Latest / Promoter101 / Promoter 101 # 246 - Icon's Jesse Stoll

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Promoter 101 # 246 - Icon's Jesse Stoll · Promoter101

0:11
Speaker 1: All right, all right, discussion, it's the heart of the matter.
0:29
Speaker 2: So enough opinions on a silver flattery to drive the
0:33
Speaker 2: information getting bringing your guy so high you'll be spreading.
0:36
Speaker 3: The dudes with attitudes will put.
0:38
Speaker 4: Even the for a ta full of breadfruits.
0:40
Speaker 2: So don't delay. My daughter and my son visit the
0:43
Speaker 2: buffet called Promoter one oh one.
1:24
Speaker 5: Welcome back, friends to the Promoter one oh one podcast.
1:27
Speaker 5: We are so excited to have you join us here
1:29
Speaker 5: for the two hundred and forty sixth episode of this podcast.
1:33
Speaker 5: Today we've got an excellent featured interview Remy joined by
1:36
Speaker 5: icons founder Jesse Stoll, talking about his new role in
1:40
Speaker 5: global touring and his iconic father, John Stole.
1:43
Speaker 4: Plus we'll catch up with the industry news.
1:45
Speaker 3: The Promoter one oh one podcast starts right now.
1:49
Speaker 6: Hi, this is Jason Kupperman from Paradigm and you're listening
1:52
Speaker 6: to Promoter one oh one.
1:54
Speaker 3: We have a bunch of past Promoter one oh one
1:56
Speaker 3: episodes available and you should go listen to it because
1:59
Speaker 3: you know we're there. It's convenient. We've made it possible
2:02
Speaker 3: for you just to go online and google promoter for
2:05
Speaker 3: one oh one in the native of basically anyone that's
2:07
Speaker 3: ever been in the industry, and their interview will just
2:08
Speaker 3: pop up and just click the link. They're all there, Loup,
2:11
Speaker 3: all the episodes, but almost everybody in the industry has
2:13
Speaker 3: come across our path at some point we've stuck on
2:15
Speaker 3: microphone in their hand and said, explain that shit.
2:18
Speaker 5: It's been pretty great, you know. I'm sure you might
2:20
Speaker 5: have some upcoming panels, some upcoming conferences, some ideas of.
2:25
Speaker 3: What you want to hear about. I mean, we're always
2:27
Speaker 3: open to idea. That's right, Connor, that's right as always
2:29
Speaker 3: feel free to hit us up with your ideas and questions.
2:31
Speaker 3: It's Steiny at Promoter one oh one dot net. Of course,
2:35
Speaker 3: conversation keeps going in between podcasts. We're all over the
2:38
Speaker 3: internet on x This show is at Promoter one oh one.
2:41
Speaker 3: I'm at W Luke Pierce, Dan is at the jew
2:43
Speaker 3: and overrun Instagram and threads.
2:45
Speaker 5: The show is at Steiny Promoter one oh one. Dan
2:48
Speaker 5: is at Dan Presents, and I'm at W.
2:49
Speaker 3: Lupierce.
2:52
Speaker 2: Hey, it's jbo lewis from UTA and you're on Promoter
2:54
Speaker 2: one oh one.
2:55
Speaker 4: Hey, Luke, shall we talk about what's going on in
2:57
Speaker 4: the industry?
2:57
Speaker 5: Right now Dan some news breaking right were recording this
3:00
Speaker 5: podcast at the end of the week of the twenty second.
3:04
Speaker 5: Here start with a big number, three point four billion
3:07
Speaker 5: dollars and is the number reportedly on the table to
3:11
Speaker 5: close for a company that a lot of our listeners
3:14
Speaker 5: have heard of. Certainly some of them work at, but
3:16
Speaker 5: his clients absolutely have. The agency formerly known as Wasserman,
3:19
Speaker 5: the one that now goes by arguably the worst name
3:22
Speaker 5: in music, the Team.
3:23
Speaker 3: Quick recap. It's a wild one.
3:25
Speaker 5: Casey Wasserman, a founder of the guy's name is Little
3:28
Speaker 5: in the Door, stepped away from his agency earlier this
3:30
Speaker 5: year after emails of Jeffrey Epstein associates surfaced in some
3:34
Speaker 5: DOJ files. The agency rebranded, dropped his name, and became
3:37
Speaker 5: the Team, and then a sale process kicked off. So
3:40
Speaker 5: for months we've been speculating about who's going to buy
3:43
Speaker 5: the Team, is going to be Uta, is going to
3:45
Speaker 5: be Patrick Whitzel's new outfit. Today we have a winner,
3:48
Speaker 5: and it's probably the least sexy one. Providence Equity Partners,
3:52
Speaker 5: which is already a majority stakeholder in the team they
3:55
Speaker 5: owned about sixty percent of the business, is going to
3:57
Speaker 5: be buying out the rest and taking full control of
3:59
Speaker 5: the company.
4:00
Speaker 3: They value the whole business at a wopping three point
4:03
Speaker 3: four billion dollars. Dan kle riff for a second, one
4:07
Speaker 3: of the biggest names in sports and music, this is
4:10
Speaker 3: going to be one hundred percent private equity owned. We've
4:13
Speaker 3: had private equity in parts of businesses before, but now,
4:16
Speaker 3: for the first time, an agency is one hundred percent
4:19
Speaker 3: controlling an entire stake in a business like this. So
4:22
Speaker 3: your agent still books your tour, but the person that
4:25
Speaker 3: your agent now answers to is a pe fund. P
4:28
Speaker 3: doesn't buy up talent agencies because they love music. They
4:31
Speaker 3: buy it for a return. They're going to be on
4:33
Speaker 3: a clock with some sort of exit in mind. Now,
4:35
Speaker 3: obviously they had a stake in Providence already owning sixty
4:38
Speaker 3: percent of the team, But I think that's probably going
4:41
Speaker 3: to change some priorities for this business. So which clients
4:43
Speaker 3: get to push, which deals gets chased, how hard the
4:46
Speaker 3: margin gets squeezing things? I mean, this is this is
4:49
Speaker 3: full on steak pee, Dan, This is kind of a
4:51
Speaker 3: first for our business.
4:52
Speaker 4: Well, let's just do a little bit of the math
4:55
Speaker 4: for a second. If you take three point four.
4:57
Speaker 3: Billion dollars and even at the American Express high yield
5:00
Speaker 3: rate of three point one percent monthly, that would be
5:04
Speaker 3: a return of eight million, seven hundred and eighty three thousand,
5:09
Speaker 3: three hundred and thirty three dollars and thirty three cents
5:12
Speaker 3: a month on that money. So they think they're going
5:15
Speaker 3: to do better buying this agency than they are in
5:19
Speaker 3: an eight point seven million dollar return monthly on their
5:23
Speaker 3: cash and now high yield at American Express. So putting
5:26
Speaker 3: in because three point four billion seems like a lot
5:28
Speaker 3: of money, right, It's hard to wrap your head around
5:30
Speaker 3: what three point four billion is, but three point one
5:34
Speaker 3: percent of that monthly on a high yield at basically
5:38
Speaker 3: eight point eight million dollars a month is what they've
5:41
Speaker 3: got to beat worst case scenario. Right. So you've now
5:44
Speaker 3: got this bank of money of investors that are just
5:48
Speaker 3: like Earn. That's you owe the bank a lot of money.
5:53
Speaker 3: That means somebody's paying attention because that's a lot of money, right,
5:56
Speaker 3: because where could opportunity cost? Right, it could be used
6:00
Speaker 3: somewhere else, it's being used here, and that's the return
6:03
Speaker 3: that agency has to pull off. That's what I take
6:05
Speaker 3: from that, Luke, That is that the wrong way to
6:07
Speaker 3: look at that, or is that the right way to
6:08
Speaker 3: look at that? I think there's it's one way of
6:10
Speaker 3: looking at it, for sure. I look at it this way.
6:12
Speaker 5: They had Providence had sixty percent of Casey's business already,
6:16
Speaker 5: Casey had roughly by most reports, forty percent of the business.
6:19
Speaker 5: So if they're offering evaluation of three point four for
6:23
Speaker 5: Casey's forty percent stake, that means a Case's going to
6:25
Speaker 5: walk away with about one point three one point four
6:28
Speaker 5: billion on this deal. That's all the Providence had to
6:30
Speaker 5: inject into this to take full control of the business. Casey, obviously,
6:34
Speaker 5: I think, was by most reports, seemingly hunting for something
6:37
Speaker 5: north of a billion times to drop down here. But
6:39
Speaker 5: what I find kind of insane about this is that
6:41
Speaker 5: the reports say that Washerman's kind of on track for
6:44
Speaker 5: about two hundred and fifteen million in EBITDA, which values
6:48
Speaker 5: at three point four billion this talent agency at fifteen
6:51
Speaker 5: x CA. I don't even think when they when they
6:54
Speaker 5: did their sale to the French guy even got fifteen x.
