My old friend and forum member Eddie Shoemaker (Btweengigs) sent me a link to a video of a new guy in his area who is booked solid for the senior circuit in South Florida. This guy is a fantastic entertainer and incredible singer. He reminds me a lot of Sammy Davis, Jr, has a lot of similar on-stage moves and really gets the crowds involved. This just may be the future of new entertainers on the senior circuit. In the last part of this video, he performed the best rendition of Mister Bo Jangles that I have ever seen by anyone.



Check out his rendition of New York, New York near the end of the second video.



The neat part about all this is he's not using a PC for lyrics, he, obviously, memorized the words and I'm quite sure he spends a lot of time practicing his performances in front of a mirror. His backing tracks are superb, as is his timing.

Now, this guy is a lot younger than any of the entertainers I know, and he is quite agile on stage. I don't believe I was ever that agile, on stage or off. He is very talented and knows how to read an audience. The only thing I ever did remotely close to this was when I put on a style for Fever, just left the keyboard playing in Am while I walked through the audience singing the song to the ladies. They loved it! And, so did I at the time.

Enjoy the vids,

Gary

Thanks Gary
He is indeed a talented entertainer.

He is a Very talented gentlemen. This is the type entertainment every senior center center and nursing home seems to be looking for around here. Maybe there’s still room for keyboardists , but I’m positive the majority of activity directors would hire this guy over ANY arranger keyboardist OMB.

Gary sent you pm

A very talented young man indeed ...
but does anyone here think that he is playing NH/AL/IL venues ??? ...
I have no doubt that the "senior circuit" he is working is made up of 55+ communities and 'condo associations' that sell tickets to performances by artists such as this ... I have friends who have condos in Delray, and they tell me about the artists they see such as Tony Orlando for about $25 a ticket ...
I have played in some really upscale AL/IL venues recently - large lobby/performance areas with a bar and cocktail tables - and I have seen only one facility that would even come close to having the kind of stage set up he needs to put on his show ...
And while senior center activity directors might LOVE to hire entertainment like this, I doubt very much that their budget and physical facility could provide for it ...
This is entertainment for a different venue level than what many (most?) of us here are playing ...

Tony... Yes he is playing two of the venues I work in. One of them is in a small rec room that accommodates about 30 ppl. They make sure he has enough room for his dancing routines.
E

Tony, several of the venues where I performed regularly had large stages and auditoriums. Pickersgill Retirement, which is a combination facility ranging from independent living to assisted living to nursing home had a 250 seat theater with a full size stage. Same was true at Brightview Bel Air, Glenn Meadows, and several other locations. Those same locations often host big bands, Glenn Miller, Helmut Licht, etc..., and used those same locations to put on their own plays. I guess they must have bigger budgets down here in Maryland than they do in lil ole roady.

Gary

I remember once when I was a little kid in Los Angeles, my family were driving down the freeway, and the traffic was horrible. My dad got off the freeway because we were all so hungry and my mom was saying it be to late be the time we got home for her to make dinner. We found little a mom and pop style Italian restaurant, nothing fancy at all. They happened to be a piano trio playing that was squeezed into the corner,
they sounded great, but nobody was really paying attention besides my dad and I. During the trio's break my dad started talking to the drummer, and it turned out to be "Irv" Cottler, who played drums with Frank Sinatra and many other artist too. My dad told Iry Cottler that he was surprised that he would be working at a place like this considering what a great drummer he was and who he worked with. Iry Cottler siad 'Frank Sinatra not paying me tonight"

My point is sometimes even great musicians/entertainer have to work in very low profile venues.

I'm sure the gentleman in the videos Gary posted would rather work on those big stages at the upscale senior venues, but he needs to work when those gigs aren't available. Performing for a dozen seniors in a little rec room beats not working at all.

As I look closely at the video, I can’t help but saying. “This guy is good”, he is. But he is no treat to the NH, or Asst. Living circuit. When the high-end places find him, he will be offered more than they pay an OMB. He falls into a different category, entertainer.

In my younger days we had a sax player who was fantastic. The competitive band had a sax player who ran to the dance floor, fell to his knees and played. He was a showman, but not a good musician. The gentleman in the video was enjoyable to watch, he was good. A band, or a OMB, has another job; and that is to make people take part in – dancing, singing, make them feel, and that’s a hard one. Both are miles apart in what they do.

My thoughts, John C.