Outside The Show, Buggy ran into Vinnie Blue Nose, who was smoking a cotton candy cigarette by the side of the road.
“Hey Bugs, can I have a word?” Vinnie asked, calling him over and offering one of his cigarettes.
“No, thanks,” Buggy said. “I don’t smoke. It doesn’t agree with Mittens. I think he’s allergic.”
The bulldog in Buggy’s arms squinted at the pink smoke rising from Vinnie’s cigarette and said, “Erfff…” Vinnie didn’t put it out.
“The boss asked me to advise you on your current situation,” Blue Nose said. “He didn’t want to appear as if he were playing favorites with you in front of the other clowns, you and him being old childhood friends and all. So let’s keep this little powwow between you and me.”
A large chunk of stress melted off Buggy’s face right there. Vinnie was half his age, but the clown had more business sense than the boss’s other capos put together. If anyone could give him an idea to get him out of this jam, it would be Vinnie Blue Nose.
“Sure, Vinnie. I’m all ears for any ideas you got. To be honest, I have no idea how I’m going to get out of this mess.”
Vinnie shook his head. “I’m not here to bail you out, Bugs. You’re going to have to make it work yourself. I’m just going to give you a suggestion that might put you in the right direction.”
Buggy didn’t care. Any help from Vinnie at all would be welcomed. “What do you have in mind?”
“I only had half a cigarette to brainstorm a solution for you, so this is the best I got. I was thinking about what I’d do if I were in your situation.” Vinnie took another drag of pink smoke.
“Yeah?” Buggy asked, too impatient to wait for him to finish puffing on his death stick.
“You only have two weeks, so I’d forget about trying to get a bunch of clubs up and running for now. You just need to earn and earn big. So I’d put everything into a single show.”
Buggy nearly knocked over Mittens’s life support machine when he heard the street boss’s recommendation.
“Are you kidding me?” Buggy asked. “How the heck could I earn enough to make up for what I lost the family in just one show?”
“Make it a big show,” Vinnie said.
“But even if I had any good venues left, I’d need to sell five thousand tickets at least. There’s no place big enough for that kind of show in all of Little Bigtop.”
“Then don’t focus on selling a lot of tickets. Focus on selling tickets for a lot. Charge ten or twenty times the amount you normally charge.”
“How am I going to charge ten times the normal amount? Who the heck would pay that?”
“Just about anyone will, if you make it worth their time. Forget about your normal comedians. You need to do something new. You need to create a sensation. It needs to be a once-in-a-lifetime event.”
“And what would that be?”
“That’s what you have to figure out. Think about what kind of show you’d pay a thousand bucks to go see. If it’s not worth your money it’s not going to be worth anyone else’s. Once you’ve got a performance you’re excited about, then spread the word around. It has to be the talk of the town, the kind of show that makes people feel stupid if they don’t attend.”
“That’s easier said than done, Vinnie. And I still don’t have a venue.”
“Rent one. If it’s just for one night it should be easy. Miss Tina has a venue space over at the Rainbow Gardens that might be suitable. Ask her.”
Buggy looked away from the street boss and shook his head. He didn’t know how to respond. What he was suggesting seemed impossible.
“In any case, you should start brainstorming as soon as you can,” Vinnie said, tossing his cigarette in a garbage can. “The only way to earn big is to think big.”
“Yeah, thanks…” Buggy’s voice went soft.
Then Vinnie patted the old guy on the back. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll come up with something. Comedy is in your blood. You’re a clown.”
Buggy watched Vinnie as he walked away in his nicely pressed turquoise suit and neatly cut dark-blue hair. Buggy had no idea where the heck the world grew clowns like Vinnie Blue Nose. The man seemed perfect in every way. Only a guy like Vinnie would dare to propose such an ambitious idea. And only a guy like him would be capable of pulling it off.
Buggy knew that if he was going to survive in the business he’d have to become more like that young blue-nosed clown. He was going to have to step up his game.