6:57
Speaker 5: So they're saying that this Wasserman deal is by moluipplier
7:00
Speaker 5: somewhat more valuable than the c A deal.
7:04
Speaker 3: Well, if you're totinally talking about forty percent, brings it
7:06
Speaker 3: down to three point five million a month that you
7:09
Speaker 3: have a return from express with that three point one percent,
7:11
Speaker 3: So three point.
7:12
Speaker 4: Five million a month in return, I mean you could barely.
7:15
Speaker 3: Live on that. Yeah, I don't know how you have
7:17
Speaker 3: a jet in a house and aspen for that. And
7:19
Speaker 3: you can have the jet and the place and Aspen,
7:21
Speaker 3: but you couldn't afford the lift tickets. Okay, three point
7:24
Speaker 3: five one million dollars a month in return on three
7:28
Speaker 3: point one percent on forty percent of three point four
7:32
Speaker 3: billion evaluation, that's just insane, just the monthly take, right,
7:37
Speaker 3: So it's like the return, the return is insane. Good
7:40
Speaker 3: for him, you know.
7:41
Speaker 5: And I think interestingly enough here too, you know, like
7:44
Speaker 5: for our world, we spend all this time watching Live
7:47
Speaker 5: Nation or age or the people that promote the shows,
7:50
Speaker 5: who tickets, who owns the building, whatever, But the agent
7:53
Speaker 5: is on the other side.
7:54
Speaker 3: Of nearly every deal that's done.
7:55
Speaker 5: The agent decides, you know, what the artist plays and
7:59
Speaker 5: what they play for on what terms, And that layer
8:02
Speaker 5: just kind of got quietly financialized, not consolidation into a
8:06
Speaker 5: competitor like most respeculating that UTA had to buy this
8:10
Speaker 5: or Patrick Whitehel's new sports thing one of this thing.
8:13
Speaker 5: But it's just bought by straight capitals. It's not like
8:16
Speaker 5: a straight one off, you know, like I would say
8:18
Speaker 5: in our business, because at least in parts of our
8:21
Speaker 5: business for live and fertality a disease. Yes, I think
8:24
Speaker 5: it's the first time that private equity fund is controlled
8:26
Speaker 5: in the tire Re Talent Agency. But also this month
8:30
Speaker 5: CBC bought Distro Kid the quote unquote any distributor for
8:34
Speaker 5: a little north of a billion is what they're reporting on.
8:36
Speaker 5: So an any agency and any distributor both go full
8:40
Speaker 5: private equity. The independent world is doing a lot of
8:43
Speaker 5: like the word independent I think is doing a lot
8:46
Speaker 5: of heavy lifting these days because it's really not independent anymore.
8:49
Speaker 3: It's private equity controlled. So what's next, Dan, I don't know.
8:54
Speaker 3: I just wanted to say the monthly return and that
8:57
Speaker 3: three point one percent of the forty percent would buy
8:59
Speaker 3: you five hundred and eighty five thousand, five hundred and
9:02
Speaker 3: fifty five double double cheeseburgers an in and out each month,
9:06
Speaker 3: five hundred and eighty five thousand, five hundred and fifty five.
9:09
Speaker 3: I mean Casey's a pretty spelt guy. I doubt he
9:11
Speaker 3: needs to eat that many.
9:13
Speaker 4: I think what I'm saying is he could have all
9:15
Speaker 4: the in and out he wants.
9:16
Speaker 5: He's pretty well set. I'm sure he'll enjoy the next
9:18
Speaker 5: two years. The Olympics come to LA and as he
9:20
Speaker 5: continues to chair his the event that everyone's looking forward
9:23
Speaker 5: to in Los Angeles. On Traffic Getting Olympics twenty twenty eight.
9:27
Speaker 5: Let's keep going on stories, Dan, There's another kind of
9:30
Speaker 5: financial story that swirl around this this month that I
9:33
Speaker 5: thought was pretty interesting. So let's imagine that you you
9:37
Speaker 5: walk into casino and you find out that the guy
9:40
Speaker 5: who owns the casino is awesomely, quietly the biggest player
9:44
Speaker 5: at the table, same chips, better odds, lower fees, and
9:48
Speaker 5: the house has been helping him to win. That's not
9:51
Speaker 5: really a hypothetically. Here a parable, Dan, I'm talking about
9:53
Speaker 5: stub hub right now. Here's the story that came out
9:56
Speaker 5: came out of stub Hub's own SEC filings, which is
9:59
Speaker 5: pretty self Eric Baker, the CEO of stub Hub, also
10:03
Speaker 5: runs a hedge fund. It's called Andro Capital, and what
10:06
Speaker 5: it does it buys up tickets millions of dollars of concerts,
10:10
Speaker 5: sports events in bulk and then resells them on StubHub.
10:15
Speaker 5: And here's the part that should make every artist and
10:17
Speaker 5: promoter's jaw drop. While a normal seller on StubHub pays
10:21
Speaker 5: around twenty percent for a seller fee, Andrew reportedly paid
10:26
Speaker 5: zero zero seller fees for an entire two years. Last
10:29
Speaker 5: two years of filings twenty four and twenty five revealed
10:32
Speaker 5: that StubHub not only didn't charge anything to sell these tickets,
10:36
Speaker 5: but they looked the other way and it helped cover
10:38
Speaker 5: the funds ticket management costs through an affiliate called Colloquially
10:42
Speaker 5: Capital and offered short term financing and referrals to other
10:45
Speaker 5: big professional resellers.
10:47
Speaker 3: This is like a Randy Nichols wet dream right here.
10:50
Speaker 3: You know, I would love to have Randy back on
10:52
Speaker 3: here to talk about this, because there's now a proposed
10:55
Speaker 3: class action lawsuit around five million bucks, which seems small,
10:59
Speaker 3: arguing exactly that deceptive practices that stub Hub and Baker
11:03
Speaker 3: misrepresented the company as a neutral quote unquote marketplace when
11:07
Speaker 3: the boss was one of the biggest scalpers on his
11:09
Speaker 3: own platform. It's wild to me, Dan, are you not
11:11
Speaker 3: just the owner, you're also a customer. I mean, we
11:13
Speaker 3: just haven't seeing those commercials for years from the guy
11:15
Speaker 3: that owns men warehouse. Why is it any different from
11:17
Speaker 3: the scalpers. It's not like the scalpers have ever been
11:19
Speaker 3: known for being like fair. Yeah, this is true. I mean,
11:24
Speaker 3: oh my god, the guy that's robbing you is also
11:26
Speaker 3: stealing from you at the same time.
11:28
Speaker 5: Buddy, I think you got to differentiate the platform under
11:31
Speaker 5: which scalpers sell and then the scalpers themselves, Right, like
11:35
Speaker 5: stub hub publicly traded company, you know, a quote unquote
11:39
Speaker 5: neutral marketplace, right, It's it's not that right, And for
11:43
Speaker 5: every artist or every manager, every promoter, it's set a
11:47
Speaker 5: ticket price to get, you know, keep tickets in fans' hands.
11:50
Speaker 5: Promoters are pricing to fill a room the whole time.
11:53
Speaker 5: The platform itself, at the end of it has a
11:57
Speaker 5: chain running up to the CEO. It's like basically running
11:59
Speaker 5: in industrial scale scalping operation through the platform for no fees.
12:04
Speaker 4: The scalpers are corrupt, you saying, oh my god.
12:06
Speaker 5: I'm shocked again, platform versus scalpers, right, like when the
12:12
Speaker 5: big boss is actually a scalper in and of himself
12:14
Speaker 5: and not just some tech resale platform.
12:16
Speaker 3: I think it changes the story a little bit.
12:18
Speaker 4: So I shocked that you're shocked.
12:21
Speaker 5: I mean, here's what I'm most shocked about is that
12:23
Speaker 5: they put it in an SEC filing.
12:25
Speaker 3: It's like, yeah, to, it's the rules I know they
12:28
Speaker 3: have too. The rules.
12:30
Speaker 5: I'm like, you can't fucking change cabs twice, and like
12:33
Speaker 5: you put this in some other shell company too.
12:35
Speaker 7: You have to file.
12:36
Speaker 4: You gotta file the straight dirt man, otherwise you go
12:39
Speaker 4: to jail.
12:39
Speaker 3: I think what they're thinking is no one was ever
12:41
Speaker 3: gonna read the fucking filings because if you've ever seen
12:43
Speaker 3: it at your filing.
12:44
Speaker 4: With SEC, the thing is impossible to fucking read.
12:48
Speaker 3: All these perspectives in all these filings are not exactly
12:51
Speaker 3: user friendly. They're written by lawyers and legalies, and they're
12:54
Speaker 3: fucking insanely hard to understand. You found a reporter with
12:58
Speaker 3: an education that went to school that knows how to
13:01
Speaker 3: read them, that saw it and broke it down for us,
13:03
Speaker 3: And that's the only reason any of us are talking
13:05
Speaker 3: about it, because none of us would have ever fucking
13:07
Speaker 3: read that thing.
13:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, anyone with a twenty dollars Clad or
13:11
Speaker 5: Gemini account can just run an SEC filing through an
13:14
Speaker 5: AI now and be like, what's interesting? I bet that
13:17
Speaker 5: was like the first thing that an AI would shot
13:19
Speaker 5: out for you is like, wow, there's an interesting relationship
13:22
Speaker 5: between the CEO of this company and a hedge fund
13:25
Speaker 5: they're financing to run this stuff.
13:28
Speaker 3: I mean, truly. You know what's probably most it's maybe
13:32
Speaker 3: not the most shocking, is that we won't stop using
13:34
Speaker 3: stub Hub. I don't say we as an industry or business,
13:38
Speaker 3: but like fans, fans will barely know or barely read
13:41
Speaker 3: about this thing and barely understand what's going on. To
13:43
Speaker 3: your point about a confusing set of filings, we'll just
13:46
Speaker 3: keep on. Shit, I need last minute tickets to whatever
13:49
Speaker 3: sport event, Let's go on stub Hub. You know it's
13:51
Speaker 3: nothing's going to change with this. Yeah. I try to
13:54
Speaker 3: go to the verified seller for sure for the resale,
13:57
Speaker 3: just because there's that much more security and knowing you're
14:00
Speaker 3: getting the actual seed that you're buying. Yeah. I'll say this,
14:03
Speaker 3: but I like, I used StubHub a lot for sports.
14:06
Speaker 3: I find like, unless there's like some hot shit ticket
14:08
Speaker 3: sporting event, like the couple football games I go to
14:11
Speaker 3: here at at Nissan Stadium with the Titans. Now it's
14:14
Speaker 3: a special case because the Titans are big, big, be bad.
14:17
Speaker 3: But like when a team comes to town that I
14:18
Speaker 3: want to see.
14:19
Speaker 5: Play, I wait until like eleven am before the twelve
14:23
Speaker 5: o'clock game to go on to step hub to get
14:24
Speaker 5: my tickets because they fall through the floor and price.
14:27
Speaker 5: Like I'm an active user of stub up for sports
14:29
Speaker 5: for sure, because I find that to be a little
14:31
Speaker 5: less resilient in pricing, you know.
14:33
Speaker 3: But I'm the same way with you. Yeah, I'm going
14:35
Speaker 3: to the artist's website first. I'm going to the venue
14:37
Speaker 3: website first to find the primary and then go from there.
14:39
Speaker 3: But there are definitely use cases for StubHub out there
14:42
Speaker 3: that I think, you know, make it cheaper to get
14:45
Speaker 3: ticket on to get into a venue. I gotta tell
14:49
Speaker 3: you I have found like I would see the Cubs
14:51
Speaker 3: last week in Chicago, and I use TM resale to
14:55
Speaker 3: buy my tickets and I got great states. I needed
14:59
Speaker 3: five together, which is an odd number, but was able
15:01
Speaker 3: to find five seats in the two hundred level for
15:04
Speaker 3: a reasonable price on resale and saw a great game
15:08
Speaker 3: from a good place and the Cubbies one of course,
15:11
Speaker 3: So that's all more important but beautiful day at Wrigley,
15:14
Speaker 3: and I was happy to pay overface to make sure
15:16
Speaker 3: we all had good seats together. But buying them from
15:19
Speaker 3: Ticketmaster guaranteed that we were getting because they're the ticket
15:23
Speaker 3: provider for that venue. It guaranteed us the better seat,
15:27
Speaker 3: and I've been trying that more and more often. In college.
15:30
Speaker 3: It's a little harder because not every college venue is
15:33
Speaker 3: with Ticketmaster or Access or one of the easier resellers, But.
15:38
Speaker 4: You know, that's the hope.
15:39
Speaker 3: Cut out the middle mand go back to the A system,
15:43
Speaker 3: make sure you're not getting screwed, instead of getting that
15:45
Speaker 3: notice after you've traveled to see a show or a
15:48
Speaker 3: game that oh, sorry, we're getting you a refund. We
15:50
Speaker 3: didn't actually have that ticket, yeah, which is something that
15:54
Speaker 3: happens with some of those resellers that aren't verified. What
15:57
Speaker 3: I took from what you just said is that the
15:58
Speaker 3: Cubs are playing decent ball again, and that there's some
16:01
Speaker 3: good baseball in general being played in Chicago with the
16:03
Speaker 3: White Sox finally good again. So I'll be at The
16:06
Speaker 3: Brewers are just cleaning up in All Central right now,
16:09
Speaker 3: and the Cubs are what five seven games behind the
16:11
Speaker 3: Brewers right now, so hoping for a good Finally the
16:15
Speaker 3: time of year where I finally start paying attention to
16:17
Speaker 3: baseball again. You know, there's not much on it's all
16:21
Speaker 3: after the All Star break. It's time to start watching
16:23
Speaker 3: baseball again. Yeah. I am going in to speak in
16:28
Speaker 3: Milwaukee at MAX this year, and my hope was to
16:31
Speaker 3: catch a game, a Brewers game. So I've never seen
16:35
Speaker 3: a game in that stadium. Well, hopefully you see the
16:38
Speaker 3: Brewers lose a couple and the Cubs can inch their
16:41
Speaker 3: way up that in all Central leader board.
16:43
Speaker 4: And why would you say that?
16:45
Speaker 3: Go Cubs? Come on all right, I argue with that.
16:49
Speaker 5: Last thing here, Dan, I think it's a just kind
16:51
Speaker 5: of an interesting story here too, because if you haven't
16:53
Speaker 5: been falling. Speaking of self inflicted places that have self
16:57
Speaker 5: inflicted wounded themselves, the UK has them a new prime Minister,
17:01
Speaker 5: Andy Burnham, the former mayor of Manchester, the person running
17:06
Speaker 5: a G seven country would genuinely rather be at a
17:10
Speaker 5: gig than maybe at a cabinet meeting. Andy Burnham took
17:13
Speaker 5: over on the twentieth July after Cure Starmer resigned and
17:16
Speaker 5: kind of why it landed for me and what I
17:18
Speaker 5: want to talk about in this show is he seems
17:20
Speaker 5: to be one of us. One of the first things
17:22
Speaker 5: he did in office was caught himself talking about a
17:25
Speaker 5: video about how he loves to go to gigs, loves
17:28
Speaker 5: to pour a pint, and then how he is helping
17:30
Speaker 5: UK venues to reduce their cost by twenty percent as
17:34
Speaker 5: one of his first actions as Prime Minister of the UK.
17:36
Speaker 5: You know Burnham was at the Rolling Stone show at
17:39
Speaker 5: Blackpool's Impress Ballroom in nineteen eighty nine. He called it
17:43
Speaker 5: one of the finest concerts he's ever seen. He's a
17:45
Speaker 5: Smiths fan, He's an Oasis fan, and as the Mayor
17:49
Speaker 5: of Manchester he pulled the brit Awards out of London
17:52
Speaker 5: for the first time ever and brought it to Manchester.
17:55
Speaker 5: So the guy's been in rooms, he's been to gigs
17:58
Speaker 5: and he has he stepped up in a way as
18:00
Speaker 5: a leader here reducing costs down for UK venues down
18:04
Speaker 5: by twenty percent and back to one pound ticket levee.
18:06
Speaker 3: The idea would be.
18:07
Speaker 5: To put a small charge on every arena and above
18:11
Speaker 5: show that funnels money back down into the kind of grassroots,
18:15
Speaker 5: club level shows, and his government's already floated a forty
18:18
Speaker 5: five million pound music plan around exports, education and mid
18:23
Speaker 5: career artists. Sitting with that idea of a levee for
18:25
Speaker 5: a second, it's maybe this sort of exact medicine that
18:29
Speaker 5: the mid tier reading below venues might need.
18:33
Speaker 3: Something we talk about a lot on this show.
18:35
Speaker 5: The kind of thin middle stadium tours are fine rooms
18:38
Speaker 5: that are feeding the business are starving in a levee
18:40
Speaker 5: at the top might help subsidize the bottom in some way.
18:43
Speaker 5: That kind of structurally fixes anyone who's actually started to
18:47
Speaker 5: put something on the table. So if the UK pulls
18:49
Speaker 5: it off, I feel like that idea could travel showed
18:51
Speaker 5: up in conversations and policy thoughts here already in the
18:54
Speaker 5: United States. And so yeah, in general, congrats Andy Burnham
18:59
Speaker 5: is like the seventh prime ministerity of the UK has
19:01
Speaker 5: had in like six years.
19:02
Speaker 3: So we'll see how long it goes for. But it's
19:05
Speaker 3: great to have a genuine fan in a big chair,
19:08
Speaker 3: And so yeah, UK politics. But you listen to promoter
19:11
Speaker 3: one oh one for exactly that'll do it for news
19:13
Speaker 3: in a month.
