from a song you intend to perform?)
Whatever you end up including in the Description, keep in mind that it’s one of the first pieces of ‘you’ that a potential match will see when reviewing your Show Call. It’s your first chance to set expectations for who you are and what you’re looking for for that particular show. Your Artist Profile will also be viewable a short scroll away from the Description, so avoid the temptation to only talk about yourself - you want to state your intentions for this unique show here and leave more general-application get-to-know-me info for later on.
A brief aside here to discuss information fidelity.
The more detail you include in your Show Call’s Description, the more you will be narrowing down not only who you are but also who is the most likely collaborator to be a good fit for you.
Consider this: if I specify in my Description that I am looking to play a show in a standing-only room with multiple people on stage and hooked up to a PA, then I’ve just laid out that I want a host that can tick those boxes. Therefore, I will most likely not hear from folks that don’t fit that bill - hosts and artists are often timid about reaching out without feeling like the perfect match. That can be good if I’m very particular about what I’m looking for and would prefer fewer but higher ‘quality’ (for my needs) responses; however, if casting a wider net is more important, then I might want to consider being more general with my needs if I have some flexibility. Maybe the size of the stage and whether or not people are standing or sitting in front of it don’t really matter, so I omit those details from my Description - perhaps I would prefer to hear from more folks and narrow the options down in conversation rather than setting obstacles from the get-go. It all depends on how I (i.e., you, dear reader) feel!
5. Visibility
By default, Show Calls on Side Door are Public. This means that:
Hosts within the Show Call’s radius will be notified when I hit the publish button
My Show Call will appear on Side Door’s Connect page alongside other Calls for a region
Search engines like Google will be able to see and display your Show Call in search results
Side Door will consider your Show Call for shares on social media and in newsletters
If you’re looking to work with the friendly folks out there via the ‘standard’ Side Door experience, this is the option for you.
If you don’t want any of the above for any reason - perhaps you’ve got a single person in mind that you’d like to work with or want to give your newsletter subscribers a first crack at replying to your Show Call, so on and so forth - then Private is the selection for you. Remember that a Private Show Call will not go anywhere if you don’t place it yourself; sharing a Private Show Call is the only way to broadcast it!
A quick but important distinction: a Show Call being Public or Private does not impact whether any ensuing shows are Public or Private in turn. You and your match will have the chance to make that decision for each Show later on.
And with that, we’re ready to post a Show Call - right on! You could very well hit that publish button now if you want to (assuming you’ve been following along), but if you’re feeling the need for a little extra juice, here are a few more options to consider when crafting your post.
6. Requires PA
When you first signed up for Side Door, you were asked whether you required or had a PA system. This option manifests in all of the Show Calls you post:
This might be a preference to actually consider toggling on and off with each set of Show Calls you post (it can be accessed by editing your profile) since it’s another detail that might limit the responses you get. If your need for a PA is flexible or will change depending on the particular show, I recommend shutting the toggle off and listing the conditions in your Description instead! But, if it’s easier to start every conversation from a point where PA needs/availability are established, turning the toggle on is reasonable as well. Keep in mind that whatever you select will appear on all of your Show Calls, so just be sure to pick whatever covers your whole set of posts.
7. Profile
Your Profile is automatically pulled into your Show Call and displayed directly underneath all the wonderful stuff we just customized above, so there’s no need to talk about yourself twice in the Description!
I highly recommend having different content than your Show Call’s Description in the Profile to ensure you’re making the most use of that space! You may recall my mentioning earlier that the Description is more appropriately populated with information specific to that individual potential show.
On the flip side, the Profile is the perfect place to be more general! The Profile will be full of stuff that is invariably, unchangeably (well, not permanently, but let’s not get philosophical here) you - the stuff that will always apply from show to show and opportunity to opportunity is best displayed right here.
I like to think of it this way: the Profile is who you are, and the Show Call is what you’d like to be doing.
8. Sharing
Time now for a little bit of Side Door secret sauce: Sharing a Show Call! Over the past little while, we’ve noticed a particular trend amongst audiences - when they’re shown a need, they step up to help the artists they love! Many fans don’t realize they have the capability or interest in hosting, but things change when their favourite performer puts the need right in front of them; suddenly, it’s easier to envision putting on a show when their fave is involved! It’s one of the main reasons why sharing a Show Call is so important: elevating a fan into an enthusiastic host is an easy way to surface a new option (particularly in locations that don’t already have active hosts - callback to the City section above), and doing it through Side Door means we can ease them in and lend a guiding hand through the whole process, from “What does hosting look like?” through booking and selling tickets to your event.
As far as when a share goes, I typically suggest letting Show Calls marinate on their own in the system for 7-10 days (if you can afford the timing) to let Side Door do its thing. Give time for potential collaborators to see the new posting, review your profile, consider the possibilities, have round-ups and reminders sent to them in case they missed out on the first notification, and so on. If you’re still hoping for more eyes and responses on the Show Call past that point, a set of posts to social media accounts and newsletters (something like three posts over nine days or so) can help give your existing Calls a boost! If you have multiple Show Calls, selectively sharing one Call over another might be helpful; perhaps you’d like to focus on where the organic buzz already is by sharing the most-viewed, or there is a particular route location that is more critical to fill. If you’re looking for a more laid-back approach, linking to a Show Call in your socials’ bios is another way to invite interest from fans. The choice, as always, is yours!
Welp, there you have it: everything rattling around my ole noggin on the best ways to consider how, what, when, and where to Show Call on Side Door. Thanks for sticking with me! At the end of the day, there’s little risk in publishing a Show Call to test the waters and find out your personal posting preferences, so don’t be afraid to get out there and see what works. My final piece of advice is to just give it a try!
Got any questions, concerns, feedback, or confessions about this article or anything else Side Door? Hit me up at support@sidedooraccess.com 🤘
Mat Kahansky is the Bookings Lead at Side Door. In his six years at Side Door, he’s had a hand in something close to 1000 shows coming together.
