For 22 years I was booked through the artist/entertainment agency called URBAN GATEWAYS out of Chicago. I had to go through an acceptance process (audition?) of my performance which was called The Traveling Folksong. By being available through the Urban Gateways catalogue, I was able to secure work in the schools of all 8 counties around Chicago including Cook County. I never had to leave the home area unless I wanted to. (That made supporting and being with my family possible.)

What I'm saying is, get with an agency. They do all the contacting and booking (for a %) and send you a list of where to be and when and who to contact. It might cut the amount of cash you can ask for for a performance but you can most assuredly make up for that with massive quantities of bookings. Think of it as a quantity discount of some kind. It would be a great way to insure that the poorest schools would be able to afford your work. (That was always important to me---I thought what I had to show was valuable precisely because the students had not been exposed to it in their rather insulated lives.)

And school work is daytime--- through-the-week--- work that leaves plenty of time for adult shows and bar gigs and folklore societies and festivals and concerts on the weekends and at night. If anything, with a bit of luck, you'll have too much work. That way you can quote higher for the weekend gigs you really want to do.

The best of luck to you.

Art Thieme