If you feed them, they will come.
It’s not like Luke Combs needs to do anything gimmicky to get fans to attend his shows. He’s one of the biggest country stars on the planet, and he’s currently selling out stadiums across the country on his Growin’ Up And Gettin’ Old Stadium Tour.
However, if the “Where The Wild Things Are” singer does ever need to get “butts in seats,” so to speak, he and comedian Theo Von seemingly cracked the code during an episode of the This Past Weekend podcast. The solution to low ticket sales has been sitting right in front of us this whole time.
As Theo and Luke talked about basically everything under the sun, being a father eventually came up, which isn’t surprising on the heels of Combs’ new album Fathers & Sons. Luke got to talking about how fortunate he is to have his touring schedule, explaining that though he has to travel two or three days a week, he’s usually home three or four days.
Combs pointed out that’s more time than some (if not most) people get to spend with their families during the workweek. And when he comes back from playing in front of 70,000 people, his life is pretty simple with his wife and kids. That’s when the topic of buffets came up, and the pair proceeded to talk about and spit ball ideas around the greatest culinary invention ever created.
Theo pointed out that a world tour built around a promise of an all-you-can-eat buffet being available afterwards might not be a bad idea:
“That would be the best tour you could have, if you had a ‘Kids Eat Free Tour.’”
After Combs got all of his laughing out about the idea, he came back to Von with some very solid partnership ideas:
“Sponsored by Ryan’s buffet, or Golden Corral, either one.”
The comedian continued to talk food, even mentioning an absurd idea about a “Chicken Nugget Camera” in lieu of the traditional “Kiss Camera.” Theo then got to thinking about the future, and stated that buffets-after-concerts might be a proactive idea considering some people can’t afford food.
Combs liked where Theo’s head was at, and put it into words a little bit better than the popular comedian:
“Concerts will be events. Food will be how to get people to events. Pay for the show, stay for the food.”
It might sound crazy, but imagine going to a rocking concert and then getting to access a fully stocked buffet afterwards that’s included in the price of admission. That just might be enough for me to justify some of these insanely high ticket prices that I’ve been seeing lately.
Would a buffet big enough to serve tens of thousands of people be a logistical nightmare? Sure it would. But it would also be one of the best incentives that’s ever been offered alongside a concert ticket. If it ever comes to fruition, Theo Von will have to be credited for the idea, though Luke Combs would have the honors of bringing it to life.
You can hear more about the absurd idea below: