If you can do a good measure of all of these, you may be a Ewan MacColl or " add your favorite name here"

I suppose it helps to be part of a married team who double the attraction, but only have one household to support....(being part of a band changes the equation. No matter HOW good they are, they have to earn more per gig or sell more CDs to make the same money per person)

This was written by me, a member of the audience, who has watched folks try to entertain me for 40 years...there are performers I will go see anytime, in any weather, at almost any price, whose enthusiasm for the MUSIC and rapport with the audience is astounding. But there are others whose name stirs up feelings of "oh, yeah...they are pretty good, but the show never changes. They are running on autopilot and haven't added new material in years." or whose RECORDED material somehow feels 'flat' and sterile. You know what I mean...a record can't capture being there, but some recordings have more 'feeling' than others, and often it's really hard to say why.

...so, there's MY take on 'stuff to consider'....no magic formulas, but maybe something to chew on.