June 12th, 2008 admin
Presidential candidate, Senator Hillary Clinton, recently bowed out of the race for the White House at the historic National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The building is stunning with eight Doric columns in what, is essence, one giant room.
The National Building Museum was originally built during the Civil War to house the cavalry. You may have also have seen this majestic building during the annual “Christmas in Washington” television special which features many major entertainment stars, the President and members of Congress.
Our firm had the pleasure of producing Natalie Cole in the National Building Museum on behalf of the LPGA Championship and Mazda – the title sponsor of the tournament at that time. The event, chaired by Barbara Bush, was attended by many legends from the LPGA including Betsy Rawls. As the show was about to begin, the entire lighting board did a memory dump losing all cues painstakingly generated during the show set up. Our lighting engineer didn’t miss a beat as he ran the show manually which is unbelievably difficult with that many lighting cues. Natalie and the audience never knew what had happened and the show was a huge success. Glitches and unknowns are common in live entertainment events. Our professional stage crews and the on site producer are veteran professionals who can turn a potential nightmare in to victory.
Additionally, we produced Marvin Hamlisch in the National Building Museum on behalf of Kemper Insurance and the previous Kemper Open PGA Tournament in the Washington, D.C. area. Marvin was the composer and lyricist for such mega hits as “A Chorus Line”, “The Way We Were” and “The Sting” among many others.
The John Bernardoni Production Group, an international booking and production company, has produced over 400 major entertainment concert touring stars for three decades throughout the U.S. and abroad. Stars as diverse as Hootie and the Blowfish, Itzhak Perlman, Vince Gill, Denise Graves, Kool and the Gang and Rita Rudner are just a few of the entertainment stars available for your event through our firm.
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June 12th, 2008 admin
One of the most spectacular performing arts venues in the world is the Sporting Club in Monte Carlo. We had the honor of producing Gordie Brown - the top musical impressionist in North America - on behalf of a Fortune 500 insurance company for 500 of its attendees.
The Monte Carlo Sporting Club was built by Prince Rainier, the monarch of Monaco and husband to former actress Grace Kelly who passed many years ago in an auto accident among the twisting roads in the mountains overlooking Monte Carlo.
The venue is a technological wonder, both in terms of staging and the facility itself. Once the show had begun, the entire ceiling opened and the gigantic glass walls literally disappeared in to the floor. All eyes turned to Monaco which looked like a floating fairyland high above the ocean
Past stars have included George Benson with Natalie Cole, Andrea Bocelli, The Beach Boys, Diana Krall, Lionel Richie and Julio Iglesias, among many others. Diana Ross and Carlos Santana will be performing during an upcoming festival at the Monte Carlo Sporting Club.
The John Bernardoni Production Group has booked and produced major entertainment concert stars in venues around the globe including stadiums, arenas, performing arts centers including the upcoming Kodak Theatre and home of the Academy Awards, convention center’s like the Moscone in San Francisco and The Monte Carlo Sporting Club.
www.sportingmontecarlo.com
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June 11th, 2008 admin
A few years ago, we were hired to produce Roy Firestone as the headliner entertainment for a gala benefiting the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Women and Children in Orlando, Florida. We actually ended up reprising our role as producer for Mr. Palmer three years running. But that’s not the story.
I had just arrived at the Orlando Airport and picked up my rent car to drive to Bay Hill Country Club – Arnold’s home course and the current location of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. I was to play golf that day with my main contact with the event – a lifelong friend of Mr. Palmer’s. Somehow, I got turned around going the opposite direction from Bay Hill. I was winging my way down the highway for 30 minutes before I realized I was headed for the Kennedy Space Center. There were no exits as it is a type of toll road.
