Over here at Summit Comedy, we book comedians....sometimes they have “celebrity” status.  We have had the pleasure of working with many 

of the biggest names in the comedy business over the last 19 years.  Here is just a small sampling of talent we have worked with:

Hal Sparks, Josh Blue, Tom Segura, Iliza Shlesinger, Chris D'Elia, Colin Jost, Dave Coulier, DeRay Davis, Doug Stanhope, Jay Pharoah, Judah Friedlander, Michael Ian Black, Pete Davidson, Trevor Noah, Cecily Strong, Cristela Alonzo, Loni Love, Sasheer Zamata, Ben Bailey, Bo Burnham, Craig Robinson, Dave Attell, Hannibal Buress, Jim Breuer, John Oliver, Lavelle Crawford, Mike Birbiglia, Ralphie May, Richard Belzer, Amy Schumer, Bob Saget, Daniel Tosh, Dave Chappelle, Demetri Martin, Dennis Miller, Gabriel Iglesias, Kevin Hart, Rickey Smiley, Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Kathy Griffin, Lisa Lampanelli, Monique

Hiring a celebrity comedian really isn’t that much different than hiring any other comedian.  The biggest differences are simply the price, and typically a celebrity comedian demands a bit more in their hospitality rider and maybe more production bells and whistles.

Step One: Reserve your venue.  Make sure it is available on the day of your event, and has the proper production needs for your event.

Step Two: Determine the budget you want to spend on your talent.  Celebrity Comedians typically start in the low end of $10,000 plus expenses and can go all the way up to $500k.  A good agent should be able to point you in the right direction with talent options that fits your specific budget, style of comedy desired &/or theme of event.

Step Three: Submit a formal offer for the talent you are interested in and the performance date desired.  If your offer is accepted, a contract and rider requirements will follow.

Step Four: Once your contract is fully executed between all parties involved, you need to promote your event if selling tickets.  Even if you have Jerry Seinfeld booked, no one will show up if the masses don’t know about the event.

Now I’ve simplified this process as there are many other small details and steps involved, but this is a great starting point in booking your celebrity comedian.  If you have any additional questions, please feel to contact us at Summit Comedy, Inc. and we will hand hold you from beginning until the end of your show to make sure your event goes over as smooth as possible making you look like a rock star in the process.

-Chuck Johnson
President; Summit Comedy, Inc.
www.summitcomedy.com
800-947-0657

As a comedy agent, I get free tickets to countless comedy shows throughout the year.  Sometimes it is for comedians you really want to see, sometimes it's actually just for "work" to evaluate new comedians for potential work opportunities with Summit Comedy.  Watching comedy as a 20+ year agent makes it hard sometimes since I've heard countless jokes, puns, premises, and "average comedy" just doesn't do much for me with actually "laughing".  My wife hates seeing comedy shows with me since I mostly sit stone faced "judging" the people onstage and even when I do find a joke "funny", many times just nod and say "that was pretty funny".  Periodically though I find comedians that make me laugh out loud and those are the people who I want and will work with.  

I can think of only 3 times (besides fund raiser events which I'm excluding) that I've actually had to purchase tickets to a comedy show.  One was for Brian Regan who is one of my favorite comedians, next was many years ago at the Comedy Cabana in Myrtle Beach who after me telling the owners "Hello, I'm Chuck from Summit Comedy" they said "Oh hey, I've heard of Summit, that'll be $12.50 please!"  (Hahaha), and last month I purchased tickets for Chris Rock for an upcoming date in NC.

Part of my tasks as a baby agent in the mid-1990s was to shuttle comedians around from airports, radio stations, TV stations, and sometimes even bus stations.  Yes, it's not always so glamorous in the entertainment business folks!  Back in 1995 I had to pick up comedian Chris Rock at the Charlotte, NC airport as he was performing at the Comedy Zone that weekend.  He wasn't a household name at that time, but he had recently finished up working as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and was making the comedy club rounds.

