Making sure the fair rocks for everyone * Orange County Fair

Deputy General Manager Steven Beazley talks about what it takes to

book the concert series for this year and beyond

As the Orange County Fair winds to a close, Deputy General Manager

Steven Beazley is already making plans next year’s entertainment

line-up. This year, the fair spent slightly more than $1 million on

its entertainment. That included $715,000 to entice acts like Heart,

Huey Lewis and the News, Styx, Collin Raye and Martina McBride. For

the first time, it also ran several days of comedy starring Weird Al

Yankovic and Carrot Top

Beazley spent a sunny afternoon under the awning of the

latimes.com Theater hospitality tent last week to talk with Features

Editor Jennifer K Mahal about his job, the success of the 2002

concert series and what the future might hold.

*

What brought you from having degrees in psychology to working for

the fair?

*

I’ve been at the fair since I was 12 years old. I started here

just picking up trash and following the parade and all those kind of

fun things you do when you’re 12. And I’ve just worked here every

summer throughout school.

I had planned to go on and have a career as a psychologist, but

you know, life just kind of happens and before I left I thought,

there’s still some good work to do here. So, I decided to stay and go

into management here.

Which, by the way, a psychology degree -- I’m using it every

single day, every minute. Because any time you work with people,

you’ve got to understand personality dynamics. All those things you

have to understand to be able to manage and lead people.

So, while some folks say “Well, you’re not using your degree,” I

say, “No, no. I’m using it every minute of every day.” It’s just in a

different way other than in a counseling situation. I’m using it in a

managing position.

*

What was your first paid job at the fair?

*

My first paid job was walking around picking up trash with the

little pickers, and also following the parade every night behind the

elephants. Picking up after the elephants. So I’ve been here now, I

think it’s 26 years. This is my 26th year.

*

This year you had a larger budget for talent. How did that come

about?

*

In last year’s planning for the 2002 fair, we decided and

committed ourselves that we wanted to upgrade the entertainment.

Bring in maybe a higher quality, maybe a higher profile, maybe some

artists that have current product out. So with all those goals in

mind, it was necessary that we put some more budget dollars toward

the entertainment. And so it became one of the over-arcing 2002 fair

goals.

*

How is that working out for you this year, in terms of the sales

of reserved tickets and attendance?

*

It’s probably even more successful than we projected it to be. The

demand is greater than we can meet. Our sales -- let me just give you

our sales figures, because I don’t have percentages off the top of my

head. Last year we sold $158,000 in concert seats, the $10 reserved

seats. This year we’ve sold over $300,000. So we’ve almost doubled

it.

*

What concert has been the hot ticket?

*

You know, I can name off a whole laundry list. But from last

night, which was The Guess Who, to the end of fair, which is Lynyrd

Skynyrd, all the shows have been ... there’s no more tickets for any

of these shows. But we had nine of the 17 shows, all the tickets were

gone before the fair started.

*

How do you decide on the acts that you are going to book for the

fair, like how did you get a list that included The Guess Who and

Heart and then Collin Raye and Martina McBride?

*

What we try to do, our first goal is diversity. Meaning we try to

get a little something for everyone. You know there are some styles

of music that work here better than others. Classic rock works great

at fairs, and I really don’t know why, I just know that its very

successful.

Classic rock and country are kind of your two cornerstone genres

of music. But then we work from there and we try to say, OK. Our goal

is to have any person look at that list and find something that they

either connect with, some genre of music or the artist themselves. So

we try to fill it out that way, but with classic rock and country

being the two cornerstones.

*

Were there any acts that you personally said, wow, I have to go

meet these people or see this?

*

You know, I was pretty excited about Huey Lewis and the News

because I, for my money, I thought they were an excellent -- and they

turned out to be -- excellent fit with the Orange County demographic

and crowd. And I was doubly excited that they led off the fair,

because it kind of set a new tone for the fair, to say “Here’s the

opening night act, and by the way, here’s where we’re going in the

future.”

Huey Lewis kind of represents where we’re going. I was really

excited about that. I’m very excited about Styx. I think they’re

another band that has some timeless music that folks are going to

come out and they’re going to absolutely enjoy as they did when the

music was first published.