19:15
Speaker 4: Hey, it's scary Witt from the Paps Theater group.
19:17
Speaker 3: I'm promoter one O one.
19:18
Speaker 5: Of course, this would not be a promoter one on
19:21
Speaker 5: one podcast without seeing what Dan has said this month
19:25
Speaker 5: on X start here. Excuses could be a fun game
19:28
Speaker 5: when it's clear someone who's gonna flake. I cannot wait
19:31
Speaker 5: to see what they say when they come back with
19:33
Speaker 5: for why this is only good with pastries, Luke, good
19:36
Speaker 5: flicky croissant the only place it's good in.
19:38
Speaker 3: How about this one? Dan? Is it really major versus Indy's?
19:42
Speaker 5: Or is it really about the personal relationship regardless of
19:45
Speaker 5: the checkbook attached.
19:46
Speaker 3: I think it's about the business relationship, Luke. But you
19:49
Speaker 3: never really know. Some people are brand will some people
19:52
Speaker 3: have relationship to a checkbook.
19:54
Speaker 5: Dan.
19:54
Speaker 3: It's deep, Luke, it's deep. It's deep. Have you ever
19:58
Speaker 3: thought of it like that? I have it. You ever
20:00
Speaker 3: looked at the back of a one dollar bill? Loop,
20:02
Speaker 3: here's some fucking sketchy shit going up. You ever done it?
20:06
Speaker 6: High?
20:06
Speaker 3: Yeah?
20:07
Speaker 5: Yes, I have. Here's a good follow up, Dan. People
20:11
Speaker 5: do business with their friends, working with.
20:12
Speaker 3: People who like it's just easier and they can be
20:15
Speaker 3: a lot of fun. It's very true, Dan, that's gonna
20:17
Speaker 3: do it. For Tweets of the month, make sure you
20:19
Speaker 3: keep up with Dan more gyms he's at the jew
20:23
Speaker 3: on X.
20:24
Speaker 4: Do you think people are still using X?
20:26
Speaker 3: I think so.
20:27
Speaker 5: I think a lot of our business is still using X.
20:30
Speaker 5: I think it's become more AI slop than other platforms.
20:33
Speaker 5: I think Threads has been a wonderful place to migrate
20:36
Speaker 5: to a lot of these conversations as well too. It
20:38
Speaker 5: seems like people that jumped off Instagram into the lookalike
20:42
Speaker 5: product in Threads and the meta platform for things are
20:45
Speaker 5: full of great ideas, full of conversations basically the same platform, right,
20:49
Speaker 5: So hear that on truth Social, Dan, are you overrun
20:51
Speaker 5: truth Social?
20:52
Speaker 3: You know?
20:53
Speaker 4: I keep meaning to sign up, but I just have it.
20:56
Speaker 3: Well, have I got an offer for you?
20:58
Speaker 5: For one hundred thousand dollars you can have access to
21:01
Speaker 5: Truths from the White House an hour prior to everybody
21:05
Speaker 5: in the market.
21:05
Speaker 3: It's a hedge fund special. That's just blaked.
21:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a crazy one. That is an absolute real
21:12
Speaker 5: thing they are trying to do.
21:15
Speaker 3: John Holiday Promoter One on one.
21:17
Speaker 5: We're thrilled to welcome to the podcast for the first time,
21:20
Speaker 5: Icon's Jesse Stole. Jesse is a second generation concert promoter
21:24
Speaker 5: and the son of the Iconic promoter John Stole and
21:27
Speaker 5: Jesse's at his own very interesting path from ag to
21:31
Speaker 5: icon today where he is taking a new role in
21:34
Speaker 5: global touring. Please welcome to the podcast, Jesse Stole.
21:38
Speaker 3: Jesse, Welcome to Promoter one on one.
21:40
Speaker 7: Thanks for having me.
21:41
Speaker 3: You've had lots of business cards over the year. You've
21:43
Speaker 3: been at concert West, recently a slash AEG working with JV.
21:48
Speaker 3: You originally were at Fantasma where you work for your pop,
21:52
Speaker 3: who is an icon to this business. So you were
21:55
Speaker 3: born into this. Let's start there. What was it like
21:59
Speaker 3: growing up in a house with the legendary John Stall. Well,
22:03
Speaker 3: I couldn't escape it. The culture was around me.
22:06
Speaker 6: If I was fortunate enough to grow up, you know,
22:08
Speaker 6: unlike probably most kids, I was playing basketball backyard, going
22:12
Speaker 6: straight to a concert. Any show I could go to
22:14
Speaker 6: I attended. It was you know, a passion of mine,
22:18
Speaker 6: whether it was Aretha Franklin or Kiss to see any artist,
22:23
Speaker 6: any club, theater, arena show. I wanted to see what
22:26
Speaker 6: the ins and outs of a production, how it all
22:29
Speaker 6: laid out, from you know, settlement to loading the show
22:32
Speaker 6: end to hospitality and catering, and just seeing the mechanics
22:35
Speaker 6: of how a show all comes together, and you know,
22:37
Speaker 6: I spent hours and hours just after school going to
22:40
Speaker 6: his office and hanging with him. We had that, you know,
22:43
Speaker 6: really great mentor aside from a father and just as
22:47
Speaker 6: one of my closest best friends, naturally, I always admired
22:51
Speaker 6: and that magic of seeing him operate, from building an
22:57
Speaker 6: offer and pursuing it and building that were relationship for
23:00
Speaker 6: an existing relationship we have with agents and managers for
23:03
Speaker 6: twenty thirty years, to confirming the show, to seeing it
23:06
Speaker 6: all come together, that was the process that always enchanted me.
23:10
Speaker 6: So it was a big hobby of mine growing up.
23:12
Speaker 6: Just just like I said, as much as a kid
23:14
Speaker 6: would go to soccer practice, for me, it was go
23:17
Speaker 6: to a show and travel to anywhere in the state
23:19
Speaker 6: of Florida or even travel to Vegas whenever and wherever
23:22
Speaker 6: I can, to just see it all unfold and learn.
23:25
Speaker 3: So I have befriended your dad early on in the industry,
23:28
Speaker 3: and he was quite the mentor because he never really
23:31
Speaker 3: held back anything he had to think about, anything he
23:34
Speaker 3: had on his mind. Ever, so you got a very
23:37
Speaker 3: unvarnished answer from your father any day of the week.
23:41
Speaker 3: And it's one of the things I really truly loved
23:43
Speaker 3: about jentlemen, a true, true independent. But I remember him
23:47
Speaker 3: speaking at Pollstar one year and I'm saying, I don't
23:50
Speaker 3: mind buying a market that's going to lose ten thousand
23:53
Speaker 3: if it's going to get me two other markets that
23:55
Speaker 3: are going to make ten thousand, and I'm going to
23:57
Speaker 3: net ten thousand dollars in a week that I wasn't
23:58
Speaker 3: going to get my hands on any sh show. And
24:00
Speaker 3: I remember walking up to him and saying, how do
24:03
Speaker 3: you know you're only gonna lose ten thousand. He's like,
24:04
Speaker 3: I think you're missing the point of the economics conversation.
24:07
Speaker 3: You're focusing on the wrong thing. I wasn't getting any
24:09
Speaker 3: of the shows, but because I bought three shows, I
24:11
Speaker 3: got to make some money that week. That's what I
24:14
Speaker 3: was focused on. That's what you were missing. But your
24:16
Speaker 3: dad was a next level line where he saw business
24:19
Speaker 3: where there wasn't business to be had. He got himself
24:21
Speaker 3: into the game in a creative way in a business
24:24
Speaker 3: where he was competing with cellar door, he was competing
24:27
Speaker 3: with Pace, and he was playing a very big game
24:29
Speaker 3: in Vegas at the same time where he was competing
24:31
Speaker 3: with the casinos when it wasn't exactly a level field.
24:35
Speaker 6: That's really where I feel like as a guy who
24:37
Speaker 6: the money came from his own pocket. So when it's
24:40
Speaker 6: your own money and you're you're dealing with, you know,
24:43
Speaker 6: your your own pocketbook, it changes the lens of how
24:46
Speaker 6: you approach things. And like you said, the promoter game
24:49
Speaker 6: was heating up heavily in the eighties and the nineties
24:52
Speaker 6: with Pace and Cellar Door. You know, he prided himself
24:55
Speaker 6: on having these relationships with everybody, from the early days
24:58
Speaker 6: of Clapped in the Seagirt Bad King to comedy when
25:01
Speaker 6: it was up and coming with the Larry the Cable
25:03
Speaker 6: Guy and Carrot Top and the comedy corner he had
25:05
Speaker 6: in South Florida. But one of the plays he was
25:08
Speaker 6: very very intentional with was to your point, it wasn't
25:12
Speaker 6: always go for a key major market like Miami Orlando.
