Ganked from maladr1n, and I’m not putting it behind a cut because it’s very, very important to me.

—

Dear Friends,

You know I never really ask for much. Sure, I hit you up to come to my shows and I make you read my dumb posts, but for the most part I am a fairly low-pressure salesman when it comes to my company. I respect that people’s time and funds are limited.

However, the longer I do what I do, the easier it gets for me to ask for the sale.

I donate 20+ hours a week of my time to Jobsite. I don’t talk about it much, but I don’t get paid for squat I do with Jobsite unless it’s on stage, and then I’m getting what everyone else is getting. I have the same financial stake in the company as any other of the fine artists who make us look good.

So I can say I gave at the office and mean it.

We are still learning about this fund raising shit. To be honest, we have a lot to learn. Most organizations have about a 60/40 ratio of earned income to donations. We’re about 95/5. Sure, that’s a testament to our strength at the box office – but if we want to grow, if I ever want to get a salary, if I ever want to pay the artists who work with us what they are truly worth then we have to step up fund raising efforts. We simply must do better.

So, we do about 2 fund raisers a year. Except we do ’em cooler. We give you a command performance of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), we bring the Joe Popp Band and the Vodkanauts together for one night only. Or, as in the case of our most current fund raiser, we do a one-night only performance of Eric Bogosian’s Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll. We work our asses off for your dough. We believe in an exchange for that hard earned money you spend.

Tickets are $25, and this is your last chance to help us this year. It’s THIS SATURDAY. Sat. Sept. 25 at 8pm in the Shimberg. You can get tickets at TBPAC.ORG or by calling 813.229.STAR.

Please, let this be the one favor you do for me this year. Buy a ticket, even if you can’t make it. Even if you’re one of my pals who lives out of the area. If you have the money to spare (and trust me, I understand the situation of those of you who don’t) buy a ticket anyway and donate it back to the company. We’ll give it to a poor artist so they can come to the show.

I ask this because the arts need people who support the arts. I appreciate all of you who show your support by buying tickets, and I guess that’s all I’m really asking you to do now. Buy a ticket. Help us end this year big.

The only way we’ll make our fund raising goal for the year is by selling this event out. We’re not even a quarter of the way there yet.

Can you help?

Here are some more reasons to come to Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll:

* If you don’t support us now, you’re going to force our hand into producing shit like The Odd Couple and the all-female version of Fiddler on the Roof
* Because you don’t want me posting pictures of me sobbing on Friday.
* Because you don’t want me posting pictures of me holding a gun to a kitten’s head on Saturday.
* Because you don’t want me taking pictures of my brown-eye on Sunday because you didn’t come.
* Because about 10 of us are totally doing this whole event for free. We love Jobsite. We think we have a pretty good thing going on. We can’t, however, keep doing it for nothing.
* You’ll feel all warm-n-fuzzy because you made a gift to the arts. If you make it a date night, perhaps you’ll even get nookie for your generosity.
* $25 is about 3 drinks and a pack of butts at a bar. You’ll be doing yourself a favor by not buying that stuff.
* To be serious again, our tickets are on average $5 to $10 cheaper than comparable offerings by other area companies. Think of the $25 as paying $5 more for each of the 5 kick-ass plays we produced this year.

All jokes aside – we need the help. Oddly enough, my friends list actually really mirrors who all of my friends are. Period. So you’re about all I have to go to to make this personal plea.

If you could help, that’d be spiffy. It would mean a lot to me personally and it would mean a lot to the company to finish this first big campaign with SUCCESS.

Hope to see you Saturday night.