Comedy Showcase Producer Support Mabuhay Gardens (CrowdDoing)

## About the initiative
Mabuhay Gardens is a storied cultural venue with a legendary history. The building has hosted performances by legends including Louis Armstrong, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Dead Kennedys, Iggy Pop, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Specials, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Herbie Hancock, R.E.M., Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Soundgarden, Bad Religion, Dave Chappelle, and many others. Via CrowdDoing, we are regenerating the Mab as a hybrid cultural ecosystem: live music, dance, comedy, rentals, popup culinary lab, off-peak wellness partnerships, art-walk activations, and solarpunk / regenerative-culture programming.
Independent comedy showcase producers are the backbone of a healthy comedy scene, and most of them are searching for a reliable room to call home. We're looking for someone who can build real relationships with recurring-showcase producers and help shape the case for hosting their monthly or weekly shows at the Mab.
## The puzzle
There's a genuinely interesting question underneath this role: what does stability actually mean to a producer who's been burned before, and how do you prove you're different without just saying so. A showcase producer with a loyal following and a consistent lineup is worth far more to a venue than any single booking — but most producers have been burned by rooms that double-book them, change terms, or disappear after one good night. The puzzle is finding producers whose shows are genuinely working, understanding what stability actually means to them, and making the case for a long-term home instead of a one-off date.
## What you'll do
You'll tend a defined slice of the showcase-producer relationship work — enough to deliver real relationships in your first month, without carrying the whole venture.
- **Producer mapping** — Identify independent comedy showcase producers running recurring monthly, weekly, or seasonal shows, across formats (stand-up showcases, mixed-bill nights, themed showcases, alt-comedy series).
- **Fit screening** — Assess consistency of lineup quality, audience draw, and producer reliability. Distinguish producers with a proven recurring show from one-off organizers still finding their footing.
- **Social listening for collaboration moments** — Watch the social media accounts and public communications of showcase producers and adjacent comedy collectives to spot show announcements and moments where a genuine introduction makes sense.
- **Relationship-building introductions** — Send warm, personal, well-researched first messages, using AI-assisted drafting to reference each producer's actual show history and format. Position a Mab residency as a genuine home for their series, not an ask.
- **Needs discovery** — Run short async or video conversations to understand what a producer actually needs for their show to thrive: date consistency, tech setup, promotion support, comic hospitality standards.
- **Introduction to the producing team** — Bring well-vetted producer relationships to Mabuhay's producing team with a clean brief: show format, recurring cadence, audience size, technical needs, and any residency-shape considerations.
- **Relationship tracking** — Keep a simple tracker of who you contacted, current status, next step, and outcome, with AI-assisted summarization to keep records current. Small weekly summary (10 minutes) so the team knows where things stand.
## Who this role is for
We're looking for someone who can contribute meaningfully from week one — not a senior venue relations executive, not an assistant. Somebody with real, demonstrable skill in **at least two** of the following, and curiosity about the rest:
- Relationship-building with independent producers, promoters, or showrunners
- Direct experience producing, hosting, or working behind the scenes on a recurring comedy showcase
- An understanding of what makes a comedy showcase format work — lineup curation, pacing, audience building
- Personal, researched, respectful introductory writing that actually gets replies
- Lightweight CRM / relationship-tracking discipline (spreadsheets, Notion, Airtable, or similar)
- Comfort with AI-assisted research and relationship-writing workflows (any current LLM tool)
- Genuine curiosity about what makes a showcase producer's relationship with a venue actually work long-term
- Comfort watching social media, community feeds, and newsletters with a listening ear rather than a promotional one
You'll thrive here if you understand what makes a recurring show actually recur, respect producers' creative ownership of their format, and are drawn to the idea of giving strong showcases a stable home.
## Why do this
- **The problem matters.** Independent comedy showcases fold when they lose their room. Every producer who finds a stable home keeps a working ecosystem of comics and audiences intact.
- **The stakes are real.** The producers you build relationships with run actual recurring shows, on actual calendars, for actual regular audiences. This is not a simulation.
- **The craft is relational, and it will test your consistency.** You'll be stretched to prove reliability through repeated, unglamorous follow-through rather than through promises — the only thing that actually rebuilds trust after it's been broken elsewhere. That patient consistency is a genuinely useful skill, and most people never practice it deliberately.
- **The room is legendary.** You're helping regenerate a venue where Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, and Dave Chappelle all performed, alongside generations of music and cultural experimentation.
- **You'll work alongside people who care, across a much wider map than this room.** You'll collaborate asynchronously with CrowdDoing's global network of volunteers — people working on disaster risk reduction, solarpunk design, and community resilience — through shared written updates, shared docs, and async check-ins. You will likely never meet most of them in person, and you'll still learn from how they think. That cross-pollination between wildly different fields is not a side benefit of this role. It's the point.
## Time commitment & structure
- Flexible, part-time, mostly asynchronous
- Ongoing commitment, renewable
- Onboarding via CrowdDoing's standard volunteer orientation
## How to apply
Send a short note (5–8 sentences is plenty) covering:
1. Which 2–3 areas above you can contribute in immediately, with one specific example of past work (a showcase you produced or supported, a producer relationship you built, an introduction campaign that got replies)
2. One recurring comedy showcase or producer you'd want to build a relationship with for Mabuhay Gardens in your first month, and why they'd be a fit
3. Your available hours per week and time zone
No cover letter theater. Show us how you think and who you know.
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*CrowdDoing is an equal-opportunity volunteer organization. We welcome contributors of every background, geography, and career stage. This is an unpaid volunteer role and service-learning opportunity.*