Player-turned-promoter

Mark Wood is many things to many people. To corporations, he’s the man to call to line up entertainment for a four-day retreat. To struggling artists, he’s a connection that can bring publicity and heightened CD sales.

And to some, he’s just the kindergarten tutor down the block.

Wood, a Newport Beach resident for 15 years, promotes hundreds of artists through Mark Wood Entertainment, setting up shows everywhere from four-star hotels to backyard parties. Even though his Irvine-based business extends around the world, though, he’s still very much a local boy. He taught music to the lower grades at Newport Elementary School for more than a decade, and almost every month, he gives a solo show at the Blue Beet Café in Newport Beach — just as he did when he was a new arrival in town.

“People see me and say, ‘You play in clubs? I thought you were a music teacher,’” Wood said.

A Denver native, Wood lived in Arizona before moving to California in 1983. He settled in Newport Beach in the early 1990s primarily for two reasons: because he and his wife wanted their daughter to attend the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, and because his performances at the Blue Beet had made him a draw around the Balboa area.

Wood continued performing throughout the 1990s, but his interests increasingly led him toward management and promotion. After years of setting up entertainers for parties and city concerts — sometimes with his own band as the main attraction — he officially incorporated Mark Wood Entertainment in 2004.

His clientele now includes solo artists and bands as well as comedians, cirque performers, dancers and even hypnotists and magicians. While Wood receives CDs and videos from performers all the time, he follows a simple rule: before signing them, he attends one of their shows to see how they fare in front of an audience.

“No stone is left unturned,” he said. “We try to make sure that each aspect of the event is covered.”