One-Woman Show

Circus Juventas is an atypical place from which to host a live auction. But then, Karen Sorbo isn’t the most conventional auctioneer. Still, she may be the most successful charity auctioneer in the state. Since 1993, she has raised $52 million for more than 100 causes through more than 1,200 charitable auctions.

And her stylish appearance and her ease with audiences don’t tell her whole story.

Stockyard to Stage

While Sorbo has made a career of auctioneering for charity events throughout the Twin Cities, she believes that audiences aren’t always receptive to female auctioneers. It’s typically man’s work, and the women who do handle auctions are often members of a family that has done auctioneering for years.

But Sorbo has overcome those barriers. “[Audiences] really embrace Karen. They’re very attentive,” says Mara Wallach, a corporate event producer with the Cre8tive Collaboration Gang in Jordan who works with Sorbo every year for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation gala. “She’s so engaging, and it’s an interactive experience when she’s up on stage. She’s not only a great auctioneer, but she’s a great entertainer as well.”

And a stylish one, too—in a field not renowned for that trait. Sorbo admits that looks have certainly enhanced her career. “I’m not shy to say that having an attractive look does help,” she says. But beauty can be a hindrance, too. For those unfamiliar with Sorbo’s auctioneering skills, their first impression is one of a beauty queen. There’s some justification for that—she won the Mrs. Minnesota International contest in 1991. But in fact, she doesn’t particularly enjoy shopping for those stylish clothes and putting on makeup. For relaxation, she spends time on her Harley (true, it’s a pink one), and enjoys salmon fishing trips to Alaska. She’s also a fan of professional bull riding and once rode a Brahma bull herself.

Despite her well-coiffed appearance and poise as an auctioneer, Sorbo is, face to face, someone who seems almost surprised by her own success.

As a child growing up on a Delano farm, Sorbo, her father, and her brother would occasionally attend auctions to buy antiques or household items. “I was fascinated by the auctioneers—their chants, how fast they sold things, and how people were so attentive, whether they wanted something or not,” Sorbo recalls. “Just to watch the auctioneer was entertainment.”

A stay-at-home mother as a young adult, Sorbo never thought of becoming an auctioneer until 1993, when her brother suggested the two of them get into the business. The plan was that after graduation from Kansas City’s Missouri Auction School—the oldest and largest in the business—they would open a high-end consignment auction house in the Twin Cities. Their father joined them at the school, and the three of them trained by selling pigs, cattle, and farm equipment at public auction in Kansas City. 

But plans changed after Sorbo’s father became seriously ill and her brother moved out of state. She had no specific plans after that, but an article about her that ran in a Minneapolis paper sparked interest from the chairman of a golf benefit in Golden Valley. He called Sorbo to see whether she’d be interested in auctioning items for a diabetes organization at a dinner following the golf outing.

Sorbo asked what kind of items would be up for bid, and the organizer mentioned artwork. “I’m not really trained in artwork,” Sorbo replied. He then told her that they also had trips up for bid. “‘What do you mean by that?’, I said. And he said, ‘Trips to exotic places.’” Sorbo told him that she didn’t have experience with that, either. The chairman continued rattling off items: wine, fur coats, dinners at the home of a high-profile person. Again, she told him she wasn’t trained in auctioning such things. “But I thought, ‘I’ll go and make the best of it,’” she says.

The evening of the auction, before taking her place at the auctioneer’s stand, Sorbo went into the restroom, overcome by nerves. “These were unprofessional buyers,” she recalls. “They weren’t there to purchase an item for their farm, an antique, a piece of machinery. They were there because they were supporting diabetes, and it was a whole different crowd than what I was used to at public auctions, going from the stockyard selling feeder pigs by the pound to selling exotic destinations all over the world.”

Sorbo made it through, though she was convinced afterward that this had been her first and last charity auction. But within a week, she received eight phone calls from other event organizers demanding her services. “Off of those eight, there were 10 more—and off of those 10 there were 20 more,” she says. The calls that came in afterwards, she says, “stated that I was entertaining, funny, and they could understand my auctioneer chant. Most of them stated that it was refreshing to see a woman who was professional, beautiful, funny, entertaining, and can produce results at the same time.”

There’s nothing in Sorbo’s manner or tone to suggest that she’s bragging. “I cannot really say why that first auction was a success, for me and the organization,” she says. “I was simply scared to death and never even thought I performed to their or my expectations.”

In her first year in the business, Sorbo did 52 charity auctions.