25:17
Speaker 6: It was okay, there's there's new territories popping up in
25:21
Speaker 6: eighties and nineties that you know in towns that populations
25:24
Speaker 6: were exploding in tertiary and secondary markets like Fort Myers
25:27
Speaker 6: and Lakeland and where you know, tourism was booing and
25:32
Speaker 6: people are traveling down for a winter vacation in season
25:35
Speaker 6: and the Panhandle Pensacola. So he started really pioneering these
25:41
Speaker 6: areas for growth, and as buildings were being you know,
25:45
Speaker 6: spawning up with theaters and arenas, he was the first
25:48
Speaker 6: to build those relationships. And it became not so you know,
25:51
Speaker 6: heavy on just getting the major key markets, but streen
25:53
Speaker 6: together five six, seven markets, which you know, when I
25:56
Speaker 6: started at AEG, when the Florida office was just spawning
26:00
Speaker 6: at AG that was where I grind my teeth was
26:03
Speaker 6: you know, I mean, as much as I always wanted
26:05
Speaker 6: the major markets, it would be important just as important
26:07
Speaker 6: to string together the secondary's tertiaries where you might do
26:10
Speaker 6: sometimes even better, better numbers, and again it helps you
26:14
Speaker 6: develop and solidify that relationship with the band.
26:17
Speaker 3: When your father passed, the family sold the company. It
26:20
Speaker 3: was Pantasma to Live Nation. You went with JV and
26:24
Speaker 3: a handful of other buyers over to AEG simultaneously and
26:28
Speaker 3: didn't stick around to be part of the Live Nation
26:31
Speaker 3: Phantasma system. You and JV have been together your entire
26:35
Speaker 3: career essentially. What was that like, coming up under one
26:38
Speaker 3: of the most iconic buyers in the world.
26:41
Speaker 6: It was so the system was just it felt like
26:45
Speaker 6: I was jumping right in the saddle of comfortability. And
26:49
Speaker 6: you know, and someone like you said that I've known
26:52
Speaker 6: virtually my entire life. All the staff at Age Florida
26:57
Speaker 6: were former Phantasma employees, so it was family, you know,
27:02
Speaker 6: and in kind of looking at what the options were
27:04
Speaker 6: in Florida, it just felt like a natural the system
27:07
Speaker 6: of how they operate as you know, an independent age.
27:10
Speaker 6: He was an intelligent strategic in how they wrapped around
27:15
Speaker 6: the Florida office to his day. I mean, they wanted
27:18
Speaker 6: that independent spirit, They wanted that strategy that worked for
27:22
Speaker 6: however long it did and continues to kind of drive
27:25
Speaker 6: their model to this day. You know, growing up in
27:27
Speaker 6: a state where there's so many third party theater options
27:31
Speaker 6: and arena options, not necessarily having a lot of owned
27:35
Speaker 6: and operated rooms, you know, you really grind your teeth
27:37
Speaker 6: and punch hard harder when you have to learn how
27:41
Speaker 6: to grind copros and learn how to strike the best
27:44
Speaker 6: rental deals. And you know, it's okay if, like I
27:47
Speaker 6: said before, if you don't get in Orlando and Miami,
27:50
Speaker 6: it's okay if you if to build that relationship, get
27:53
Speaker 6: those other secondary tertiary markets where you know, you show
27:57
Speaker 6: that you can fight for every dollar for the band
27:59
Speaker 6: and make a dollar where you can.
28:01
Speaker 7: That's the key to being a true promoter.
28:03
Speaker 3: Now, I have always respected the concept of understanding Florida,
28:08
Speaker 3: which is a different world completely because it's seasonal. When
28:11
Speaker 3: you've got the winter birds, the blue hairs that come down,
28:15
Speaker 3: your population explodes down there, and when they're not there,
28:19
Speaker 3: it decreases quite greatly. Right, So if you've got routing
28:22
Speaker 3: on the same act, depending on when they're playing a market,
28:25
Speaker 3: their economics are completely different anywhere in the state. And
28:28
Speaker 3: that's got to be something that's just instilled in you knowing,
28:32
Speaker 3: all right, i'm getting the avail and winter, that's worth
28:34
Speaker 3: a whole lot more than when I'm getting it in
28:37
Speaker 3: the middle of summer, when those folks aren't here anymore
28:39
Speaker 3: and we've got a completely different population base. It's like
28:41
Speaker 3: booking a college town in summer versus you're right in
28:44
Speaker 3: the middle of you know, fall, Right, It's like everything
28:47
Speaker 3: changes economically.
28:48
Speaker 6: Yeah, and listen, most things that would work in Florida
28:52
Speaker 6: naturally aren't the sexiest. I mean, as much as I
28:54
Speaker 6: love to book, you know, the next hot and up
28:57
Speaker 6: and coming alternative electronic act, and they're you know, playing
29:00
Speaker 6: stuff routes through Florida. You really got to take your
29:03
Speaker 6: your hat off of you know, interest focal points of
29:06
Speaker 6: what you you may like to gravitate towards genre wise
29:09
Speaker 6: and see, like you said, seasonally, be intentional with where
29:13
Speaker 6: and when you book and genre wise, you know, the
29:16
Speaker 6: the classic rock acts that come every other year. I
29:19
Speaker 6: mean JV's made Quite the Living Book and the Sticks
29:21
Speaker 6: and the Foreigners and the iconic legacy names that you
29:25
Speaker 6: do bigger business in the Southeast than some of the
29:28
Speaker 6: you know and anywhere in the country. And the mantra
29:32
Speaker 6: in at the Age office was always to take your
29:35
Speaker 6: hat off of, like I said, a focal interest point
29:38
Speaker 6: and look at what genre wise, look at look at
29:42
Speaker 6: what nothing's off limits. So I mean we booked everything
29:44
Speaker 6: from off Broadway to you know, non traditional speakers to
29:48
Speaker 6: the point of the comedy obviously started exploding years ago
29:52
Speaker 6: but really came into its own. A lot of even
29:54
Speaker 6: the the you know again not so sexy comedies, the
29:56
Speaker 6: Bill Maher's, the Larry the Cable guys that you know,
29:59
Speaker 6: make quite the route hitting hard in Florida and we'll
30:03
Speaker 6: just do a Florida exclusive run. So the key to
30:06
Speaker 6: success down there is having a neutral hat and really
30:10
Speaker 6: being able to identify all the different cylinders that you
30:14
Speaker 6: can fit into a really a performing arts center game
30:16
Speaker 6: is key.
30:17
Speaker 3: You really kind of cut your teeth in the clubs
30:20
Speaker 3: and theaters, but then you really kind of exploded in
30:23
Speaker 3: the comedy world and have had success not only in
30:26
Speaker 3: various genres of comedy, but like well beyond the Florida
30:30
Speaker 3: border as growing into being a national and international tour promoter.
30:35
Speaker 3: What made the leap there? How did that happen? So?
30:38
Speaker 6: I just comedy for me, I've just always gravitated towards
30:41
Speaker 6: the genre. I feel like it's less red tape when
30:44
Speaker 6: it comes to connecting with the talent, connecting with the
30:46
Speaker 6: production team. I mean, naturally the obvious, there's less that
30:51
Speaker 6: goes into building out a show until it gets that
30:53
Speaker 6: arena plus level, that personal connection you can build with
30:57
Speaker 6: the talent, with the management team. If there is a manager,
31:01
Speaker 6: a lot of times it's it's directly the talent, the
31:04
Speaker 6: talent and the agent. I just I felt like you
31:06
Speaker 6: could be more intentional and more strategic, and it's something
31:09
Speaker 6: that I've already I've always you know, really attached myself
31:12
Speaker 6: to and look, I think comedy with the digital age
31:16
Speaker 6: and the social media age we're in now, has seen
31:20
Speaker 6: that that renaissance period. I think we all know that
31:23
Speaker 6: in the last five, six, seven years, and over the
31:26
Speaker 6: years we've seen so many untapped corners of that from
31:29
Speaker 6: the speaker game, podcasts, non traditional Q and A with
31:34
Speaker 6: panels and so to me, nothing nothing excites me more
31:38
Speaker 6: than seeing identifying something that hasn't gone on the road
31:42
Speaker 6: that you know, whether it's an actor or a podcast,
31:46
Speaker 6: where you know, I can kind of help from ground
31:49
Speaker 6: zero build that and take it on the road in
31:52
Speaker 6: a big way. So one of the big kind of
31:55
Speaker 6: forays for me early on was working with with with
31:58
Speaker 6: one of my clients, Martin Lawrence. He was a stand
32:01
Speaker 6: up obviously iconic from day one from the Deaf Jam days,
32:04
Speaker 6: but you know, never really found it on his own
32:08
Speaker 6: ontouring in the early two thousands. He he, I felt
32:12
Speaker 6: like there was there was some fire still there and
32:15
Speaker 6: the nostalgia factor was coming back in a big way
32:17
Speaker 6: from the nineties. So it was, you know, one one
32:21
Speaker 6: show turned into five shows, turned into well why can't
32:24
Speaker 6: we do this across the East coast to well, you know,
32:28
Speaker 6: we're doing this the right way clearly, and we're seeing
32:31
Speaker 6: the business expand let's see, let's see where you can
32:33
Speaker 6: take this nationwide. So that's how the relationship really spawned.