This was pre-9/11 days when you could actually go all the way to the airport gate to great guests.  Well, I'm not sure if I was late, or his flight was early, so when I got to his gate, the plane had already emptied and I was forced to run around the airport looking for him.  To no avail, I then had to go to the info desk and have him paged to meet me at baggage claim.  Picture this scene..."Paging Chris Rock....Mr. Chris Rock, please meet your party at baggage claim!"  Again, this pre-dates cell phones and in my defense he wasn't a huge STAR yet so I knew this wouldn't create a TMZ-like paparazzi mob, and it was the only way I knew how to get him to where I was waiting for him.

Well, turns out, he already left the airport grabbing a cab to the hotel where he was staying.  I never went to see his show that weekend, so to this day I've never seen Chris Rock live.  I've met and have worked with thousands of comedians both famous and not yet famous over the last 2 decades.  Some just stand out with amazing talent that you should take time out to go see them if nearby regardless if you have to purchase tickets or not, so when Chris Rock announced his new tour for this year, I jumped at the chance to see the comedy legend and bought tickets for a comedy field trip to see him at a casino stop in North Carolina.  Something tells me I'm going to put away my "judging cap" and laugh out loud at this one!? ;)

-Chuck Johnson
President; Summit Comedy, Inc.
(800) 947-0651

What’s in a name?!  Apparently, everything!  When a business owner is trying to think of the name of his/her company, there’s a lot of thought that goes into it.  You want it memorable, relative to your product and maybe even something personal.  So in 1998 when I decided to start my own entertainment business, I was brainstorming for ideas.  It was on a road trip up to Boone, NC when I looked up at the approaching Appalachian mountain range and my wife said “Summit Entertainment”.  It was perfect!  We both had gone to Appalachian State University, and the phrase “You can’t get higher than the Summit” still spills out of my mouth sometimes while doing sales pitches in trade show booths.  Yeah, I know that sounds completely cheesy, but if you know anything about trade shows, you get tired of saying the same sales pitch over and over and over.

And so it began.  Summit Entertainment was born.  I knew there were not any comedy agencies in the country with a competing name so I went to downtown Charlotte to register my company name.  Back in 1998 the internet wasn’t where you’d go yet to search any competing company names.  The internet was pretty fresh and new!  I did register the website domain www.summitentertainment.com and began my comedy business!

Within a year from my start up, I did discover that there was another company named “Summit Entertainment” on the west coast that was a movie production company that had started a few years before my company.  I didn’t think too much of it since they did movies, I sold jokes.  I don’t think anyone was confusing the 2 of us, until…..

After a few years I started getting emails sent to me that was clearly for the “Summit Entertainment” movie company.  I would kindly reply, telling them they had the wrong company every time and went about my own business.  Sometimes I would forward the emails to the other company as well just to be nice as I started getting more and more of them.  Note to reader: *being nice in "business" doesn't always help you unfortunately. One day I got an email that said “Final Script: ‘The Mexican’ starring Brad Pitt & Julia Roberts”.  I thought it was funny that I would be getting this one, but I still forwarded it on to the appropriate business.  Within a week of that email I had a Cease & Desist letter from their lawyer.  After all, we had the EXACT same company name, and a very similar mountain range logo who my buddy Jeff Katowitz had designed.  My lawyer said I could fight them in court, but I would probably lose since they had the name registered first.

Now here’s where the biggest error I’ve ever made in my business thus far.  I sold them the website domain www.summitentertainment.com  I did get a decent about of money for it back in 2001, but this was before this company hit it BIG!  How big, well, let’s just tell you that Summit Entertainment went on to produce many movies as well as the entire “TWILIGHT” Vampire movie series.  I still kick myself every time I see their logo pop up, knowing that I could have held on to that domain longer and asked for a much bigger price tag.  In 2012 Lionsgate Films acquired Summit Entertainment for $412.5 million. You live and you learn I guess!  That’s the nature of business!

I incorporated my business in 2001, changed my company to Summit Comedy, Inc. and I’m waiting for someone to offer me $412.5 million for it.  No takers yet, so I’ll continue to sell jokes to masses.  Good thing I LOVE what I do for a living!  Someone once said, if you love what you do for a living, you’ll never work a day in your life!  I haven't "worked" in 22 years! ;)

-Chuck Johnson
President; Summit Comedy, Inc.
www.summitcomedy.com
800.947.0651