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The Thing I Love About Workin WHAT MAKES A STAR A STAR?
L ast fall, my team produced a gala dinner for the 2022 Executive Conference on Real Estate (eCore) Summit in Miami. It was a high-pressure job, and one of our duties was wrangling the night’s talent — renowned businessman and “Shark Tank’’ star Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary. I’m not going to lie: We were a little nervous! I felt confident that Mr. Wonderful was the right fit for our audience and could hold the room, but on “Shark Tank,” he’s known for his aggressive, direct, and sometimes outright difficult personality. That left a big question: What would he be like in person? (Personality-wise, working with celebrity talent is a little bit like playing Russian roulette — you never know what you’ll get.) When I arrived on set to prepare Kevin for his speech, I braced myself for an onslaught of demands and scathing looks. But I shouldn’t have worried. It turns out Mr. Wonderful is one of the kindest, most welcoming people I’ve encountered in my many years working with keynote speakers. He was helpful
and open-minded during the entire prep process, and the second he walked on stage, he enthralled the audience with stories about his unique approach to business. Kevin’s unconventional speech had nothing to do with real estate, but that didn’t matter: He engaged the crowd immediately and kept them hooked with his business knowledge and insights into his decision-making process. It was incredible to watch! When he walked off stage, I compared his personality behind the scenes with his powerful presence at the mic. I thought, “Wow — so that combination is what made Kevin O’Leary famous.” Discovering the source of each person’s “it factor” is one of my favorite things about working with celebrities. We all have impressions of people like Kevin O’Leary, Shaquille O’Neal, Andy Cohen, and Magic Johnson from seeing them on TV and reading about them in the newspaper. But an in-person experience is different. When you get up close and personal with that skill, talent, and magnetism, you can really see what makes a star a star. It’s the difference between watching a basketball game on TV and seeing one from the first row of the bleachers, with the squeak of shoes all around the lightning-fast hands of a pro dribbling just a few feet away. I’m lucky enough to have this opportunity all the time. In the last year, my team has produced events featuring all of the celebrities I just named, plus dozens of others, including paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy and Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska (who appeared side-by-side with Hilary Clinton, Matt Damon, Jimmy Fallon, and other A-listers to launch her foundation). Through that kaleidoscope of events, I discovered that Magic Johnson is a natural-born storyteller. He wouldn’t stay on stage while he spoke at the Executive Capital (eCap) Summit. Instead, he jumped down into the crowd and walked through the tables, spinning stories as he went. I also realized that one of the keys to Andy Cohen’s star power as a talk show host, producer, and writer is his ability to improvise. When he arrived to host the Humane Society of the United States’s To the Rescue! Gala last fall and got a feel for the room, he took the script we’d worked on for weeks and made brilliant, last-minute changes to engage the audience even more. Last but far from least, I found out that Shaq’s big personality is a match for his physical size and skill on the
• Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary is Canadian by birth but Did You Know This Celebrity Trivia? 6 SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT EVENTIQUE TALENT moved his family there while he worked for the United Nations. • Shaquille O’Neal started his legendary growth spurt early. By the time he turned 10, he was already 6 feet, 4 inches tall! Today, he stands an impressive 7-foot-1. • Andy Cohen is a millionaire, but he doesn’t have expensive food tastes. According to Screen Rant, “One of his favorite foods is a McDonald’s value meal with two cheeseburgers, super-sized fries, and a medium Diet Coke.” spent part of his childhood in Cambodia. His stepfather • Magic Johnson’s real name is Earvin Johnson Jr. — and his wife Cookie’s real name is Earlitha! (Now their nicknames make a little more sense.) • Millie Bobby Brown has a pet rabbit named Eeyore, and she likes to bring him to her film sets in a stroller. He watched her act in “Enola Holmes 2.” • David Beckham is almost as famous for modeling as he is for playing soccer. According to CNN, Tommy Hilfiger named him “the No. 1 underwear model of the century.”
ng With Celebrities
basketball court. During a fireside chat, he flipped the script and started interviewing his interviewer! For me, discovering these hidden facets that make celebrities who they are — that make us fond of and curious about them — is more inspiring, enlightening, and meaningful than simply meeting them and snapping a selfie. (Although I do that, too.) When I meet a superstar, I want to know what makes them tick and who they’ll become next. Sometimes, that “next” surprises me as much as Mr. Wonderful did. Just a few weeks ago, I opened the newspaper to find that entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — who I coached through an investor conference presentation years ago — is running for president! Reading the article reminded me of why I love my work. As an event planner, you never know who you’ll meet or where they’ll end up. - Liron David Founder and Executive Producer
STRESSED ABOUT BOOKING TA Let Eventique Do the Matchmaking for You
A s you read this, someone looking for love is sitting at their kitchen table, writing a check to a matchmaker. You might associate matchmaking with cultures outside the U.S., over-the-top Hallmark movies, or the disastrous scene from Disney’s “Mulan,” but The New York Times reports it’s still a thriving industry in America — and some professionals charge up to $25,000 a pop to help their clients fall in love. Why is matchmaking big business? Well, finding a date on your own is time-consuming, stressful, and rife with uncertainty — just like booking an act for a 6,000-person charity gala where hundreds of thousands of donation dollars are on the line. After a few hours of making phone calls and skimming celebrity bios, you’ll end up with your head in your hands, an impossible question revolving in your mind: Is this person really a good fit? Fortunately, event matchmakers like Eventique can take the stress out of that process. Bring the team a list of traits you need in a host, performer, or musician, and they’ll hunt down your perfect “date.” No order is too tall! Just consider the ideal match they made in 2018 for Uncommon Schools. “We were producing a 20th anniversary event for Uncommon Schools’ North Star Academy, and they asked us to identify a speaker who had an educational background and who could resonate with both parents and students in their community,” recalls Eric Weilander, Eventique’s Vice President of Creative and Strategy. “We did our homework and identified the hip-hop artist, actor, and activist Common.”
