[Dixielandjazz] Re: "Trad" Jazz in the UK

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/27/04 8:01:26 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
jazzboard at hotmail.com writes:

> Arnie . . .
> 
> 
> Having said that I will venture that in order to achieve that sort of 
> stardom you need to appeal to the LOWEST COMMON DENOMENATOR in the culture.  
> 
> These days it's pretty low.
> 
> Audiences want to participate rather than listen. They want VOLUME. They 
> want youth. They want ATTITUDE! They want stuff that will offend anybody 
> over 30.  Pander to that sort of audience and you, too, can be a 
> millionaire!
> 
> How many of you think it was an accident that Justin Timberlake accidently 
> exposed Janet Jackson's right knocker on national TV?  Hah!  It wasn't an 
> "accident" . . . it was a "wardrobe malfunction." Yeah, right!  Permit me a 
> moment to get over the giggles here . . .
> 
> Respectfully submitted,
> 
> Bill Gunter
> jazzboard at hotmail.com
> 

If you are speaking strictly to music Bill, you are pretty close to truth 
here, however as to appealing to the lowest common denominator bit I don't agree 
with it.

Bill Said:

If any of us knew the answer to that question we would be rich!  The ability 
to determine what is gonna be "popular" and cause ba-zillions to flock to 
the venues and buy recordings and pay $200 bucks for seats at the concerts 
would be worth millions!


Some of us have done that a couple of times, :))


And you can become a millionaire doing it the other way.  

Go see the Cirque Du Soleil.   

20 years ago I organized their first American tour, opened them in Los 
Angeles at $12.00 a seat,  (They thought that might be too much to charge for a 
ticket)  four months later the scalpers were getting $200.00 a seat for them and 
all their shows sold out.  They had convinced the Government in Montreal that 
they would lose $750,000.00 to come to California and play a thirty day run.  
Hence the government gave them the money to cover the expenses.  They went home 
four months later with a Ten Million dollar profit, unfortunately they did 
not take the profits back to Montreal to show the government, they told them 
they were artistically well received in the USA and kept all the cash profits in 
California in their own bank accounts while passing all the expenses through 
to the Montreal nonprofit organization.  All in the name of Culture & Art mind 
you.

They became so successful that they now have no less than six permanent 
touring units of he show circulating the globe and a permanent resident show in Las 
Vegas.  Did I forget to mention that they also made $9,000.00 a day extra 
revenue for the CEOs brother in the concession sales booths at each show?  The 
tent they did the show in cost $1 million dollars and they now own eight of them 
all paid for.  They had 1,700 seats sold out for every show and still sell 
them all out.

It is a real Class Act under the tent and they did indeed reinvent the 
Circus,  No animals, except for the guys that own the circus :)   All multi 
Millionaires.


So yes Dan and Arn and all indeed it can be done, you have to go find or 
create the market for it all over again.

Cirque Du Soleil has become the darlings of the Circus world and far 
surpassed the revenues of the Legendary Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey combined. 
still serving up the same old same old tired Circus acts, with the tickets being 
hawked by boiler room telemarketers in the name of charities and non profit 
groups with 80% of the money being siphoned off to the telemarketing promoters 
under the guise of raising money for the firefighters burn victims fund, and or 
police widows and orphans etc.

How do I know about those scams, I also have a son who is a Fire Captain who 
has showed me where they get 10% of what is raised in their name just for 
using their name, the Firemen have absolutely nothing to do with it?  Many of 
these shyster promoters sell blocks of tickets to the circus for the 
underprivileged kids in the inner cities to corporations and companies under the idea of 
taking poor kids to the circus, then never distribute the tickets to the kids 
anyway, or they send them out and the kids show up and find the show has been 
over sold so badly that they can't get in to see the show anyway.

Like I said I have been in this game a long time and seen how it really 
operates, there is still however room for legitimate promoters and operations to 
make it work and it could happen for OKOM as well.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins