Fyreside Newsletter - 4/13/26

Hey Reader,

This is a newsletter about a comedy club I had never heard of before last night. It's called The Hashtag Comedy Co. and last night they gave me a postcard. They gave me that postcard outside of the theater where I had just watched an improv comedy show, which, I'd argue, is the best place to pass out postcards about improv comedy theaters. Put a pin in that.

If the subject line of this newsletter isn't familiar, that likely means you haven't watched Season 4 of the TV show "Shoresy." There's a character named Ted Hitchcock who has a silly accent because he's from Newfoundland, Canada. That's all you need to know about the TV show "Shoresy," I just wanted to explain the subject line.

ANYWAY, back to postcards.

Come to where we're to!

Convincing the average person to patronize an amateur improv comedy theater sounds difficult. I've never tried it, so I can't say for sure, but I've tried to get people to come to events that I could guarantee would be entertaining, and that's hard enough. I think it's easy to forget how big of an ask most marketing materials actually are. If you want your marketing to convert, you're really hoping that your audience will make a much larger commitment than you did printing the postcard.

Now a lot of marketers will tell you that, if you're not converting, it's because you're not asking the right message. Sometimes, they're right, and I love to craft a message, but the perfect question isn't worth anything if you're asking the wrong person. Have you ever walked into a specialty store like AutoZone (not sponsored) and asked for a car part (or something) you didn't know the name of? Chances are the employee knew much more about what you needed than you did and pointed you in the right direction. It probably went something like this:

You: "Hello, I need new breaks."

Them: "Just pads or rotors to?"

You: "...what's a rotor...?

Them: "Do your breaks squeal or do they grind?"

You: "uhhh, I guess they grind?"

Them: "I'll get you rotors too."

If you ask a bad question to the right person, they'll probably still know the answer.

Meet em where they at!

As stated above, convincing an audience to come to your amateur improv show sounds really hard. You're asking someone to give up their Friday night, pay some amount of money on a ticket, and sit through a show with no guarantee that it will be good. (As someone who does amateur improv comedy, I can confirm that it is not always good.) That's a big, complicated ask, but someone has to ask it. The reality is that, even on a good day, that ask might be met with a hard no. That's the equivalent of going to Walmart and saying, "I drive a 1996 Toyota Camry and it rattles when I drive over 50. Got anything for that." The good people of Walmart will not be able to help you.

Now if you take your rickety Camry to AutoZone, you might get a little more help. They still might not have anything for your 30 year old car, but they'll at least point you in the right direction. Maybe they'll even order you what you need. They'll do that because they're the right person to ask. They have the interest, the specialty and the availability to answer your question.

The folks at Hashtag Comedy Co. handed me their postcard as I was walking out of an improv comedy show. There aren't many ways to guarantee that you're asking the right person to come to your improv show, but catching a crowd who has already paid to see an improv show is a great place to start. You know these people like the medium. You know these people will pay to consume the content. Plus, it was a Sunday night, so you know these people are committed. That's marketing strategy. Find your people, find out exactly how to get to them, then put in the leg work to get there.

In conclusion:

Last week, I had a consultation call with a SaaS company who is trying to reach new customers outside of their typical market share. I asked them what they're doing to target their current market share. They did not have an answer.

If they won't come to where we're to, meet em where they at.