Finally, I found a small store, stopped and used the pay phone. I had left my cell phone in Austin by mistake. I called the golf shop at Bay Hill to tell them of my mistake and that I would be a little late for our golf round. The pro at Bay Hill said, “Well, don’t kill yourself getting here but you’re playing golf with Arnold Palmer today”. I almost passed out. I jumped in the car, raced down the highway the right way, screeched in to the parking lot at Bay Hill, jumped in a golf cart, threw on my golf shoes and was taken to the 2nd hole. The group had already played the 1st hole.
Arnold and the others had already hit their tee shots to a difficult and long, uphill par 3. I went to the tee and they all watched. I did not hit one warm up ball. I remember saying out loud…”I’m at Bay Hill about to tee off in front of Arnold Palmer with no practice and my hair is on fire”. Then, I had an out of body experience. Floating above my person, I saw myself take the 3 iron back, eyes rolling over in my sockets, forgetting 30 years of golf lessons and hit the ball. It felt like I hit a rock. By some miracle, though, I was the only person to hit the green. Mr. Palmer said, “Nice shot John”. Can you spell “Heaven”? It gets better.
Mr. Palmer has a habit of walking right down the fairway after he hits his next shot even though there are players behind him ready to hit their next shot. I don’t think he does it on purpose. I believe he can’t fathom any one with a golf game so rotten that they might hit him in the back or head. Now, I had hit a few bladed shots that day being nervous and all. As I stood over the ball – with Arnold Palmer in front of me some 50 yards – I thought to myself…”I am going to kill Arnold Palmer. Every golfer in the world will hunt me down. I will be the pariah of golf for generations”.
Now, I did have my “go to” shot which was a fade. So, I decided to play a really BIG fade taking the ball well to the left of Mr. Palmer and watching it come back well in front of the legend. All this worked well even though I was hyperventilating after each shot. Ultimately, though, I came upon my ball in the sand trap next to the green. It was a deep trap with virtually no green to work with. Mr. Palmer was standing right next to the pin. Those who know me know full well that I am not the greatest sand player. When I miss the shot, it is a bladed rocket coming out at warp speed. This was not a shot I could bull my way through. So, I said to Mr. Palmer…”This isn’t my best shot. You may want to back up a bit”. Arnold moon walked in the opposite direction of the pin. Yet another miracle occurred when I hit a lovely flop shot right next to the pin.
Roy Firestone whom I was to produce that night, is a fabulous guy. He is multi talented as a singer, informal comic and impressionist beyond his legendary sports broadcast career. Being a huge Arnold Palmer fan, Roy produced an unbelievable video of Arnold’s highlights for the show that night. You could hear a pin drop followed by a lot of sobbing followed by an uproar of shouting and clapping.
Not only did I produce a great headliner – I got to play golf with and around Arnold Palmer. It doesn’t get any better than that.
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June 11th, 2008 admin
You’re probably wondering what this subject has to do with a producer in the entertainment industry. Beyond producing major concert touring stars throughout the U.S. and abroad, I am also a writer. I have been developing a treatment for a feature film entitled “The Children of Mons Olympus”. The film involves the subjects of the ancient Maya, the U.S. and Russian space programs, time travel and the ethereal music of the Mayan culture. More on that project later.
There is a Mayan guide (American) in Akumal not far from where I stay in Puerto Morelos in the Yucatan Peninsula. I’ve used him a couple of times. He was married to a Mayan girl and lived in their village for 13 years before they divorced. He speaks perfect Yucatec Maya (one of 28 languages – not dialects – from the Mayan legacy). His Mayan/Mexican name is Helario. This guy is a character. He is ADD x 10 (he said it) and almost impossible to keep on point for a given subject. I’ll ask him a question and he’ll give me 10 seconds of feedback and then float off to another subject. He is also a genius which is probably linked to how his mind works. Any way, we were driving down the road together, and out of the blue he said these words:
“THE MAYA PAINTED THEIR MUSIC
AND PLAYED THEIR PAINTINGS”
I’m only just now beginning to grasp the profound nature of this statement. Helario is also a master diver who goes down 100’ in caves with no light, turns off his light, and does sensory deprivation like the Mayan kings used to do. Except the Mayan kings did it in a tiny space atop the pyramids which barely had enough of a crack in the stones for air. They would use indigenous hallucinogens. I think the shamans did the same thing. He says he has the most incredible clarity of mind and connection with the spirituality of the ancients when he is in these caves.
