The numbers behind ActBook
Forty years of booking our own shows, in numbers.
We didn't model these on a spreadsheet. They come straight out of the account that runs our own circus company — the same software you'd sign up for. Here's what four decades of booking live entertainment actually looks like.
Three things four decades taught us
Nothing here is manufactured — it's what the dataset says.
Between a third and a half of clients book you again — and it's not just us.
Of the 1,613 clients who've booked a real gig with our own company, 489 came back — a 30% repeat rate. To check that wasn't a fluke, we ran the same query on two other long-running acts that book on the same software. Every one of them sees a big share of clients return:
That repeat business is the single most valuable number in an entertainer's book — and it's the whole reason ActBook nudges you to reach back out around a client's anniversary instead of letting them drift.
A booking is rarely one date.
Those 3,225 bookings hold 5,529 dated shows — about 1.7 performances per booking. Fairs, tours, and a week of school assemblies are normal, which is exactly why the booking link lets a client request several dates at once instead of one appointment.
Your book fills with leads faster than customers.
114,736 people are in the book; 1,613 have actually booked. Most of your list is people who inquired, met you at a show, or came in on an import — not paying customers yet. That gap is the opportunity: the follow-ups, the re-book reminders, and staying in touch are what turn a name in the book into next year's gig.
Run your act on the same system.
The software behind these numbers is ActBook. 14 days free, no credit card.
Start your free trial →About the data. The headline figures are live counts from our own company, Cirque Amongus (formerly the Semcycle unicycle act, est. 1986). The repeat-rate comparison adds two other long-running acts who book on the same software; their numbers are shown anonymously as a sanity check — not as an industry survey. These are three real accounts, not a projection. "Shows" are dated, confirmed performances; "bookings" exclude open quotes and cancellations; "repeat" means a client with more than one confirmed booking. Our show count covers the years since we went digital in 2000; we booked on paper and HyperCard for well over a decade before that.