donnell_harris@hotmail.com
I just moved to Las Cruces from Tempe Arizona. I have always
have been funny, have wanted to do standup. I found opportunity SWFF on
Craigslist looking for entertainers. I
emailed them, and was totally transparent
that I never had done professional standup before. but would love to do this. Joseph
Thompson a representative of SWFF emailed me back and said I was booked for two
nights the 25 and the 31. He said that I
could choose between sponsorship packages or money for compensation
I had questions about details of the event, Joseph was
terrible at responding to my emails, I
repeatedly asked him about compensation and he never responded to that question
.I began to doubt if the SWFF was even a real event or a scam
Just a few days before the event, after scouring the
internet, I found an SWFF website and Facebook
page and was able to contact Philip Hernandez to answer some of my questions. I
also asked him about compensation and he
never replied to that question, only other questions I had.
Philip invited me to come down to the fairgrounds, the
location of the event, a day or two before I came on so I could see things and
that may answer my questions. I was unable to do this due to transportation
issues. It is almost 10 miles outside of town.
My support and I drove down to the show an hour and a half
early on the 25 and found Philip Hernandez. I brought up the issue of
compensation and he told us that the issue was that every performer needed a “Federal
Tax ID number” as well as “insurance signed off by the city and county.” No one
had ever mentioned these rules to me before, even with all of our
communication.
After some haggling, Philip told us that his normal rate of
pay for entertainers was “30% of the total revenue that the entertainer brought
in for the whole event.” He asked us for papers and information regarding
performances in the past and what revenue I had brought to previous events. Again I was never told any of this. We told
Philip that we had been totally transparent through the process and that we had
told his partner, Mr. Thompson that this would be my first professional show
ever.
After more haggling, we arrived at an extremely low rate of
$50 for the show. Philip decided that he could not even pay me this because of
legal issues that I had no federal tax ID or insurance, once again two things
that I was never told I needed.
My crew and I left the premises of the event disappointed,
but knowing that we had stood up for the truth and believing that we were
wronged. Any help or advice would be great.
(602) 688-1502
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