Save Our Stages: Help Live Comedy Venues Survive (and it won’t cost you any money to help)

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Imagine a post-pandemic world where…

If you’re in New York, you can’t see stand up comedy at The Stand or The Comedy Cellar or live music at The Bowery Ballroom…

Or The Comedy Store or The Troubadour no longer exist in Los Angeles…

You go to the Nation’s Capital, and there’s no D.C. Improv or 9:30 Club…

Second City and The Metro in Chicago – Gone. For now.

Across the country, some of the nation’s top comedy and music venues could stand to close for good if they don’t receive the same kind of federal assistance that other businesses and corporations have received as a matter of course.

This spring, club owners banded together to form The National Independent Venue Association. Their first order of business was to hire Capitol Hill lobbyists to petition Congress on a bill that would address of their concerns. Now, there’s two pieces of legislation have been introduced that could be much needed relief for the performing arts community.

The RESTART act was introduced by U.S. Senators Michael Bennett (D-Colorado) and Todd Young (R-Indiana) to help businesses with high revenue but no revenue during the pandemic and quickly received significant support from the three major record labels, Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube.

On July 22nd, Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) introduced The Save Our Stages Act, which would provide six months of financial support – with an emphasis on small independent venue operators, promoters and talent reps – to help keep the venues open, pay their employees and according their press release ‘preserve a critical economic sector for communities across America’.

To help muster public support, The NIVA has launched the website, www.SaveOurStages.com, which goes into depth about what these two bills entail, who is supporting these measures, and most importantly, how you can get involved.

Keeping our arts community alive will be a huge step towards an emotional and economic recovery. They have been there for us, now we need to be there for them.

GO TO SAVEOURSTAGES.COM NOW!

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Earl Douglas

Earl Douglas is a writer/photographer based in New York City. A frequent contributor to The Interrobang, Earl is also Executive Director for the New York chapter of The Black Rock Coalition. Earl worked in radio for nearly two decades at WNEW-FM and XM Satellite Radio, which included being the on-air producer for Carol Miller, Scott Muni and Ron & Fez, and a contributor to Opie & Anthony. Earl has also independently published a number of books including Black Rock Volume 1, Urban Abyss, Mobile Uploads, and For Shimmy. His latest project is the photojournalism magazine PRAXIS, which is available exclusively through Blurb.com.
Earl Douglas
Earl Douglas
Earl Douglas is a writer/photographer based in New York City. A frequent contributor to The Interrobang, Earl is also Executive Director for the New York chapter of The Black Rock Coalition. Earl worked in radio for nearly two decades at WNEW-FM and XM Satellite Radio, which included being the on-air producer for Carol Miller, Scott Muni and Ron & Fez, and a contributor to Opie & Anthony. Earl has also independently published a number of books including Black Rock Volume 1, Urban Abyss, Mobile Uploads, and For Shimmy. His latest project is the photojournalism magazine PRAXIS, which is available exclusively through Blurb.com.