The Maya are the most incredibly complex society I have ever encountered. Thus, I avail myself of people like Helario and some scientists I have come to know (archaeologists, epigraphers – people who de-code glyphs, paleontologists, archaeo-astronomers – real astronomers who study ancient pottery, paintings and glyphs that are ripe with astronomical events which coincided with social events where Mayan tribes would come from hundreds of miles around to commune. The Maya were brilliant at astronomy (predicted eclipses 200 years in advance to the day, built cities and buildings where celestial events lined up perfectly with light going through a small window to illuminate something and more), time keeping (p.s. the Mayan calendar stops December 23, 2012. It began around 3112 BC – none of the scientists feel this is an apocalyptic event), mathematics (their buildings are built on geometrical designs that are dead on perfect to existing geometrical shapes (the 3:4:5 ratio of the interiors of some of their buildings), writing (the world has worked for 70 years to de-code the glyphs. They are about 80% of the way there. The big breakthrough came when one epigrapher realized the glyphs were phonetic more than words). I got hooked on this in 1978 on my first trip to the area to Chichen Itza, one of the top 6 sites around Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize). I felt a “presence” – very subtle but very strong – while at Chichen Itza. The more I read and learn, the more I realize I don’t know. It goes on and on.
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May 30th, 2008 admin
“If we can’t book it – it’s immortal”
After 30 years of booking and producing hundreds of major concert touring stars, Broadway touring musicals and every type of performing arts troupe one can imagine, we still find ourselves thrilled with the next challenge.
We have been honored to have been chosen to produce Jay Leno and Foreigner for a large California corporate concern in Los Angeles in the late Fall of 2008 for 3400 attendees.
Yes, a California corporation hired an Austin producer to handle all elements of this impressive event for a venue in Los Angeles. It ain’t where the producer lives that counts – it’s who he knows and his experience that matters. We’ve produced major events throughout the U.S. and abroad in every venue on the planet.
I’ve worked with Jay Leno twice before he got the Tonight Show gig. By the way, Jay is as nice a guy as you would ever meet beyond being a brilliant comic.
So, one night backstage at the Bass Concert Hall at the University of Texas at Austin before a show for a packed house, I noticed Jay’s suit. It had that 1950’s silver sheen to it. I said, “Jay, that’s a great suit”. Jay said, “John, how much do you think I paid for this suit”. Now, I got jittery. If I went low, he might be insulted. If I went high, he might think that I thought he was a rich boy. I tried to pick a middle ground. “$500”, I said. Jay came closer to me and said “I paid $40 for this suit at St. Vincent de Paul”. He wasn’t kidding. He then said, “John, I still can’t believe I have more than 10 cents in my pocket”. He was making a ton of money even before the Tonight Show as he did over 200 concerts a year in those days. But, the memory of the lean years never left him.
It’s moments like this where the humanity of a star comes in to play like a shining beacon of normalcy. The great stars are as human as the next person, even more so. Their on stage persona is one thing and their personal life is another. I have found them to be incredibly genuine as well as consummate professionals and I’ve produced a ton of them.
We did have a sphincter check on this upcoming date. Jay’s contract with the Tonight Show was slated to have ended about two weeks before our event. No one knew what he might do. He could have decided to take a vacation or take some time off with his family and “poof”, no deal. As it turned out, he extended his departure date to some time early in 2009 and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
John Bernardoni
Executive Producer
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May 30th, 2008 admin
“The Maya painted their music and played their paintings”
I didn’t make that up. After three decades of travelling to the Yucatan Peninsula, Chiapas and Honduras to study the ancient Mayan culture, a friend of mine muttered these words. Helario is an American who was married to a Mayan girl and lived in their village for 13 years. Consequently, he is fluent in Yucatec Maya. He is also expert on Mayan sensibilities not found in the history books. He said this as we were driving to the Cross to the Center of the Earth also called the Cross of the Milky Way. It gave me a chill up my spine as the essence of what he said started to sink in. That’s a subject for another day.
