- Dinner Cut
- Posts
- HOW TO HOST
HOW TO HOST
Hosting, organizing, producing...it's all kinda the same
Matty Merritt
July 07, 2025
Hi angels!
I am having a public swimming hole summer in a huge way. Chicago has so many gorgeous public pools and I am hauling my ass to the lake this summer like nobody’s business. “Oh my god people pee in the po-” broo yeahhhh who caressss my tap water probably has lead in it and all the hot dogs I’m slurping down are going to give me cancer. We’re in the end times! Chlorinated urine and murky lake water are the least of my worries.
It’s a bit of a long one today, so let’s get into it.
Since March, I’ve been organizing community self defense classes about every other week on Monday nights in a Church basement. I started thinking about organizing some kind of self defense class last fall when I read about this group of queer people in Missouri that started a fight club. But then winter got busy and I kinda forgot about it. But in January, there were growing reports of some pretty horrifying sexual assaults in my neighborhood. I searched for some self defense classes in my area and I couldn’t find anything that didn’t have the vibe of an ex-military dude who was going to misgender my friends the whole time. So I said, “what the hell, I’ll just do it myself.”
yes, yes, it’s giving “Bottoms”
Tonight will be our ninth basement self defense class and I feel lucky we’ve been able to sustain it this long through pure COMMUNITY, BABY. I’ve learned so much since our first class in March and now I’d like to share those gorgeous little tricks with you. These are specific to hosting the classes, but tbh they are pretty universal when it comes to hosting any kind of show/class/workshop/community event.
I also asked a few of my favorite producers and organizers in the city what they learned the hard way in the early days of hosting events and I will scatter their perfect responses throughout the newsletter as I see fit. Some of their responses have been edited for clarity.
It’s mostly sending emails
“The first thing I learned the hard way about organizing a show or community event is that not everyone reads a contract or policy document. It makes me understand how people get tricked by not reading the terms and conditions of different apps or whatever. People will commit to an event but then ask questions that were sent before confirmation. I would also add to that point, communication is a thing that always slips through the cracks if ‘too many cooks are in the kitchen.’ People will speak to one person, then things get lost in translation if it doesn’t get documented through email.
I try to keep communication strictly through email because having to check instagram DMs when I’m on a social media break or when a person texts me (my phone is always on do not disturb) I have brain farts where I either think I responded or it gets lost in the ADHD files in my brain. Being able to look at a specific email with all the exchanges makes it easier to reference contracts, tech, and etc. And I can have more organization when it comes to planning events and all that jazz.”
So much of organizing and producing events is sending emails or following up on emails or replying “sorry for the delay…” And if you’re not sending an email, you’re making a spreadsheet with the budget or schedule that you will soon be sending in an email. One reason the self defense classes have gone so smoothly is that I am not teaching classes, I am simply sending the emails.
We have two great instructors, Chi Williams and Aspen Drake, who alternate teaching the classes. I go to every class, but my whole job is to take care of the logistics so they can focus on teaching. Having an email guy™ who can also make sure everyone is paid, prints out the liability form, brings snacks, sets up the fans, and communicates with the venue is so vital.
When it comes to shows…Like most DIY performers, I am also the email guy™ for my own shows. While I love producing my own shows and writing them and figuring out tech and hauling six bags of props to a dive bar on a weeknight, it can be exhausting if you’re not careful.
If you’re a creative person who can work a spreadsheet and organize a rehearsal schedule, be wary of ideas guys™ who will ask you for coffee and spew pitches at you for outrageous projects. You have ideas as well.
“There's a lot that goes into making/putting on an event. I've been an entertainer for over a decade and started putting on my own shows (stand up comedy events) about a year or two into being a comedian. There's so many important factors when putting on a show...making sure the space makes sense for the event, making sure the acts are a good variety for the audience to experience, but I think the most important part of putting on an event is a mixture between ‘not caring how many people show up’ and ‘always give 100%.’
If you're like me you're the producer and the host and the booker and marketing and etc (some venues help me a lot with marketing)....so it's hard to not care about how many people show up. But whoever is there they are there for what you made. Most events don't start with 200 attendees or sold out or max capacity or w/e you think that level of success is...they start with a couple people. And if you show those couple people your 100% show full of energy they're gonna tell their friends. The next time your show comes around people will remember how much fun they had and recommend it to their friends or even come back and bring their friends. But if you're doing a show for 20 people and complain the whole time about unfilled seats or doing crowd work asking people why they came to this event....it just makes people feel uncomfortable and ask themselves ‘should i be here?’
So always give your best show no matter how many people are out there and don't complain about your attendance to the people who are already there at your experience. Also I'm not famous yet so maybe I've been doing it 100% wrong, maybe my advice should be to get on Kill Tony and hope Rogan wants to wrestle me. Who knows lol.”