32:36
Speaker 6: And again, it was just exciting seeing someone who's so
32:41
Speaker 6: iconic and legendary and stand up come back on the
32:45
Speaker 6: scene in a big way and fresh, you know to
32:47
Speaker 6: that audience, because again I don't I don't know if
32:50
Speaker 6: I don't know if there was ever like really that
32:52
Speaker 6: he came back and really punched it hard on the
32:54
Speaker 6: touring circuit up until really like the mid mid two thousands,
32:58
Speaker 6: when I kind of I wanted to see where we
33:00
Speaker 6: could go in markets he hadn't been in years, and
33:03
Speaker 6: that was an exciting project. That was like really one
33:05
Speaker 6: of my first tastes to go outside of the sphere
33:08
Speaker 6: regionally and age. I was fortunate enough to work for
33:10
Speaker 6: a company that really gave me the reins to grow
33:13
Speaker 6: when they saw that I had a relationship you know,
33:16
Speaker 6: unique to the company, and they helped me, you know,
33:18
Speaker 6: they embraced it. Let me embrace that and run with it.
33:21
Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about that, like how does that come together?
33:23
Speaker 3: Because Martin Lawrence hadn't been on TV and I don't know.
33:26
Speaker 3: Fifteen twenty years when you started working with him, there
33:29
Speaker 3: wasn't exactly any reason why anyone else would think that
33:33
Speaker 3: there was magic left in the guests tank there. But
33:35
Speaker 3: you clearly saw something and at the box office you
33:40
Speaker 3: confirmed it that there was still life there and real
33:44
Speaker 3: life there. How did you know we'll give that away?
33:46
Speaker 3: What even made you want to try?
33:48
Speaker 4: Yeah?
33:49
Speaker 6: I think that nostalgia and people remembering their childhood, remembering
33:54
Speaker 6: those magical moments growing up. We're seeing it in real
33:57
Speaker 6: time now, bigger than ever that haven't toured in fifteen
34:01
Speaker 6: twenty thirty years. That whether it's you know, the early
34:04
Speaker 6: two thousands now at the Hillary Duffs and the big
34:07
Speaker 6: time rushes that are just like wowing people on the
34:09
Speaker 6: road coming back in such a big way. I felt
34:12
Speaker 6: like in the urban space, he's the hero from the nineties.
34:16
Speaker 6: There's probably other than Eddie Murphy. He's the guy, I
34:19
Speaker 6: mean TV wise, he's a Jerry Seinfeld of that demographic.
34:23
Speaker 6: And I felt like the timing couldn't have been better.
34:26
Speaker 6: And we walked before he ran. We tried a few theaters,
34:29
Speaker 6: we saw the business was hitting. I saw the audiences
34:32
Speaker 6: just how beloved he was back on the road. You know,
34:35
Speaker 6: you get that hunch when you see how much the
34:37
Speaker 6: audience is attached themselves to someone, and you know, theaters
34:40
Speaker 6: turned into you know, five to ten show runs turned
34:44
Speaker 6: into the whole you know, fifteen to twenty show runs
34:46
Speaker 6: turned into okay, well let's do the whole country to
34:48
Speaker 6: let's level up two arenas and then you know, look,
34:51
Speaker 6: we kept evolving and getting creative over the years, packaging
34:55
Speaker 6: which is big within that community, and building the building
34:58
Speaker 6: steps of just putting him back out to where he became,
35:01
Speaker 6: you know, one of the big touring comedians in the
35:03
Speaker 6: last decade.
35:04
Speaker 3: So you just had that community. So let's go there.
35:06
Speaker 3: I mean, this is the R and B esque African
35:09
Speaker 3: American like community. Rightly, it's not the stereotype, but this
35:12
Speaker 3: is a very black audience.
35:14
Speaker 7: Right one hundred percent. It's the he speaks to that church.
35:17
Speaker 6: And whether I promote an Indian show, whether promote a
35:19
Speaker 6: Latin show or in this case, an urban show, I
35:22
Speaker 6: always tap into having the right promoters, promoter partners on
35:27
Speaker 6: the ground, Like we were talking earlier, when you put that
35:29
Speaker 6: hat on of wanting to really know who you're promoting
35:33
Speaker 6: and taking a step back and understanding and harnessing who
35:36
Speaker 6: the act is. In this case, you know, I had
35:38
Speaker 6: the right street teams and the right radio partnerships and
35:42
Speaker 6: making sure I had the right flavor inside of each market.
35:44
Speaker 6: The audience can sniff out if it's not genuine and
35:48
Speaker 6: you're just looking for a money grab. It's got to
35:50
Speaker 6: come from the Martin Lawrence brand. It's got to be
35:54
Speaker 6: you know, the the you know, whether you street the
35:57
Speaker 6: ad mad up, whether you you tap into all the
35:59
Speaker 6: old school techniques to reach that audience, whether it be
36:02
Speaker 6: you know, hitting it with the lifestyle accounts, with the
36:05
Speaker 6: barber shops and the markets and the nightclubs and fly
36:08
Speaker 6: old school flying, and you know, going heavier on promotional
36:11
Speaker 6: radio giveaways with you know, liners and all those things.
36:15
Speaker 6: Radio is still super prevalent as we know in the
36:17
Speaker 6: urban space, so there's not one size fits all for
36:20
Speaker 6: for you know, you really have to know who the
36:22
Speaker 6: act is, and that was an important piece to the
36:24
Speaker 6: success of the tour.
36:25
Speaker 3: I think that if you know how to market the act,
36:28
Speaker 3: and you've done the research and you're making the investment,
36:30
Speaker 3: you have a ready to make a deal with anyone
36:31
Speaker 3: you want. Otherwise you're saying only a violin player should
36:34
Speaker 3: be able to promote yoyama, which is fucking ridiculous. Yeah,
36:38
Speaker 3: how did the relationship with Martin come about?
36:40
Speaker 6: That's my buddy Chris Smith at IAG. Chris is a
36:43
Speaker 6: good friend. He worked with my father for years. Martin
36:46
Speaker 6: worked for my father for years back in the late nineties.
36:49
Speaker 6: You know, it was an act that I don't want
36:52
Speaker 6: to say it was in the boneyard with the with
36:54
Speaker 6: the agency, but you know I saw an opportunity to
36:57
Speaker 6: say he'll work.
36:59
Speaker 7: You know, let's let's try this.
37:01
Speaker 6: And you know I'm always scouring the agency rosters for
37:04
Speaker 6: opportunities like that, even today, you know, I mean, agencies
37:07
Speaker 6: will always be open to taking offers, as we know,
37:10
Speaker 6: and you know there's sometimes things out there that you know,
37:14
Speaker 6: you got that hunch, take a shot, take a few,
37:17
Speaker 6: few few, take Like I said, a few offers turned
37:19
Speaker 6: on my You know, I wasn't going in gun heavy
37:21
Speaker 6: with with fifty offers, but you know I was ready
37:23
Speaker 6: to say this, this could take, this could this could
37:25
Speaker 6: be meaningful of his audience. So Chris, let me take
37:28
Speaker 6: a shot. Of course on only a couple you know,
37:31
Speaker 6: first time where this was this was the first couple
37:33
Speaker 6: of years that I I was, you know, it's first
37:35
Speaker 6: four or five years working at AEG. So he wanted
37:39
Speaker 6: to see what we can help deliver and how we
37:41
Speaker 6: do it, and you know it would prove to be successful.
37:43
Speaker 3: So so R and G is the basis for this
37:47
Speaker 3: working You you threw some ship on the wall and
37:49
Speaker 3: tried stuff.
37:50
Speaker 6: That's always been Listen, everybody likes the incoming call. But
37:54
Speaker 6: you know, growing up in Florida, you know, as we
37:56
Speaker 6: talked about early on without any you know, without any
37:59
Speaker 6: owned and oper ad venues, and grinding our teeth on
38:02
Speaker 6: finding the business and and and you know, I've just
38:06
Speaker 6: never never been fortunate enough to be be on the
38:09
Speaker 6: side of incoming phone calls. And and that's the trade
38:12
Speaker 6: of mind that you know, I'm grateful from from the
38:14
Speaker 6: days of learning how my father was, you know, always
38:17
Speaker 6: on the phone hammering the lines of you know, hey,
38:20
Speaker 6: I'm here, I'm I'm going to deliver at the highest
38:22
Speaker 6: level as as a you know, as a as another
38:26
Speaker 6: option to to the corporate guys out there. And you know,
38:30
Speaker 6: we uh we uh that that's always been I'm always
38:35
Speaker 6: searching and always trying to be create and roll up
38:37
Speaker 6: my sleeves and and find what's what's not being done.
