Hey Furious,
Thank you for the question!
The answer is:
Hell no, my friend. This is a lifetime deal.
The DAO receives 6.9% Rev share (Not net profit but actual rev share) forever.
I believe we are establishing a sustainable comedy production and distribution company. This is the industry I’ve been in for 30 years and I plan to be in it until I die, and even then, the company will be established to well outlive me!
I do love REV SHARE always. Thanks for clarifying. GL with this. 
Appreciate you and your furious anger.
I really like this. There’s a lot of benefits for holders and getting the ApeCoin brand out there. Hope you do this in London. Is that on the map for you?
London is one of my favorite cities in the world and our COO is out there so, yes, London would be a Day 1 Laughing Ape Chapter.
Great proposal, rooting for you @AaronHaber
Thank you, award-winning Metaverse Architect: Faraz Mobin. It’s been great working with you these 2+ years and I cannot wait to see where this AIP takes us!
Hi Aaron!
It’s great to see you putting up another proposal. I’m a huge fan of your comedy shows and love that you have brought them to the DAO. I’m excited to see you using comedy as a tool to onboard more people. I do have some questions and comments.
Could you explain how the comedy events will gross tens of millions of dollars? Is there research to support this statement?
Where does this fit into the Steps to Implement & Timeline?
I also second having the smoking jacket in small sizes and PINK as an option 
I’m going to be honest with you Aaron, this is a lot of money to ask in one proposal. Could you give a breakdown of how it will be spent? Also, have you considered breaking this into different pieces and focusing on one at a time, proving your concept, then coming back to the DAO for additional funding?
Once again, thanks for putting up your proposal and love what you’ve brought to the DAO so far. I look forward to your reply.
Aaron: Food for thought as this progresses. Given this is a lifetime ask and not a 1 year ask, helping the DAO understand how you plan to handle the tax burden this grant creates would be helpful. Have worked through similar issues with other proposals, so happy to help if you have any questions here.
Hi @AaronHaber,
The community feedback period for your proposal would be ending in roughly 24 hours.
If you’re content with the feedback received, your next steps are to finalize your proposal using the AIP Draft Template.
A moderator will reach out to the author to finalize the AIP Draft. Upon receipt of the final Draft, we will review and provide instructions on the next steps.
Are you ready to proceed to the next phase or do you wish to extend community discussion for another 7 days?
We look forward to hearing from you.
I said I was waiting for the amazing @adventurousape questions and you did not disappoint!
I need to learn how to format forum responses in that ever so fancy way. Color me jealous.
“Could you explain how the comedy events will gross tens of millions of dollars? Is there research to support this statement?”
Yes!
There are a couple of different items I’d point to in support of my statement:
They are now owned by AMC the world’s largest theater chain, which most certainly helps, they’ve also pivoted to adding some religious themed events (although that’s not all they’re doing now).
https://www.the-numbers.com/market/distributor/Fathom-Events
"With a total of $513.7 million earned from ticket sales at live performances between Oct. 16, 2022 through Oct. 15 of this year, the top 30 comedy touring artists collectively performed for more than 6.2 million fans at 1,617 shows "
These top grossing comedy shows have a finite amount of seats. Once the venue is sold out, they can’t sell any more tickets.
Laughing Ape will not have that problem. In addition to selling out a venue we can also offer tens of thousands more seats (at least) via partnerships with movie theater chains. This is not counting the major scalability of at home/connected device sales as well. (PPV/Streaming).
Some people want to watch the comedian IRL at the venue. Some will want the communal experience of being in a movie theater with hundreds of other comedy fans, some will want an intimate experience with close friends or loved ones at home (Some might not have any movie theaters or IRL venues near them).
Here’s another article with the top 10 grossing comedy tours of 2023:
Billboard Announces Top 10 Highest Grossing Comics on Tour in 2023 – 800 Pound Gorilla.
With the funding from the DAO, we would attract top talent, be able to enter into touring/streaming deals with them and would work to crack this top 10 list within the first 3 years.
In conclusion (for this point, anyway):
There is a history of live events grossing millions in movie theaters, the live comedy tour business grosses hundreds of millions of dollars and I believe putting these two ideas together (and I do have close contacts with majors players in the Movie Theater Exhibition industry to get these meetings).
We only expect to take in a certain percentage of box office gross (I’d rather not discuss them publicly as it may affect future negotiations with these enttites) but this is where I’m getting my “we’re pretty darn sure our comedy events will gross tens of millions of dollars during the lifetime of a similar deal with a chain such as AMC.” numbers from (even though I’ve presented them in my own, dare I say “charmingly” folksy way.
Where does this fit into the Steps to Implement & Timeline?
This is an oversight on my part and I will edit this post to include the school.
FYI, I’ve opened comedy schools in Chicago, NYC and Los Angeles, have taught (or have hired other comedians to teach) hundred and hundreds of students. I’ve held classes online as well as IRL and was hired to create a comedy masterclass syllabus for Princeton Universtiy that I taught as a visiting lecturer for a few years.
I see this as probably starting in Q2 after funding, it would be ready to go Day 1 but I would like to create a comprehensive BD/marketing plan including the school before we accept students.
