Sean Collins — Send Board

Hi Steve, Thanks for sending the contract over properly — got it this time. I've had it read through carefully before I sign anything, and there's a list of things I need to raise. I want to be straight with you about the tone of this: none of it is me being difficult, and the deal itself is one I'm happy with. Most of what's below is actually asking you to go back to your own standard wording, because a fair few of these clauses read differently in this version than they do in the terms on your website. Taking them in order of how much they matter. 1. WHO THE CONTRACT IS WITH It's made out to "Big Laugh Boutique". Big Laugh Boutique is a trading name, not a company - so as it stands the agreement is with me personally rather than with a business. Everything for this tour goes through: SCJ Entertainment Ltd Company number 06734322 37 Bury Crescent, Gosport, Hampshire, PO12 3TZ That's the same on all twelve dates, so it's not a Tiverton thing. Payment goes to SCJ too. 2. THE INDEMNITY (CLAUSE 3.2) At the moment I'd be covering you for any and all loss or liability, with no upper limit, and it only runs one way. Three small changes and it's a normal clause: cap my side at the fee I actually receive, make it mutual so we each cover the other, and drop the words "whether criminal or civil" - you can't validly promise to cover someone's criminal liability anyway. 3. "ANY BREACH" WIPES OUT THE WHOLE FEE (CLAUSE 4.2) As written, any breach at all - however small, at any time, even after the show - means you keep the entire fee. Getting artwork to you a day late would technically do it. I'm sure that isn't the intention, which is why I'd like it to say material breach, with seven days' written notice to put it right, and you withholding only what you've actually lost. 4. WHAT THE 70% IS 70% OF The contract doesn't say. It says "based on 311 potential ticket sales", which is a full house rather than a number anyone gets paid on. Since your box office runs through the Tourist Information Centre and the 0333 line, there's a booking fee sitting in between, and nothing tells us which side of it the split is worked out. Could we define it as 70% of gross box office receipts before any booking fee, card charge or agency commission - paid within seven days against invoice, with a settlement statement showing tickets sold at each price, comps issued and any deductions. Standard stuff, and it saves us both an awkward conversation on the night. 5. VAT - THREE SEPARATE THINGS - "70% plus VAT" has to come out. SCJ isn't VAT registered, so I can't add VAT to an invoice. - The £18 is inclusive of VAT, but the contract doesn't say whether my 70% is worked out before or after VAT comes off. It's a £650 difference on the night, so I'd rather it was written down than discovered. While we're on it - is there actually VAT on these tickets? TCAT being a community arts theatre, admission may well be exempt. You'll know better than me. - The cancellation fee has "+ VAT" on it. Your own published terms just say £500. Could we use your version - as it stands I'd pay £600 and you'd receive £500 plus reclaimable VAT, which isn't the even split it looks. 6. PRS IS IN THERE TWICE Clause 5.1 has me obtaining and paying the PRS licence, and then the payment definition takes "less PRS" off my 70% as well. It needs to be one or the other. My suggestion is that it sits with you, as the promoter running the room - a visiting act doesn't normally licence the music in someone else's building - and that whatever it comes to is taken off the gross before we split, with the figure shown on the settlement. 7. THE 90-MINUTE SHOW AND THE SUPPORT ACT This is the one I most want to talk through, and it's probably a conversation rather than an email. Clause 3.1 has me delivering a 1.5 hour show "at the risk and reward of the Entertainer at no additional cost or fee to the Club", clause 9.4 puts all responsibility for any support act on me, and the front page describes us as "Sean Collins plus support". None of that was in anything we'd discussed, and none of it is in your published terms. Sean does a straight hour. So the question is simply who books and pays the opener. If it's you - which is the usual shape on a promoter date - then those three lines just come out. If it's me, that's fine too, but the support's fee needs to come off the gross before the 70/30 rather than out of my share, and my liability for them capped at the fee. Whichever way it lands, it needs changing in all three places, because they each do the same job. 8. THE CANCELLATION CLAUSES (6.2 AND 6.3) Both end with "in addition to any sums due pursuant to clause 3.2", and 3.2 is the indemnity - which only binds my side. So if I cancel I'd owe £500 plus unlimited indemnity, and if you cancel you'd owe £500 and nothing more. That cross-reference isn't in your published terms either, so could we take it out of both and leave it as your own wording does. 9. NOTHING COVERS THINGS NEITHER OF US CONTROLS There's no