38:41
Speaker 3: So you jumped from age concerts of Florida and doing
38:46
Speaker 3: the comedy touring stuff over to concerts West in the
38:49
Speaker 3: past couple of years before you jumped over to Icon,
38:53
Speaker 3: which we'll get to in a second. And part of that,
38:55
Speaker 3: not only were you touring comedy, you were also involved
38:57
Speaker 3: with some pop music and touring. And you were involved
39:00
Speaker 3: with that last Sabrina carpentdou Trur, which had phenomenal success.
39:03
Speaker 3: How did that come to be?
39:04
Speaker 6: I was on one of the first tours of her
39:07
Speaker 6: in Florida, booked her at the Parker Playoffs, so you know,
39:11
Speaker 6: eleven hundred seats at the Broward Center, and I was
39:15
Speaker 6: just so stock. It just nailed my tracks of like
39:19
Speaker 6: the triple threat of dancer, singer, actress, the show was.
39:22
Speaker 6: I saw the magic and the show beyond just music.
39:26
Speaker 6: So I followed her through the years. Obviously, the follow
39:31
Speaker 6: up record prior to Shortened Suite was was was just
39:35
Speaker 6: a banger, you know, producing all the big singles, feather
39:38
Speaker 6: and everything, and and I was I attached myself to her.
39:41
Speaker 6: At that point, AEG was starting to dig into some
39:44
Speaker 6: of the big club and theater dates as she was
39:46
Speaker 6: rising and elevating.
39:48
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean I wanted. I saw.
39:50
Speaker 6: I saw the opportunity to go after go after this
39:53
Speaker 6: and embrace it in a bigger way. I saw the
39:55
Speaker 6: next the next follow up record was got a lot
39:57
Speaker 6: of hype, a lot of big producers tied to it.
40:00
Speaker 6: So it was her time. Coachella was being talked about
40:03
Speaker 6: as a big hook and part of our plan. So
40:05
Speaker 6: I knew that, you know, that coming together would be
40:07
Speaker 6: another notch around the time of when she was releasing Espresso.
40:12
Speaker 6: So I just felt like there were all the rights.
40:14
Speaker 6: She did, all the right stepping stones to get to
40:16
Speaker 6: where she was. She didn't skip she didn't skip any steps.
40:19
Speaker 6: She didn't go from you know, clubs to arenas and
40:21
Speaker 6: go to to you know, elevate too fast. She played
40:25
Speaker 6: what you would consider you know, underplays and twenty five
40:28
Speaker 6: hundred and six thousand seaters, you know, and then and
40:31
Speaker 6: then we wrapped her on that that tour deal and
40:34
Speaker 6: it was just you know, lights out rocket ship from there.
40:38
Speaker 3: It'd be a fun thing to be on a team
40:40
Speaker 3: like that when you're seeing that kind of success.
40:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think that the real hook for me early
40:45
Speaker 6: on was just that, you know, it was more it's
40:48
Speaker 6: that performance ship that you see on stage. You know,
40:51
Speaker 6: she's she is an actress first and foremost, and you know,
40:55
Speaker 6: when you're able to like easily transition from on stage
41:00
Speaker 6: from an actress to him, you know, to a musician,
41:02
Speaker 6: you have these this full arsenal of talent, it shows.
41:06
Speaker 6: Then the show she puts on is just you know,
41:08
Speaker 6: next level. So that's what really hooked me in separated
41:11
Speaker 6: her from a lot of the other Disney stars that
41:12
Speaker 6: came out of that circuit.
41:14
Speaker 3: All right, so let's talk about how Concerts West came
41:16
Speaker 3: to be because I mean, you're at ag Concerts West
41:19
Speaker 3: is owned by AEG, but Paul and John are legendary,
41:23
Speaker 3: epic guys that do Selene and do the Rolling Stones,
41:27
Speaker 3: and man, theyre don't really get much bigger than those
41:29
Speaker 3: two fucking cts. Like, so tap to work with two
41:33
Speaker 3: iconic concert promoters who do it old school in the
41:36
Speaker 3: best way, Like, it's gotta be cool just to be
41:38
Speaker 3: in the room with that. I mean, obviously you recognize
41:41
Speaker 3: the vibe alone because you come from the you share
41:44
Speaker 3: the last name Stole, Like you got to vibe that
41:47
Speaker 3: right away.
41:48
Speaker 6: So John and Paul were always close to my father.
41:51
Speaker 6: I kept seeing their name pop up on tours early
41:54
Speaker 6: on in the early two thousands, a lot of the
41:56
Speaker 6: big pop tours from you know, in sync to Backstreet
42:00
Speaker 6: Boys and Brittany, and I think there was always that,
42:05
Speaker 6: like you said, I mean iconic growing up in the
42:07
Speaker 6: aeg sphere of it. All, those guys were always highly
42:13
Speaker 6: revered as the forerunners of touring. You know, I saw
42:17
Speaker 6: that as my next as an opportunity, as as my
42:21
Speaker 6: next kind of jump to where I can kind of
42:23
Speaker 6: continue elevating in national and global touring. Who better to,
42:28
Speaker 6: like you said, to learn from than than John Paul.
42:30
Speaker 6: So after meeting them at a couple of Stone shows
42:32
Speaker 6: through Florida, you know, they took a chance on me,
42:34
Speaker 6: which I'm forever grateful for. You know, they they were
42:38
Speaker 6: pretty straight shooters with me. It was you know, hey,
42:40
Speaker 6: we've we've taken a chance on some people in the past.
42:42
Speaker 6: It hasn't really worked out. But you know, you look hungry,
42:45
Speaker 6: you look like you've got it. We're we're willing to
42:47
Speaker 6: give you a shot. Come out to LA and let's
42:50
Speaker 6: see what you're what you're what you're cooking, and they're
42:53
Speaker 6: also pretty transparent as well. You know, as an independent
42:55
Speaker 6: kind of independent subsidiary within AEG. You've got our resources,
42:59
Speaker 6: you've got our you know, our ear. We're here to help,
43:02
Speaker 6: but you know we're gonna get the fuck out of
43:03
Speaker 6: the way and you get you run with it again.
43:06
Speaker 6: Fortunate enough to grow up without any i would say,
43:10
Speaker 6: asset or anything anything to hold on to other than
43:13
Speaker 6: my own relationships and grind, you know, grinding every show
43:16
Speaker 6: out that I had. That was a pretty pretty good
43:20
Speaker 6: saddle to kind of jump right into.
43:21
Speaker 3: So so how do you wind up at Icon, which
43:25
Speaker 3: is where you're at now for the better part of
43:27
Speaker 3: what two months brand new? Yeah, Iconic comedy firm. Doug
43:32
Speaker 3: Castro has built a machine over there where they're doing
43:36
Speaker 3: Luffy and some of the biggest other comics in the
43:39
Speaker 3: world that rival outback for some of the biggest comedy
43:42
Speaker 3: tours in the world, and obviously as an independent like
43:45
Speaker 3: next level stuff, but they're part of a bigger consortium too,
43:49
Speaker 3: which I'll get you to talk about in a second.
43:50
Speaker 3: But let's start with Doug's team at Icon and how
43:52
Speaker 3: you wand up there?
43:54
Speaker 6: Yeah, So Icon for me was uh like I've always
43:58
Speaker 6: had the utmost justifed Palmelo president here. I've co prodon
44:02
Speaker 6: with him on for years whenever we did dates on
44:05
Speaker 6: the East Coast, and always as a as an independent
44:09
Speaker 6: fighting in a in an aggressive competitive landscape as we
44:14
Speaker 6: all know, I've always had the utmost respect and how
44:16
Speaker 6: he's operated grace and retained these relationships for many years.
44:20
Speaker 6: And for me, you know, I have a lot of
44:23
Speaker 6: respect for for Outback and what they've built. Of course,
44:27
Speaker 6: you know Live Nation and Will's in his department aeg.
44:31
Speaker 6: You know, I felt like there was a void in
44:34
Speaker 6: the comedy space to really grow the portfolio, and we
44:39
Speaker 6: were making some great waves, but I wanted to be
44:42
Speaker 6: able to run further with a green you know, with
44:45
Speaker 6: more of a green runway, to build it out a
44:47
Speaker 6: team and you know Icon recently in the last couple
44:51
Speaker 6: of years, UH became part of the greater Live Co
44:56
Speaker 6: Holdings team, which which includes Peach Tree, tpr Are you know,
45:01
Speaker 6: a juggernaut, me Christian Music Space, and again felt like
45:06
Speaker 6: the real path for me to kind of go back
45:10
Speaker 6: to my roots and run in a runway that I
45:13
Speaker 6: have to really you know, really elevate something and develop
45:17
Speaker 6: more of my portfolio and I felt like this was
45:19
Speaker 6: like a great home for me. So focal points comedy
45:23
Speaker 6: and non traditional. But you know, listen there, you know,
45:26
Speaker 6: the team has been very empowering to grow in music
45:30
Speaker 6: as well, and a lot of my relationships do fall
45:33
Speaker 6: outside of just comedy, non traditional and also you know international.
