It is a known fact that event Planners do not spend enough time selecting and then screening the entertainers selected for an event. Not knowing what will come out of the mouths of your entertainers is very scary and can lead to a major crisis for your client and for yourself. Let me give you an example.
Years ago I was asked to provide a finale celebration for an awards banquet of a very large corporate client. A client that was actually quite know for its conservative nature. In fact they required all their employees to ware only dark suits with white shirts, or for women pant suits with white blouse and limited jewelry. Many of you can probably guess what company this is, but I’m not going to give any further hints.
Before we performed our finale, there was a headline speaker. I will mention his name because I don’t think he anything wrong, it was the Planner who made the mistake. The speaker was O. J. Simpson and this was when he was at the height of his celebrity. He was a movie star and a hugely popular football player. Everyone then knew OJ as a well motivated and talent young idle. My responsibility was not for him, only for the finale performance which was to feature a lot of Disney characters, music and fun.
The event was at the glamorous Century City Hotel in Los Angeles. All was going well and as the food service is finishing, a couple key executives of the company got up and made short speeches and presentations to several people in the audience for their outstanding service to the company. The President of this large international company then got up and made a brief but uplifting motivational speech and then with flourish introduced the keynote speaker for the evening, OJ. And OJ began. Remember that OJ was a great football player and spent a lot of time in locker rooms with the “guys”. So his speech was as if he was still in the locker room. It was filled with non-appropriate words and stories, all meant to get a laugh and be entertaining. But to this audience it was not! You know exactly what I mean because we were all reminded of “lock room talk” in the recent presidential campaign. OJ continued, I am sure wondering why no one in the room reacted to his stories or jokes. I mean… no one. It was dead silence on the part of the audience. All I could think about standing there in the back of the room was… Oh my God, our show has to follow this disaster! Finally, after going on for much too long, OJ finished. There was dead silence in the room. Not a tinkle of silverware… nor a breath… certainly not applause. OJ retired from the lectern and took his seat at the headtable. After a long pause, the President got up, went to the microphone and apologized to the audience for having this speaker at their banquet. OJ promptly got up and left the room.
Again all I could think about is that our planned show is dead in the water. The President went on talking for a few moments and then introduced our show. Instantly the music to the Disney theme song, “When You Wish Upon a Star” broke the silence and as it quickly changed into another up-tempo Disney classic song, fifty dancers entered the room from multiple doors, and 50 Disney characters entered the same way. The dancers actually climbed up onto special prepared dining tables and continued to dance right above the audience as they got everyone involved clapping along. Over the next couple of minutes the music changed and increased in tempo and excitement all ending big with confetti canons showering the audience and balloons falling from the ceiling. Now the audience stood and applauded and hugged Pluto and the other characters and they performed out of the room. All I can say from the experience was thank God we were there to cap the night in a very positive way.
The moral is pretty obvious. The Planner, in selecting the entertainment made one right choice and one very wrong choice. That wrong choice was certainly more memorable then the right choice. I’m sure the consequences were long lasting. Not taking the time to know exactly what you are hiring, be it a speaker or entertainer is a critical mistake.
In my book, Miziker Complete Event Planning Handbook, I do give many tips about both entertainment and speakers. Give it a read!
RM