*

Were there bands that you got that you were surprised you actually

managed to get?

*

I think again Huey Lewis. We presumed they were out of our price

range because they’re still a real popular touring band. And so, the

fact that we got them at basically an affordable price, again, was

very much of a pleasant surprise to me. And then throw in the opening

night, that makes it even better.

*

How did it come about that you had a comedy series this year as

well?

*

What we are trying to do, in the name of diversity, is we’re

trying to expand out. We didn’t really have any room for comedy or

comics in our latimes.com [Theater] section. So what we did was, we

took two of the folks that have been here in the past and that have

been highly successful with us -- and that was Carrot Top and Weird

Al -- and decided that we would book them multiple nights because we

thought that they could sustain two or three nights.

And in Weird Al’s case, because he was here in ’99 and 2000 and he

did an overwhelming business, we thought we’d try a new thing at the

fair. We’ve never done this before. We’ve never booked any act

multiple nights, and we thought we’d try that with Weird Al. And thus

far it’s a major success. Major.

And also the thing with Weird Al is, he so neatly fits the

demographic of the Orange County Fair, and that is families. There’s

not too much music out there these days that parents and kids can go

together and enjoy together.

*

Looking to the future, how far are you in the planning process for

next year?

*

There are certain bands that we hoped to get this year that we

didn’t because maybe they were routed in a different part of the

country. They weren’t out on tour.

There’s a country singer named Brad Paisley that we really would

have liked to have. He just happens to be on the East Coast this time

of year. We were hoping to land Foreigner, but it was just out of

their route.

So, that’s the bad news. The good news is, most of those bands we

can come back around to next year because a lot of those bands will

be touring every summer.

Although we haven’t made offers to them yet, those are bands we

will go back to and say, OK, so where are you going to be next year

in July and maybe we can work something out. So, the planning stage

starts in the prior year, particularly when there’s not a band

available that we really think will fit the bill.

*

Were any of the acts this year ones that you wanted in 2001, but

didn’t get?

*

B-52’s. Carrot Top was another one that wasn’t available. Heart

was another one that we asked about in 2001, but just wasn’t out on

tour. I believe those are the main ones.

*

What’s the biggest challenge in putting together something like

the concert series?

*

The problems really only start at the booking level. I won’t call

it the simplest part of it, but in some ways it is the easiest part

because after that, it becomes making sure the publicity gets out,

meeting the needs of the bands from a production standpoint.

It’s so multifaceted, just the whole ....Once the act hits the

stage, there’s so much that goes on behind it in terms of planning

and coordinating, that I believe that coordination, to make it look

seamless to the people out in the audience. Lighting and sound

contractors, all those stagehands, all those behind-the scene things

take a high, high level of coordination.

And as you go up to get higher profile bands, the complexities of

coordination get even more. So, that’s been the thing that’s been a

little bit of a surprise. How much extra coordination has had to go

into it because we’ve gone to a higher profile of band.

*

What’s the best thing about what you get to do?

*

The best thing is to stand off to the side of the stage and watch

the fans. The band, whoever it is, will break into a song that the

fans know and they’ll rise to their feet and cheer and all the

hardships, all the work, at that moment become more than worth it.

*

If you had a wish list of bands that you’d want for 2003 -- a

personal list -- who would be on it?

*

The hardship of that is -- and I’ll answer your question -- trying

to bok toward the audience instead of trying to book who I like.

Because I may or may not have my finger on the pulse, from the bands

I listen to, of people that would appeal to our fair patrons.

Of course, my favorite artist in the world is Sting. So if I was

booking with only myself in mind, No. 1. He would be the No. 1

artist.

I also have kind of an aspiration, although I don’t know how real

it is, to see if in future years we can land No Doubt. We did that

with the [O.C.] Supertones and Save Ferris this year.

There’s something very good about the fact that Orange County does

produce some bands that go on to be of note. And we should be

celebrating those bands here. In a community event, we should be

highlighting bands who are trying to break onto the scene, but we

should also be showcasing bands that are good, that are from our

backyard.

And so No Doubt would be on my wish list.