We now have a foundation of knowledge about the differences between large and small competitions, and what causes most contests to fail. For optimal results, a small show needs efficient structure, properly heated events, good event selection, a good announcer and crowd interaction. Remember, all of these moving parts are working towards a common goal – keeping the crowd entertained. Let’s get cracking on how to produce a good show!
Efficient Structure
A contest needs to be run efficiently to avoid losing the crowd. Don’t get me wrong, down-time is inevitable, the key is minimizing it and planning for when it does occur. I’m of the opinion that you only need three people (outside of volunteers) to run a show- an announcer, a head judge, and a scorer.
The announcer should only be focused on the crowd. The head judge is in charge of keeping the events running smoothly, organizing timers, and you guessed it – Judging! It’s also the head judge’s job to make sure that the volunteers are doing their tasks correctly. How useful is a timer that isn’t positioned properly to see when a saw cut is finished? Not very useful at all, it’s the head judge’s responsibility to prevent this from happening. The scorer needs to record the results and relay that information to the announcer so that he/she can build more suspense in the competition which leads me into the next topic – heating the events properly.
Heating the Events Properly
People of similar skill levels should compete in the same heat. Why? For one thing, crowds enjoy close races. Often times the most exciting part of a contest involves a photo finish. Who cares if the photo finish is after 2 straight minutes of whacking away at an underhand block? The crowd doesn’t, neither should you.
Another reason to heat events according to skill level is to speed up the pace of the show. It only makes sense to feature novice choppers against each other in the same heat. The crowd is entertained because they have similar skill levels, and the show isn’t slowed by multiple heats that drag on for 3 minutes.
The most important reason for heating the events is to build suspense for the upcoming heats. Let’s face it, most first-time spectators are amazed that anyone would ever swing an axe so close to their toes. When you increase the skill level in every heat, from the spectator’s standpoint, it just keeps getting better! Keep in mind, it is the announcer’s job to create the suspense because he/she has the results handy (thank you, scorer!).
Build the suspense with heats of increasing skill levels and watch the crowd stick around. How can they leave now, they have to see what’s next!
Good Event Selection
A good variety of events is crucial in keeping a crowd’s attention. Not all events are created equal, some are more fast paced than others. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t feature slow-paced events in your contest, just do it intelligently and bookend it with fast paced events. The most important thing is that you keep it fresh for the crowd. Every single event should showcase something unique.
——Sidenote——
I’m going to pick on chainsaw events now. Before you jump down my throat, take your competitor shoes off, put on your spectator flip flops and take a deep breath. Remember, the main goal is entertaining the crowd.
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As I previously mentioned, New England is rampant with shows that feature 3+ chainsaw events that are usually run consecutively. In almost every instance, unless you have a really great announcer, the crowd is down to about half of its original size by the time the hotsaws are finished. Why? Chainsaw events have a lot of down-time. That doesn’t make them bad events, but it’s a fact that competitors need to warm up their saws, etc. The problem exists when you have a show with multiple hotsaw events that don’t offer anything unique. A modified production saw and a bike saw are two separate things, especially from the crowd’s perspective. In that case, it’s fine to run two chainsaw events. You’re showing the crowd something different and you can build the suspense for the bike saws while the production saws are running.
The worst are the shows that feature muffler and pipe classes based upon different sized saws. Think about it from the crowd’s perspective, do they really even care that you just cut .3 seconds faster with the same saw because you took the muffler off and now you’re using a pipe? Sorry to break it to you, but most people don’t care or even understand what’s going on. All they know is that it’s really loud and they’ve been watching the same thing for two hours. “Hey Louise, let’s go check out that ‘watching paint dry’ exhibition near the tilt-a-whirl!”
Poor event selection is certainly not exclusive to chainsaw-palooza. As mentioned in the previous article, it can be avoided by evaluating each event and asking yourself how it can be presented in a more entertaining manner for the crowd. If you remember to keep the crowd in mind and offer something unique in each event, you’ll be in good shape.
Being a Good Announcer/Crowd Interaction
An announcer should not be a robot that yells, “3,2,1, GO!” The job of the announcer is to entertain and interact with the crowd. In reality, good announcers are actually storytellers. They explain events, interview competitors, perform demonstrations, run spectator contests and build suspense for future heats and events.
Crowd interaction is necessary to take a contest to the next level. Let the crowd know that you are their guide for the day and offer to answer their questions. The more they participate in the show, the more they will feel that they are part of the show. Ask them questions, get spectators to participate in fun contests and give them free stuff! Every show should have free stuff to give away. People love getting free swag and you’d be surprised at what they’ll do to get it. I actually got a group of over 100 people, mostly grown adults, to “roar like a bear” at a competition this year.
Taking it a step further, if an announcer can get the crowd emotionally invested in the competition, the results are even better. This can be done by talking about and interviewing the competitors. Spectators will begin to root for favorites, creating a much higher level of enthusiasm in the crowd. It’s no different than a baseball fan from New England rooting for the Red Sox. What’s more interesting for a Sox fan, the Red Sox/Yankees game or watching the Diamondbacks play the Giants? They’ll choose the Sox game everytime. Why? Because they are emotionally invested in the game. The same principle applies, albeit to a lesser extent, at a lumberjack contest.
I could go on forever about techniques and tricks for announcers, but that is beyond the scope of the article. Please feel free to comment and agree or disagree with anything I’ve written. Just keep in mind that this article is not meant to be an all-inclusive guide to running a lumberjack contest. It is simply, in my opinion, how to run a good competition by keeping the crowd entertained. Thanks for reading!