Flash Sale + How Much Money Is Hasan Minhaj Making?

A peek behind the curtain…

Flash Sale + How Much Money Is Hasan Minhaj Making?
Image via Jay Goldberg Events/YouTube.

Hello, and thank you for reading Humorism! I'm writing to let you know that I'm currently running a 50% off flash sale on annual subscriptions. For the next few days only, you can subscribe for $30 rather than the usual $60.

You know the drill: this newsletter would not be possible without subscriber support. I simply could not do it any of it without you. If you’ve found Humorism at all valuable, please consider joining as a paid subscriber. Whatever you’re able to chip in, even just a few bucks via the tip jar (below), goes a long way.

Last time I sent out one of these discounts, I included a peek at Pete Davidson’s tour rider, with its unusual request for $10,000 in cash in the green room. Today I’ll offer something similar to sweeten the deal. 

If you’re like me, you may go around your daily life wondering: “How is Hasan Minhaj doing in the wake of that New Yorker exposé? Has it significantly affected his career? What sort of buying power does he still command? Why, why won’t anyone tell me the answers to these questions?”

A Few Thoughts about the Hasan Minhaj Story
And some cold hard numbers.

Good news: I’m here to tell you, or at least offer one window into the answers. At the following links you will find a contract and event settlement for Minhaj’s performance last month at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Lied Center, part of his current “Off With His Head” tour. What these documents tell us is that he still commands a respectable six-figure fee, even when he doesn’t bring in quite that much in sales. 

Screenshot of contract showing terms "Compensation: $100,000 USD… GUARANTEE, versus the right to receive 95.00% of the gross box office receipts after applicable tax and the approved expenses listed below have been deducted.

Under the contract he signed with the University of Nebraska—and I don’t know yet if these terms are common across the tour or specific to this one venue—he was entitled to either a guarantee of $100,000 or 95% of gross box office receipts after approved deductions, whichever was greater. (This is known as a “versus deal.”) As the event settlement reflects, the show didn’t quite fill the theater’s 2,151-seat capacity (for a gross potential of $158,219), selling instead 978 tickets with 216 comps (perhaps a deal for students) for a total gross of $67,192. After almost $53,000 in deductions and expenses, the show netted $14,579 in profit.

Minhaj, then, came away with a tidy $100,000.

Not bad at all—especially for a tour with more than 40 shows since it launched last year.

Thanks as always for reading, and more soon.

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