Real World: Your Peers on Stage

Everybody’s got a little hambone in them. If you disagree, check out the tryout lines for “American Idol” or “Dancing With the Stars.” Discipline, however, is the key ingredient for a professional who strives to achieve the athletic stamina of a ballerina, the vocal strength of a rock star or the creativity of a stage designer. Take a closer look at your peers in this industry, and you’ll find these creative professionals are all over — as smart on stage as they are in sales meetings.

His love wasn’t on the rocks, and he didn’t know a sweet woman named Caroline; all Larry Boyle wanted to do was sing a heartfelt tune. “In 1988, I was recording a song I wrote. The engineer told me my voice sounded like Neil [Diamond],” recalls Boyle, art director of LB Graphix in Lake Balboa, Calif. “I bought my first recording of Neil “Gold” live at the Troubadour. I was hooked and started to learn his songs to include in my lounge set.”

With more than 30 years as a musician and songwriter, Boyle still rehearses Diamond tribute music for professional gigs in six-hour sets with a full band. Headlining the Barona Valley Ranch Casino and Resort this past summer, he finds his Diamond tunes are golden. “There is nothing like having a crowd of strangers cheering for you,” Boyle attests. “With Neil’s music, they stand up and sing along for most of my performance.”

While the crowd response is blissful, performances aren’t always glamorous. Once, in Keystone, Colo., Boyle remembers, “I actually had to take a gondola up to the top of a mountain to perform at 12,000 feet. This took a lot of extra physical training and preparation. We also had an accompaniment of kazoos on one song.”

Boyle has embraced the entertainment world along with its community of performers. “Tribute music is very popular right now,” he says. “I have a couple of friends that do it full time. One is a Madonna impersonator, and another does a Monkees tribute.”

For Diamond fans jonesing for a live rendition of “Cracklin’ Rosie” or “Song Sung Blue,” Boyle’s performances provide a fix like no other — aside from the real deal. Boyle has high hopes for his act to continue it’s growth in popularity, too. His dream would be a casino contract for a regularly running Las Vegas show. And who knows? Maybe the crowds at The Expo next January will be flocking to hear him sing “Cherry, Cherry.” We’re eagerly awaiting that deal.

While fans are drawn to the charisma of performers, any entertainer will tell you that lighting and set design can make or break a production, especially a magic show. Gregg Emmer, chief marketing officer of Batavia, Ohio-based Kaeser & Blair Inc., learned this when he worked as a magician in a Greenwich Village theater in New York City. “Magic became special effects,” he recalls, “and that led to set design.” From his time performing, he learned how important set design was. He became more interested in this aspect of the shows and gradually made his transition.

Beginning in 1975, Emmer worked on more than 100 shows as a special effects designer for Ohio theaters. He has created special effects for the use of firearms, water fountains and explosions. “The sets must be designed to accommodate these effects safely and effectively,” he explains. “Many good set designers are not technically knowledgeable in special effects and end up with designs that look good but don’t function. I decided to try to fix some of those problems.”

Emmer’s best production for special effects was with “Something’s Afoot,” and his favorite project in general was “Man of La Mancha.” Still, if he had his way, he’d most like to “make a great big ship sink!”