WILL THE REAL “HOOTIE” PLEASE STAND UP

June 17th, 2008 admin

Some years ago, we worked with the then Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua Invitational in Maui, Hawaii. The tournament is now the Mercedes Invitational. Our firm acted as the official producer of record for such major concert touring stars as Vince Gill, the Four Tops, Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers, a stand in by Steven Stills and Hootie and the Blowfish.

At the time, there were a number of newspaper articles and media queries about where the band got the name “Hootie and the Blowfish”. Most fans and the media thought lead singer Darius Rucker was “Hootie”. The band apparently got a big kick out of this and they just let it lie. Finally, the truth came out. “Hootie” turns out to be a friend of the band from Columbus, South Carolina and has nothing to do with the band itself other than friendship.

One of my staff hatched the idea of creating some tee shirts to make a gag of the whole “Who is Hootie” phenomenon.We put a great big blowfish on the back in fabulous colors. On the front of the tee shirt it said, “I’m not Hootie”. Prior to sound check at the show, we handed them out to the band and their crew. It was very cool to see their reaction to what had become an inside, running gag.

FYI – Joe Pesci – who regularly plays the pro am at the Mercedes Invitational - is an avid golfer besides being an incredible actor in films like the “Lethal Weapon” series, “Casino”, “Good Fellas”, “My Cousin Vinnie” and many more. What most people don’t know is that Joe was in the 1950’s band Joey and the Starlighters for many years in his early show business days. We groveled but we couldn’t get him to do a tune. A score of musicians have moved on to become fine actors on Broadway, television and film like Reba McIntyre. Even Jon Bon Jovi did a stint in a television series and was extremely effective.

Whether it’s an entertainment concert touring star, a celebrity, a sports icon, a world renowned speaker and more, we can help you realize your vision with panache and theatrical punch. We challenge all meeting planners, event planners, incentive planners, association planners, sporting event planners and trade show planners to raise the bar with a powerful entertainment package to create a climactic and spine tingling “finis” to your events.

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HILLARY CLINTON AND THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

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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