Your community is your greatest resource
My angel friend Max Nutter designed our sick poster, I found the instructors Chi and Aspen through Logan Square Mutual Aid, Grace Church of Logan Square is in my neighborhood, and my favorite local reporter Ariel Parrella-Aureli wrote up our classes after seeing my incessant Instagram posts.
Be ok with losing money, try to not
My goal with the self defense classes, like most of my shows, is to create a sustainable way for them to fund themselves. To trust that if the community likes the classes, they will make sure they stay alive. It costs about $170 to produce one class, instructors make $60 per class and the space costs $75. Chi, Aspen, and I decided to cover the cost of an Uber home if an instructor needs it, which is usually around $15-$20 per class. I also like to have some snacks or gatorades for everyone.
We usually cap the class at 20 people, 15 paid spots and 5 free spots reserved for trans folks.
If we hit those exact numbers, we make $225 which pays for our expenses and leaves us with a little extra for a rainy day fund or to reinvest and buy some more equipment.
Sometimes we get a lot of outside donations or we have a full class. But sometimes three people show up, which is why we have that rainy day fund. Incredibly we are only in the red about $40 for self defense class which is truly huge.
At the end of the day…Keep your costs low, but if you’re hosting events, you’re eventually going to lose $200 in one single gorgeous summer night.
Haul your ass to the farmers market
“Consistency is key. In having a recurring monthly event, it’s not guaranteed that everyone will keep showing up on their own- It takes a lot of posting and emailing and reminding people to get them in the door. One month, you might have incredible turnout and then barely anyone the next if you don’t keep up with outreach.”
“You have to put up posters and no one told me that.”
Here are all the ways I promote this gorgeous little class:
I hand out posters at the Logan Square farmers market even though it’s hot as frikin’ hell out there.
Posting on Instagram and the Logan Square Community Facebook page.
We collect emails at the end of our liability form and ask people if they want to subscribe to our monthly email newsletter that has future class dates. Not to be all data collector, but getting someone’s email is huge. Don’t abuse it.
I just started emailing businesses in Logan telling them about the class, especially bars and restaurants.
I’m talking about it all the time, like an annoying amount.
I joined the West Town Chamber of Commerce, which lets me promote the classes in their weekly newsletter. We’ve gotten so many people that way!
Ughhh I do submit to City Cast events, but they have never featured us. Some day.
Asking people to show up to your event can feel humiliating, but you just have to get over it. For every event I host, I try to remember:
What I’m doing is super cool and people want to know about it!!!
No one on this planet owes me a damn ounce of their time.
“It's so easy to panic and stress about turnout, even when you've done everything right - and it's just not worth it!
This used to happen to me all the time: I would organize a cool event and then begin promoting. I'd design a cool poster, post on Instagram, send out a newsletter, even hang up flyers - and still, leading up to the event I would spiral, convinced no one was going to come. But people always showed up and, without fail, the event would always be so fun! I’d end the night feeling really accomplished and happy, as well as really annoyed at myself for freaking out and giving myself a heart attack(s) in the weeks prior.
Eventually I realized that promotion is important, but trusting yourself and your community is just as important. If you have an idea for an event, get it out into the world and trust that other people are going to be just as excited about it as you are. It's not worth losing your mind every time you organize something. Event organizers are doing something special by bringing the community together and people recognize that and will want to show up. Always remember that!”
If you want to support our basement self defense class…
Come to our next class TONIGHT at 7pm, Grace Church of Logan Square
Come to Welcome to the Show on Monday, July 28, at The Getaway in Lincoln Square at 7:30pm. Chi and Aspen will be kicking the host Derek’s ass in front of an audience!
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter for future class dates
Venmo me $15 to sponsor a trans participant! Or more if you’re rich idgaf! @ matty-merritt (thank you Charlie and Roderick for your previous donations!)
Some non-self defense class stuff
Comedian and producer Jay Light wrote a great piece about producing comedy shows that kinda perfectly compliments this newsletter where he says, “If you’re there for the people, you’ve got to let the people know you’re there. That means putting in concerted effort in its existence.” Hell yeah.
This beach playlist I made from Morning Brew reader recs kinda popped off?
Next Issue(s): Next week I’ll share a shorter newsletter with some more advice from producers and organizers! Darien sent me an 18 minute voice memo about his first time organizing a jazz festival and I don’t want to cut it down! So it’s getting it’s own newsletter. Love that guy.
After that, I’m so excited for y’all to read my interview with poet, horse photoshopper, and instagram icon behind the iconic horses_and_memories.
Thanks for reading and, as always, don’t tell me about any typos unless they are really bad.
Reply