force majeure clause anywhere in the contract, and this date is eighteen months away. As it reads now, if Sean is ill on 12 February I lose the fee and pay you £500 plus VAT, because clause 6.2 says "for any reason" and illness is a reason. Could we add something straightforward: neither side liable and no cancellation fee where it's illness, injury, bereavement, a government restriction or the building closing - and both of us to try in good faith to move the date rather than lose it. SMALLER THINGS, ALL EASY - Clause 4.6 says local promotion starts "upon delivery of artwork and print". Happy to supply digital artwork eight weeks out; print I'd have assumed sat your end on a promoter date. And there's no date attached to it at the moment, so neither of us knows when I'd be late. - Clause 5.3 makes me "responsible for national promotion", which has no ceiling on it. Can we make it reasonable endeavours through our own channels - which is what we'll be doing anyway - with no obligation to buy advertising. - Nothing limits comps or discounting your end. Since my fee is a share of the box office, could we cap comps at ten and put any discounts or group rates through me first, with everything shown on the settlement. - It says the agreement is governed by "the laws of the United Kingdom". There isn't one - it'd be England and Wales. - Clause 9.1 refers to "the Period", which isn't defined anywhere. - Clause 5 goes from 5.1 to 5.3. Was there a 5.2? Could you send a clean renumbered version so I know what I'm signing. - And one to add: that you can use Sean's name and the artwork to promote the show, as supplied and unaltered, and that it stops after the date. - Clause 9.3 stops me sub-contracting without your written consent, while 3.1 and 9.4 require me to bring a support act. If the support does end up being mine, that consent needs writing in. TO BE CLEAR ABOUT WHERE I AM I want this date and I want to do it with you - the terms we agreed are good, the room's right, and I'd like this to be the first of a lot. This is just the paperwork not quite matching the conversation, which happens. Send me a reissued version with those in and I'll sign it straight away. And I'll pick up the monthly club nights on the phone. All the best, JR John Robson Big Laugh Boutique - Comedy Agency & Management jr@biglaughboutique.com +44 (0) 77780 55510 www.biglaughboutique.com

Hi Tom, Thanks - that's exactly what I needed, and it makes the decision easy. We'll run it as a straight hour with no interval and get started on time. On the support: thanks for the offer, and I may well come back to you on it, but we're likely to bring our own opener - we're using a local act in each town on this run. I'll confirm once it's settled. One practical thing. I've tried to fill your ticketing form in and it wants a Google login, which I don't have. Rather than let it hold the date up any longer, here's everything it's likely to be asking for - either drop it straight in your end, or send me a version of the form that doesn't need a sign-in and I'll do it properly. Event title: Sean Collins - Good To Be Here Date: Friday 29 January 2027 Slot: 6:45-7:45pm Running time: 60 minutes, no interval Genre: Comedy / stand-up Ticket prices: £15 / £20 / £25 on your tiers Capacity: c.100, theatre-style Ticketing: Skiddle - all tickets through you External allocation: none Support: we'll be bringing our own, name to follow Promoter: SCJ Entertainment Ltd (company no. 06734322) 37 Bury Crescent, Gosport, Hampshire, PO12 3TZ Contact: John Robson, jr@biglaughboutique.com, +44 (0) 77780 55510 On sale: to be confirmed - we're announcing all the tour dates on the same day, so I'll give you a date before it happens rather than after Links: socials - I'll send the handles with the artwork Copy for the listing: Canadian stand-up Sean Collins brings Good To Be Here to Creatures. A road comic in the proper sense, Sean has spent his career working clubs and theatres across Canada and the UK - and found a second audience online, with over a million followers and 100,000,000 views across his socials. No gimmick, no theme, no slideshow. Just an hour of stand-up from someone who has done it long enough to make it look easy - warm, fast, and unsparing about family, life, getting older, and the small indignities nobody else will admit to. "The funniest person I've ever seen" - The Independent "Expert comedy, done effortlessly" - The Scotsman Three things back from you when you get a minute: - What size and shape do you want the artwork? Every venue's asked for something different so far, so I'd rather cut it right first time. - What's the age limit in your room? - And your accessibility wording - we're listing the whole tour ourselves and I want to get each room's right. Anything showing a price our end will carry "subject to venue booking fee", since it varies room to room. All the best, JR John Robson Big Laugh Boutique - Comedy Agency & Management jr@biglaughboutique.com +44 (0) 77780 55510 www.biglaughboutique.com