45:37
Speaker 7: You know, I want to.
45:37
Speaker 6: Grow, continue to grow the team here the lens that
45:41
Speaker 6: not only focus on North America, but there's a whole,
45:43
Speaker 6: you know, expansive world. Not only export artists out internationally
45:48
Speaker 6: and important in North America and tour them, but also
45:51
Speaker 6: you know, tour more internationally for comedy and music, et cetera.
45:56
Speaker 3: So when you think the name Malosh and Castro and Icon,
46:00
Speaker 3: you don't really think of international or music. You think comedy.
46:04
Speaker 3: And when you hear international, you think maybe they went
46:06
Speaker 3: to Toronto with a comic And I don't get the
46:08
Speaker 3: sense you're talking about just a Canadian too, or when
46:10
Speaker 3: you say international and yeah, actually getting into things that
46:14
Speaker 3: require more than just a microphone in a spotlight. So
46:18
Speaker 3: what's the vision And that's a big, huge paradigm shift
46:21
Speaker 3: for them.
46:22
Speaker 6: It's certainly not gonna be it's gonna be a you know,
46:25
Speaker 6: a walk before we run sort of move. It's not
46:27
Speaker 6: a you know, there's not I just I don't want
46:29
Speaker 6: to ever think contained to the definition of growth. Live
46:33
Speaker 6: Co is one of the biggest independent promoters at the
46:36
Speaker 6: moment in the country, and you know, in order to
46:39
Speaker 6: continue seeing growth, you got to think globally.
46:43
Speaker 7: I think that you know the.
46:44
Speaker 6: I think we all we all see how fast other
46:47
Speaker 6: countries are growing their their their talent, whether it's you know,
46:52
Speaker 6: East Asia, Southeast Asia, whether it's comedy, whether it's music.
46:57
Speaker 6: On the genre front, I see the true definition of
47:00
Speaker 6: a national promoter should be thinking how do we bridge
47:03
Speaker 6: the gap with the rest of the world. And so
47:07
Speaker 6: you know, again core being comedy and non traditional. But
47:10
Speaker 6: I really want to want to, you know, make sure
47:13
Speaker 6: that nothing's nothing's off limits, you know, if there's a
47:16
Speaker 6: real opportunity. It's all about the people embracing the people,
47:19
Speaker 6: the people embracing a tour project. So we can execute
47:24
Speaker 6: just as high level on a music tour as we
47:26
Speaker 6: came of comedy. We've got top level production people, we've
47:29
Speaker 6: got top level marketing people, a lot of who have
47:31
Speaker 6: came from the music space. We're hungry to show that
47:35
Speaker 6: we're we're players beyond just you know, one pigeonhole genre
47:38
Speaker 6: of comedy, non traditional and you know, as I've kind
47:41
Speaker 6: of mentioned earlier on the call, you know, I have partners.
47:44
Speaker 6: We continue to build out our global footprint, you know,
47:47
Speaker 6: make sure we're doing it the right way whenever we
47:49
Speaker 6: venture over into whether it's Australia or you know, Asia
47:53
Speaker 6: or Europe, but intentional and strategical and how we build
47:57
Speaker 6: this footprint outward.
47:58
Speaker 3: Sounds like there is eyes for big growth all over around.
48:03
Speaker 6: Yeah, And I think it's important to think that way
48:06
Speaker 6: when you're you know, look, there's a it's a very
48:08
Speaker 6: competitive space right now and as we all know, and
48:12
Speaker 6: you know, to stay strong as an independent, it's you know,
48:16
Speaker 6: noticing your strengths of course, and where we where we've
48:19
Speaker 6: been able to thrive, but not just thinking here's where
48:22
Speaker 6: we're going to be in five years in the same space. Otherwise,
48:25
Speaker 6: I feel like growth is if you don't think of
48:27
Speaker 6: where you're going to grow in ten years and where
48:29
Speaker 6: you can really take it to next heights.
48:31
Speaker 7: You know, where are we going to be?
48:32
Speaker 3: So no, it's it's uh, it's a game changer for
48:35
Speaker 3: them and a game changer for you obviously, with the
48:39
Speaker 3: building blocks to grow a company on an international footprint
48:43
Speaker 3: like that seems like a pretty big challenge.
48:45
Speaker 7: I'm up for it.
48:47
Speaker 3: Before we close out, what's the philosophy that you work
48:51
Speaker 3: under currently that keeps you moving day after day? How
48:54
Speaker 3: do you outline your vision for the business.
48:56
Speaker 6: There's one thing that I remember my dad always saying
48:58
Speaker 6: growing up, not just business, but it flowed into his
49:01
Speaker 6: personal life, and that's do the right thing. We know
49:04
Speaker 6: how a lot of people in this business can get
49:07
Speaker 6: can lose sight of being honorable, being loyal, being honest.
49:13
Speaker 6: I try to, I really try to go on a
49:16
Speaker 6: daily basis.
49:17
Speaker 7: It's it's hard.
49:18
Speaker 6: Sometimes, you know, you get screwed over, you lose a tour,
49:21
Speaker 6: you you lose someone wasn't loyal to you. And you
49:25
Speaker 6: know I battle with that internally because it is business.
49:27
Speaker 6: You got to remember it's at the end of the day,
49:29
Speaker 6: it is business, and there are political factors whatever may be.
49:32
Speaker 6: But to me, you know, I always try being the
49:36
Speaker 6: most loyal to my partners, you know, staying straight. And
49:39
Speaker 6: I remember I came from a from a family where
49:43
Speaker 6: my dad fought for every single dollar in his pocket,
49:46
Speaker 6: so you know, the settlement down to the penny mattered,
49:49
Speaker 6: and fighting for every dollar mattered and fighting.
49:52
Speaker 7: And you know, your word is all you really.
49:54
Speaker 3: Have, you know.
49:55
Speaker 6: I I sell myself on that high my word and
49:58
Speaker 6: my my quality of survey.
50:00
Speaker 7: You know, so do the right thing.
50:02
Speaker 3: I can't thank you enough for taking time talking to
50:04
Speaker 3: me about your dad and your path and working with
50:08
Speaker 3: Martin Lawrence and growing your business into an international legacy
50:13
Speaker 3: as well as starting out in the early days in Florida.
50:16
Speaker 3: So to see that path grow is kind of an
50:18
Speaker 3: awesome thing. And to hear you say some stuff that
50:20
Speaker 3: I know I could have heard come right out of
50:22
Speaker 3: your dad's mouth throughout the course of the conversation was
50:24
Speaker 3: fun for me too.
50:25
Speaker 7: Yeah. No, I really appreciate having here.
50:27
Speaker 2: Man.
50:27
Speaker 7: It's an honored I'm proud to be here.
50:31
Speaker 3: Fergie Tour Design, I'm a promoter one oh one? What
50:34
Speaker 3: is the month? Life is about making an impact, not
50:37
Speaker 3: about making income, Kevin Cruz, you know Dan off the
50:43
Speaker 3: record here. We just had a long conversation about money
50:46
Speaker 3: and impact and all those things, and you you I
50:49
Speaker 3: didn't even know this quote was coming up out of it.
50:51
Speaker 3: So what a deep thing and a nice callback to
50:53
Speaker 3: something that really does matter in this day and age.
50:57
Speaker 4: This is Charles Hotel see three percent.
51:00
Speaker 3: I'm a Promoter one on one.
51:01
Speaker 5: Thank you all for joining us for the two hundred
51:03
Speaker 5: and forty sixth episode of Promoter one on one. We
51:05
Speaker 5: are so grateful to all of our listeners for everyone
51:07
Speaker 5: who tunes in and supports this podcast. I don't know
51:10
Speaker 5: what the time went on this one, Dan, this one
51:12
Speaker 5: was a great one. I had a great time on
51:13
Speaker 5: this one. So until next time, thanks for listening. If
51:17
Speaker 5: you miss us and you want to hear from us,
51:20
Speaker 5: hit us at Steignypromoter one on one dot net.
51:22
Speaker 4: As always, we want to thank you so much for
51:24
Speaker 4: your time.
51:24
Speaker 3: We're honored that you've joined us this week. We will
51:26
Speaker 3: return again on August twenty sixth, then every last Thursday
51:30
Speaker 3: of every month moving forward. Our August episode will feature
51:34
Speaker 3: Scott Sokel from Pinnacle Entertainment. I'll be on next month's
51:38
Speaker 3: episode of Promoter one oh one. We'll see in August
51:41
Speaker 3: and we're wishing you sold out shows for the month
51:44
Speaker 3: to come. Jeez, call you my mane
52:00
Speaker 2: Alight visit the buffet co Promote one O one