Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
I can’t tell you how many people come up to me and say, “What a cool job you have!” They see me on stage, hanging with celebs, and are filled with warm-hearted envy. What they don’t see is the other 97 per cent of the time when I have to create the shows, produce them, sell the tickets and pay the bills. But there are those experiences that make it all worthwhile. Sixties heartthrob, Beach Party movie legend and “Grease” Teen Angel crooner Frankie Avalon played at the Arcada theatre a couple of days before my May 8 birthday. We …
Read More »When James Brown came to town
It was the summer of 2002 and we were rockin’ at Hawthorne Race Course in Cicero. We produced a concert series there every summer for years with some of the biggest names in country, rock and R&B. Of the 30-plus shows we did, one stands out as a career moment. It was with “The hardest working man in show business,” James Brown. We built a stage right in the center of the racetrack. It was an awesome concept that added excitement to the already cool experience of “The sport of kings,” horse racing. We had to do sound checks in …
Read More »It’s deja vu all over again
It was like an ’80s MTV video! Platinum blondes, fishnets, leather miniskirts É and that was just the guys! Bret Michaels, front man from rock super-group Poison and a “Celebrity Apprentice” winner, pulled into St. Charles with a splash. His tour bus sported an enormous picture of his familiar face, causing countless double takes and bringing traffic to a stop, and his crazed fans filled the street to the point where we had to close it off. The “Shop All Day, Rock All Nite” Black Friday concert at the Arcada Theatre was really something to experience. When a guy like …
Read More »One in the bullpen…
With over 25 years in the entertainment business, there are many moments for which I am thankful. Just being able to walk on the same stage and share a microphone with show-biz icons is in itself an honor. But to rack up the “behind-the-scenes” experiences I have over the years? I am truly blessed. For an Italian American like me, there are two ‘Trinities’ that guide my soul. There is the main one, of course. But as Sunday Mass leads into Sunday gravy, the secondary trinity of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tony Bennett always adds a certain spice that …
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