Markian Saray was feeling more nervous and helpless with each passing round
of the Oscar De La Hoya-Felix Trinidad title fight.
He did not really care who was going to win it. He just wanted it to end
because the sooner it ended, the sooner Tone Loc could get on stage to do
his thing. It turned out the rap star was a huge boxing fan. His people told
Saray that their boss would not do the show until the fight was over, even
if it would delay the show.
"I'm hoping the guy gets knocked out during the ninth round, but of
course it doesn't happen," says Saray. He is a promoter.
The fight goes the full length instead. This caused an hour-long delay
between acts. Some audience members accused Saray of delaying the show intentionally
to sell more alcohol. And there was nothing Saray could have done to calm
things down.
"You can't really tell the crowd, 'Sorry we have to wait right
now because Tone Loc is watching a boxing match right now.'"
But such is the life of a concert promoter. Crises seem to appear out of
nowhere at the worst possible moments. And when they happen, you have to keep
a cool hand, says Saray.
Long and irregular working hours also add to the mental strain concert
promoters must withstand. "It is about a 50-hour workweek, but it is not a
9-to-5 type of deal," he says. "After a crazy show, you may just sleep off
the whole next day because you have been up for two days straight."
This can wear anybody down. After every show, Saray and his crew promise
each other that they will never do another show again. The next morning, of
course, Saray is back in his office, searching for talent for the next show.
All this raises an obvious question. Why would anybody want to go into
this industry?
"You have to like the music, you have to like the acts," he says. "You
are coordinating an event for a thousand people and it's kind of a rush
because you are in charge of all of that."
Jason Grant is a concert promoter who agrees with Saray.
"[Being a promoter] is a labor of love, primarily," he says. "And it is
a very, very difficult field to rise to the top. You gotta show dedication
and perseverance over a long period of time."
You must also have a personality that can deal with risk. Concert promoters
have to spend a lot of money before they can make any of it in ticket sales.
And if their shows flop, they don't get paid.
Gary Bongiovanni is the editor of Pollstar, a publication on the concert
industry. He suggests a simple test to find out whether you go into the concert
promotion industry: dig a hole in your yard, put $10,000 into it and light
a match. "And when you can come back and do it again, you have the stomach
for this."
Chuck Chao found out he had the stomach for it early on. He became a concert
promoter right after he left high school in 1976. "I was really young and
I had no idea what I was doing," he says. "And I think that probably worked
to my advantage, because I didn't know what failure was."
Friends and family helped him put together his first concert. Chao booked
an old building near his hometown of Syracuse, New York. About 2,000 fans
showed up to watch the late Blues artist Freddie King. It was a successful
debut.
"I actually made money on my first show," he says. "I thought it was going
to be very easy."
But it hasn't been easy. And it won't get any easier either for
independent promoters like Chao. Two large companies are taking over the industry
by buying up smaller, more regional promoters.
This trend may make the business a little bit less risky because large
corporations with big bank accounts now stand behind promoters. But it also
leaves less room for independent promoters.
Deborah Andrews, however, decided to try her luck as an independent promoter
of gospel music, after a long and successful career promoting
big mainstream acts like Celine Dion for a theater.
She is perhaps the only promoter of her kind in North America. But that
does not give her much of an edge. You don't exactly hear gospel music
every time you turn on the radio or flip through TV channels.
"So because of that, I have a more difficult time," she says. "Not only
am I trying to promote the artists and the show, I am also trying to teach
people what [gospel] is because it is for everybody."
But the rules of the concert promotion industry stay the same, regardless
of the music. "You have to believe in your product," says Andrews.
"A lot of people think that this sounds like a glamorous business, and
they only know a fraction of what they need to know. And I like to see people
in this business succeed. It doesn't do us any good if promoters have
a bad name."