The Talent Pool

The Cost of Entertainment

Zelinsky says event planners should consider local talent as a way of getting more bang for their buck. For example, she suggests that for a local meeting with a $2,000 entertainment budget, the planner should look for a $2,000-level entertainer from Minnesota instead of getting a $1,000-level entertainer from New York and spending $1,000 flying him or her to the Twin Cities. On Minnesota-Speakers.com, you can find entertainers ranging in price from less than $2,000 up to $15,000. Schmidt puts the price range of local acts for corporate events at $1,500 to more than $10,000.

Steck notes the premium paid to hire big names. For instance, top-tier comedians such as Jay Leno, Dana Carvey, and Bill Cosby all demand more than $100,000. A lower-profile but nationally recognized comedian such as Frank Caliendo may run more than $25,000. And there are a lot of entertainers to choose from in between those two numbers, Steck says.

Companies not only pay more for star talent, but may have to cater to a long list of celebrity requests. “The higher level the artist is, they more extensive their rider is, and that rider can be anywhere from 10 to 40 pages long. That covers their hotel rooms, their meals, and backstage catering” and many other, often whimsical, demands, Schmidt says.

Big-name talent is known for luxurious tastes and finicky needs, which are spelled out in riders or contracts. TheSmokingGun.com has famously publicized the backstage riders of a number of celebrities, highlighting the most unusual demands. For instance, one of singer Jennifer Lopez’s riders specified that her dressing room and its flowers, tables, drapes, candles, and couches should all be white.

Schmidt recalls several unusual requests he got from celebrities. “I remember James Brown had to have two oxygen tanks with a certain brand of [oxygen] mask backstage left and backstage right,” Schmidt says. “And it wasn’t until I saw just what that man did on stage that I realized just why those oxygen tanks were necessary.”

One of singer Crystal Gayle’s performance agreements stipulated that she stay in a five-star hotel. While working with the singer on a show in Nebraska, Schmidt had to explain to the singer’s husband and road manager that there were no five-star hotels in Omaha, so he couldn’t fulfill her request.

Transportation, such as vans for musical equipment or limousines for entertainers, can cut into the entertainment budget, too. With all these peripheral expenses it’s no wonder that bringing a nationally recognized entertainer to town will cost $5,000 to around $500,000, Schmidt says.

For some companies, the cost is not a barrier. “The big corporations are bringing in big-name entertainment,” says John Domagall, president of Artists Representation and Management, a St. Paul entertainment agency with a roster that includes Bret Michaels of the band Poison, and hard rock groups FireHouse, L.A. Guns, and Warrant. Domagall says that recently his company worked on a private date for Fall Out Boy, a popular rock band, at the Target campus in Golden Valley. The band was in town to play at the Myth nightclub in Maplewood, and the next day they played for Target employees during a 30-minute lunchtime show.

As the vibrant local talent pool indicates, many Minnesota firms see the value of entertaining attendees at corporate functions. Steck says his clients understand what great entertainment does for them: “[It] drives a big part of the program, and it’s probably going to be the highest ROI they have for an event.”