The Smothers Brothers!

So last night was a pretty monumental moment of my life. I drove 3 1/2 hours with my parents to Wabash Indiana (kind of near Fort Wayne) to see the Smothers Brothers. A little background...

My parents are a little on the old side and their parents were even more so. Instead of taking his kids to Disney World, my grandfather took them to Yellowstone. My dad thought it was a great idea and did the same thing. He also inflicted his interests in music on us. While some of it is pretty bad, one thing we all liked were the 1960s folk groups he listened to. So we listened to the smothers, and they became a family tradition. Not only can I sing along with the CDs we have, but I can time the jokes just right and love to walk around saying things like "What do you need an exterminator for!!!!!"

So we went to Wabash to see them and it was like being at a meeting of the Hoosier AARP group, but I had a great time. We hung around afterwards and noticed that a group of the venue's VIPs were getting led into the Green Room for a meet and greet. I learned over the years that it never hurts to hang around and see what you can do. So after most of the people had exited out a stage door, i went in that door and asked the cop if there was any chance he could let me in. I said that even though I wasn't a VIP, I was probably the youngest person in the entire place that actually wanted to be there and wasn't dragged there by my family.

After waiting outside in the lobby for a while the last of the VIPs and employees left. A man in a dark suit waved me backstage and there I was with Tom and Dick. The Suit told me they just had time for a quick picture, and I didn't want to push my luck so I didn't stay to chat. But they took a couple pictures with me and were very nice. They tried to do different poses and the Suit took an action shot that looks like Tommy's trying to grope me. So it was a pretty awesome night. But why am I writing about it in this blog you might ask? Well very few of my friends may know who these guys are, but they were pretty huge back in the day, look them up.

And the reason I believe they were so huge? Because they were funny. I think that the most successful people in the world are people who know how to make others laugh because you rarely will find someone who DOESN'T like to laugh.

It's personality and character that draw people to the Smothers and while their act is based specifically on that, the idea can work for any performer. If you have a small chamber ensemble, there's no reason that your audience has believe that they are all extremely serious musicians that don't have any fun. If you can find a way to let the personality come through either in a performance or some sort of talk-back, then people will feel a stronger connection with your group and a stronger desire to be a part of your organization.

While any arts group that is surviving obviously is full of talent, the best ones are those that merge talent with character and provide a well-rounded entertainment experience.