But basically “Hey, you’re a Member of a local Laughing Ape Chapter, did you know the founder Aaron Haber (or other amazing comedians he hired) teach online comedy classes?” and also “Hey, you’ve come to one of our IRL shows or live-stream shows or metaverse shows or movie theater shows” here’s a QR code or follow up email etc about Laughing Ape Comedy Classes.
“I also second having the smoking jacket in small sizes and PINK as an option ”
Seems like it’s a no brainer to have a pink jacket and I think it would look amazingly sharp.
I’m going to be honest with you Aaron, this is a lot of money to ask in one proposal. Could you give a breakdown of how it will be spent?
I know, it’s a lot of freaking money, right?! The number is not random though. This is a figure based on several different financial projections/exercises I’ve done with my team and some trusted financial type braniacs in my personal circle.
I know this seems counterintuitive but I don’t want to take a smaller amount of money than what I truly believe we need to give us the greatest chance of success. The DAO granting a couple of million, is obviously still a ton of money but I don’t just want to take money, I want to give value back.
The greatest way for Laughing Ape to give value back is by being properly and fully funded.
“Could you give a breakdown of how it will be spent?”
I will ask my team for a fancy infographic type thing as I’ve seen in other proposals but basically it’s to fund a proper team, proper marketing, to attact high level talent to sign with us/perform on our shows, create an A-list Board of Directors full of A-list comedians and industry vets (We are in talks with one huge household name right now) and items like venue rentals, tech set-up, Web3 talent and tech.
“Also, have you considered breaking this into different pieces and focusing on one at a time, proving your concept, then coming back to the DAO for additional funding?”
This was the same idea suggested to me before we launched AIP-346 and my thought was the same: We need to be fully funded to be able to implement and accomplish our goal.
Also, I love the DAO but it is an ever changing thing. The Special Council, Stewards, Voters, even the team running the Foundation can change at any time.
We could be funded partially now and then everything could change and we’re not able to fully fund our needs and accomplish our goals. This would not only suck for Laughing Ape but also for the DAO as the DAO will receive 6.9% rev share (not net profits, Rev share) annually forever.
Even with a deal in place, a new team could come in and hold things up and challenge the deal.
If the DAO trusts me/Laughing Ape enough to fund us, this proposal will pass and if the DAO doesn’t beleive this is a good idea, it won’t.
I am hoping the DAO voters and delegations can see, I’m here for the long haul (30 years in the comedy industry, 4 years full time in Web3 and keeping the promise of implementing AIP-346 with events in Denver and NYC so far and Austin, Los Angeles and a bunch of other cities already in the works.
Lastly I will say this:
We have entered a period of DAO where AIPs are actually passing. Not all of them but a lot of them compared to what I’m calling the “Age of Austerity” where almost any AIP with a dollar amount attached failed.
I hope $APE coin goes to a million dollars a coin, I have no control over that. But what if it’s the other way and it goes way down? What did we do with that half billion dollar treasury? I hope it wasn’t just protecting it while we watched it go down to almost nothing.
A way to ensure the DAO is always solvent is to diversify. And, no, not just diversify into other cyrpto coins but in all other types of adventures as well that can bring the DAO back value.
I also believe the DAO should look to add value beyond just financial gains.
What makes people pay attention to the DAO and want to stay or become part of the DAO?
There have to be other reasons besides watching a coin go up and down.
Laughing Ape can accomplish both these goals. If successful, we will return back 6.9% rev share in perpetuity. Whille also bringing culture and fun to the DAO at the same time as we expand the knowledge of the DAO globally and give people around the world a good feeling whe they think $APE Coin DAO.
I hope you and the other voters of the DAO give me the opportunity to make this happen.
Great question VF!
We do have a couple of different tax strategies we’re considering but need to confirm they’re all 100% legal. I do love saving my company money but I also love not being in prison.
Worst case scenario we see a chunk go to taxes and this still gives us plenty of time to implement our plans.
However, once again, I do believe there are strategies to employ where this would not be a taxable event.
Happy to hop on a call if you’d like to share your ideas (and thank you for the offer!)
-Aa
Thanks. DMed you on X with my thoughts based on some recent experience. Feel free to take or leave them as you see fit. Good luck with the rest of the process.
Much appreciated, my friend!
This topic was automatically closed after 7 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
Hi @AaronHaber,
Thank you for your ideas [and the ApeCoin DAO community for the insightful discussions].
A moderator will reach out to the author to finalize the AIP Draft using the appropriate template.
Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments. In accordance with DAO-approved guidelines, if the author does not respond within 30 days, the proposal will be automatically transferred to the Withdrawn category, and the author can re-submit the idea.
Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,
@AaronHaber has completed editing their AIP Idea to be their AIP Draft.
This proposal has been assigned the AIP ID Number 424.
Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.
Kind Regards,
This is a really innovative idea, @AaronHaber. I love all the detail and it’s very well thought out. Curious how this gets refined with community feedback. But just want to say that innovating traditional business models for all the beneifts of the new Web3 world and doing it using Ape IP is exactly what we need to grow this community. Thank you for that!
Hi ApeCoin DAO Community,
Our team has reviewed and discussed @AaronHaber’s AIP Draft and have sent a list of initial questions. We await answers.
Follow this Topic as further updates will be posted here in the comments.
Kind Regards,