Comedy Bookers Turn to Performance Evaluation Software

SAN DIEGO, CA (PRWEB) November 19, 2003 - Comedy Incorporated, a San Diego-

based company that provides comedy events for corporations and non-profit organizations, has reached an agreement with Santa Rosa-based Comedy University, to use a new patent pending software application for evaluating talent. Jackie Candida, spokesperson for Comedy Incorporated said the company will implement the new software, Comedy Evaluator Pro, into its hiring process immediately.

“We feel this is a win-win situation for both Comedy Incorporated and Comedy University,” says Miss Candida. “For us, it will save a great deal of time, effort, and money when we evaluate comedians for work.”

Although the comedy market appears to have been saturated with comedians for several years, Miss Candida says that the type of talent Comedy Incorporated hires is in short supply. “We receive numerous requests all the time from comedians to consider them for upcoming gigs. Unfortunately, fewer than 5% of the comedians who contact us qualify for one of our shows.”

She explains that Comedy Incorporated hires only high quality acts who also perform clean material on stage. The idea is that Comedy Evaluator Pro will help with the “high quality” portion of that criteria. The software lets anyone analyze a comedian’s recorded act to determine how well the audience receives the performance. Using a standard called PAR (Positive Audience Response), the evaluator compares the score of a comedian against the scores of established headliners and comedy stars.

“What this does for us,” says Miss Candida, “is that it puts the impetus on the comedian to prove he or she has what it takes. We tell comedians who want to work with us that they must have an average PAR score of at least 25. If we receive a tape from a comedian with a score higher than that, we’ll jump on it. And if the performance contains only clean, non-offensive humor, it’s a likely match for us. The alternative is for us to spend many hours sifting through video tapes to find the gems. This new software makes the process much easier for us.”

Steve Roye, founder of Comedy University, developed the software after consulting with Club Med about improving its entertainment division. Roye explained, “Club Med approached us about providing them with an objective baseline for judging the quality of their entertainers’ acts. So we created Comedy Evaluator Pro, which simply calculates a number based on how much of the entertainer’s act is filled with positive responses (usually laughs) from the audience. It’s that simple, but it worked great for them, and they were thrilled.”

In addition to using the software to evaluate comedians, Mr. Roye also envisions a similar product for numerous other outlets, such as the movie, theater, and speaking industries.

To learn more about Comedy Incorporated, go to: http://www.comedyincorporated.com.

To learn more about Comedy University, go to: http://www.comedyuniversity.com.

To learn more about Comedy Evaluator Pro, go to: http://www.comedyprosoftware.com.

Paul Stoecklein

Comedyincorporated.com

business@comedyincorporated.com

760-473-7746

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