Common’s mother, Dr. Mahalia Hines, was a public school teacher and principal in Chicago, and Common himself checked all of Uncommon Schools’ boxes. Like the majority of the Newark, New Jersey, students, Common is Black, and the combination of his rise to fame in the mid-90s and his successful 2016 album (“Black America Again”) made him an exciting pick for both students and parents. Plus, he runs his own nonprofit focused on empowering young people from tough backgrounds: the Common Ground Foundation.
“We thought that his delivery could be a mix of speech and rap, and he could freestyle about his upbringing in the education system,” Eric says. “We knew he would be a good fit for the role — and it turned out he was.” On the day of the event, Common stepped onto a custom stage shaped like a 13-point star and wowed the audience side-by-side with student performances, keynotes from executive staff, and a message from Senator Cory Booker. This was far from the only time Eventique made a perfect
ALENT FOR YOUR NEXT EVENT?
Whether your organization needs an industry insider to hunt down an aboriginal Australian didgeridoo artist (as Eventique recently did for Scale Facilitation), a hookup with a high-profile
chef like Gordon Ramsay, or a stage manager for a celebrity partner like Hailey Bieber or Gwen Stefani, Eventique can make it happen. You may even discover a talent niche you didn’t know you needed to fill. When Metapurse asked Eventique to source a roaming physical artist to counterbalance the digital art at its Dreamverse NFT and music festival, they tapped NAPKIN KILLA — a “cartoon assassin for hire.” He wandered the NFT-filled space, doodling caricatures on cocktail napkins for a crowd of 3,000 delighted guests. The portraits generated so much buzz that attendees left the gallery to stand in line! Next time your company hosts an event, let Eventique take talent sourcing off your hands. Scan the QR code on this page to get started or share the link with a friend who’s hunting for star power.
match: In 2020, they worked alongside The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to choose the best possible host for their virtual benefit gala. HSUS needed an entertaining host who would be passionate about their cause and a familiar face for their audience, so Eventique pitched “Saturday Night Live” actress and comedian Cecily Strong. “She’d been on our radar for some time as someone who was funny and personable. Plus, we knew she was a dog lover and owned a rescue dog!” Eric says. Cecily was an unconventional choice: She didn’t host many events and was considered “untapped” in the space. But that didn’t stop Eventique. “We brought our recommendation to HSUS, and she was also mutually on their list of people to watch,” Eric says. “The timing was right, and she hosted their one and only virtual To the Rescue! Gala in November of 2020.” In some ways, sourcing and managing celebrity talent with a professional event team is a choose-your-own adventure. It can be as hands-off as the hunt for Common or as collaborative as Eventique’s recent production of Variety’s 2023 Power of Women. At that event, honorees Judy Blume, Natasha Lyonne, Rosie Perez, Kelly Ripa, and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez were already guaranteed to make appearances — Eventique simply managed their time on stage and provided white-glove support through the process.
Meet Tony, The ‘Talent Whisperer’ Eventique’s Stage Manager Coaches Hollywood Stars, CEOs, and More
M ost people would be starstruck simply meeting “Stranger Things” actress Millie Bobby Brown in person — let alone coaching her through delivering a speech to more than 1,400 people. But for Eventique Stage Manager Tony Mayes, prepping Millie for the 2019 UNICEF World Children’s Day event was just another day at the office. “I’m on a first-name basis with any talent on stage — Millie Bobby Brown, David Beckham, and all of those people — because I work with them one-on-one,” Tony explains. “I’ll say, ‘Hey Millie, we’re going to do this script.’ I’m there getting to know her and her parents.” You can think of Tony as Eventique’s “talent whisperer.” For more than five years, he has gone above and beyond the stage manager’s call of duty to coordinate presenters and performers, oversee staging and positioning, coach speakers through their moments in the spotlight, and ensure the needs of the event’s talent and crew are met. During an Eventique production, he’s a
key part of the team delivering white-glove service and ensuring every second of stage time turns out flawlessly. “We handle all of the backstage moves, all of the assistant stage managers, and all the furniture and prop moves,” he explains. “... We also do green rooms, talent wrangling, and choreography to a degree — meaning stage positioning and flow. We even help with the camera shots a lot. I get on stage and give recommendations.” For Tony, the stakes are high. His guidance can make or break a keynote speech, so he has to deliver every time. “One of my jobs is to really bond with whoever is speaking on stage. CEOs and CFOs who are worth millions and run huge companies will gravitate to me, looking for help to get them through that nervous time. I get thank you cards all the time from those executives saying, ‘I still use your techniques when I go around the world and do my keynotes!’” Tony says.
