What the #&$@ is my job, anyway?

I've been lucky enough to speak on a
number of panels lately, and one of the most common questions I get is,
"What does a producer actually do?"

It usually takes me about fifteen
minutes to explain how a producer's job may vary from raising money to selling
merchandise to giving notes to a director to explaining to a hair dresser that
the star of the show doesn't want her in her dressing room because her feet
smell. (True story)

And after that fifteen minute
lecture, my other panelists are usually ready to gag me because I've taken so
much of their time.

So, I decided I needed to distill my
definition down to one succinct sentence.  So here goes:

A commercial
producer's job is to get as
many people to see his or her show as possible.

That task can be accomplished through
raising money to get the show up, through giving notes to the authors in order
to make it a better show that people want to see, through marketing and
advertising, and yes through buying some odor eaters so that star's nasal
passages don't swell and cause her to miss another show.

But everything you do is in order for
it to be seen by as many people as possible.

Because if lots and lots and lots of
people see it . . . the investors should be happy because they are hopefully making money, and the authors should
be happy because their voice is being heard.

Future fellow panelists, you can
leave the gags at home now.  Although, maybe that's not a smart
idea.  I've got some other things to say.

Speaking of panels, I've been asked to be a part of
a very exciting panel at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association conference in
Las Vegas on 11/15.  It's the largest conference on word of mouth
marketing, so it should be a lot of fun.  And right after my panel,
there's a keynote address by Andy Sernovitz who wrote "Word of Mouth
Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking". I'm an Andy fan. He's smart. Oh, and he mentions Altar Boyz in his book.