Having been an entertainment producer for most of my professional life, those words really struck home. I just happened to have been producing four major shows for a Fortune 100 firm in Cancun over a three week span. Producing big name acts in Mexico is a challenge. It’s not the first time we have done it. We’ve produced several events in Cancun and Cabo San Lucas for large corporate events.
First, you have the logistics to consider when you are moving 15 musicians and crew from all over the U.S. to Cancun. Not all of them come and go at the same time. Further, they are carrying some of the band gear for the show that we cannot pick up in Cancun like guitars, bass, effects pedals and so on. Then, we’ve got to have all our ducks in a row to get the band gear and the musicians through immigration including the procurement of work permits for the band which in this case was the World Classic Rockers. www.wcr.com. WCR is the #1 all star band in the U.S. featuring past founders, key musicians and former lead singers from Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Toto, Steppenwolf, Journey and Boston. Now, remember we have 4 entries and exits from Cancun – all of which require special documentation.
Let’s move on to the production elements. Our firm is responsible for every element it takes to produce a show of this size and complexity from hiring subs to cover concert quality lighting, sound, more band gear, stage crews, stage, power, rigging, special effects, IMAG and so on. A prominent producer once told a younger me, “John, the details will kill you”. Well, they didn’t kill me but people have no idea of what it takes to realize a show of this size much less 4 of them in three weeks.
I can say with candor that these were the most successful series of events we have ever produced for the private, corporate sector. The band blitzed the audience with stunning musicianship, charisma with hit after hit for two solid hours, non stop. The show played like a public arena rock concert rather than a corporate event. The audience roared from the moment the act took the stage till they did their final encore. It was the finest example of matching the right artist to the audience which is, in and of itself, an art.
Now you see the tie between the Mayan story and these concerts. Art of the ancients meets art of the present, both forever intertwined for the joy of all.
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May 22nd, 2008 admin
“He’s an overnight sensation after 20 years on the road”
How many times have we heard that sentiment? A musician who’s been slugging it out playing smoke filled bars, as a side man for someone else’s band, maybe an opening act for the “real” band, studio sessions to pay the bills and a million miles of worn tires from the road and then, “BANG” – A Star is Born on the strength of one hit or a milestone album that has a sound that seems to have been lurking in the back of the public’s mind only to be released as a brand new groove.
“American Idol” is unique in many ways, beyond being a television phenomenon of epic proportions in its 7th season. David Archuleta and David Cook went head to head in a battle of young, musical titans looking for that big push in to American entertainment lore. We do not know how long they’ve been honing their vocal skills and in what venues.
What is fascinating about “American Idol” is that it is a microcosm of the live entertainment industry compressing the chance to make it big in weeks rather than years due to the national frenzy of audiences enthralled with the landmark show.
Here’s what I mean. Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Hicks and Carrie Underwood – past winners of “American Idol” are making as much money or more than legendary stars with a 30 year history of selling millions of albums and thousands of concert dates. And even though Jennifer Hudson did not win, she got her shot in the smash motion picture “Dream Girls” and won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award for Best Supporting Actress alongside Beyonce, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy. Now that’s what I call getting shot out of a canon in to big time show business in record time.
The good news is that these American Idol winners and finalists including Ruben Studdard, Jasmine Trias Jordin Sparks are available for corporate events throughout the U.S. and abroad. The John Bernardoni Production Group, an international entertainment booking and production company, is able to deliver stars from American Idol in addition to the greatest names in show business touring the world today. Just go to www.bernardoni.com for a full listing of the top stars in pop, jazz, classic rock, R&B, reggae, Nashville country, Broadway, Las Vegas, comedy, variety and more.
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