One of Tony’s go-to pieces of advice is “practice as you play.”
“Speak out loud when you practice your speech and run it every single day in your hotel room, at the office, in front of your colleagues — just as much as you can,” Tony says, adding that this technique leverages the fact that, “We’re all rockstars in the privacy of our own homes.” If you pretend you’re on stage everywhere you go — in your car listening to music, singing in the shower, etc. — then your “play” becomes practice for the real thing. Tony learned this technique and his other stage manager skills over decades of working in New York. He started out as a performer but quickly learned carpentry to build sets, wiring skills to become a theatrical electrician, and audio mixing to handle sound design. Soon, he was producing events focused on his true passion: tap dancing.
“I started producing for the American Tap Dance Foundation, which ran what was at the time the largest tap festival in the world. I was a production assistant, then I became the associate producer of the show ‘Tap City’ for the NYC Tap Festival,” Tony says. “I think I was 22 or 23. I really got my chops there, then started producing live dance and bringing artists in from all over the world, handling everything from company management to visas.” During that time, Tony worked with “every major tap dancer in the world,” including MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner Michelle Dorrance. When he isn’t wrangling celebrities or coaching CEOs for Eventique, he teaches tap at New York’s Broadway Dance Center.
JUST WRAPPED
Welcome to “Just Wrapped,” a monthly summary of what Eventique’s team has been up to. Every year, Eventique plans corporate parties, virtual experiences, concerts, charity galas, and more. This is just a small peek behind the curtain. The One Show — The One Show bills itself as “the world’s most prestigious awards show in advertising, design, and digital marketing,” and on May 19, Eventique produced its 50th anniversary event. The One Club for Creativity welcomed roughly 800 attendees — including 600 global advertisers and more than 200 students — to the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. There, they admired an installation highlighting advertising history across five decades and chatted over custom- built, illuminated acrylic centerpieces designed to celebrate the milestone anniversary. It was an unforgettable conclusion to Creative Week 2023! Centerbridge’s Investment Partner Meeting — In late April, Eventique’s crew transformed the entire New York Historical Society (NYHS) museum into an elegant grand cocktail affair. The upscale soiree was part of a multi-day Centerbridge meeting. More than 200 of the private investment management firm’s staff, partners, and investors sipped and snacked as reports related to private equity, private credit, and real estate flashed by on a seamlessly integrated LED screen. The screen was the first of its kind to appear on the NYHS stage! Want your upcoming event to be next on Eventique’s list? Request a proposal from the all-star team at Eventique.com. 2 Milestone Events for Advertisers and Investors
Tony at a Glance Currently Listening To: Dolly Parton and George Carlin on vinyl Go-to Hobbies: Surfing, gardening, and walking historic NYC Favorite Workout: Marathon running Little-Known Passion: Discovering local and pirate radio stations on his rebuilt tuner Favorite Food to Cook: Anything Korean Favorite Foods to Eat: Watermelon and a good hamburger
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4 2 Inside
Liron’s Celebrity Highlights of 2022–23
The Stress-Free Way to Book Celebrity Talent
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Meet Eventique’s ‘Talent Whisperer’
Your Monthly Event Rundown
Struggling to Choose a Band? Tony Can Help
HOW TO BOOK THE PERFECT BAND OR DJ An Expert Tip From Eventique’s Stage Manager
Booking a live musician for a backyard wedding, charity event, or work barbecue is always a gamble. Even if a group sounds great online, they could be divas or Debbie Downers in person. Fortunately, there’s a way to take the guesswork out of the equation and make sure your event goes off without a hitch. According to Eventique Stage Manager Tony Mayes, the trick to booking great local talent is meeting in person long before you write a check or sign a contract. “A lot of the time, the work you see is what you get, but you need to know if you can work with that person,” Tony says. “If they have a quirk, or if you have a quirk that you’ve never noticed and they need to adapt to it, it’s better to meet and spot that problem now than realize it in the middle of the cake reveal.”
Tony recommends arranging that meeting after you sample the musician’s music and review their resume. If you’re happy with both, ask if they have time to grab a quick cup of coffee. Then, use your window at the coffee shop to scope out things like personality traits and communication styles and see if you’ll be a good fit. You can even ask for several meetings leading up to your decision. “Spend time interviewing and, ideally, having more than one conversation with whomever you want to book,” Tony says. If you find an ideal candidate through this process and realize they’re a bit outside of your budget, don’t give up! They might still agree to play your event with a modified musician lineup or set list, especially if you’ve built a good rapport. It doesn’t hurt to ask! The more open and honest you are, and the more you get to know each other, the more likely you’ll be to reach a compromise.
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