For 14 years, the comedy team of Edmonds & Curley entertained college audiences across the country. They were the FIRST comedians in the college market, beginning in 1969. “We did over 2500 college performances and loved every minute of it. Once it became apparent that things may not work out with the team, I realized I couldn’t imagine parting with the college market.”

Joey immediately decided to phase from his capacity as a performer into a player behind the scenes. Knowing he was well equipped to serve both artists on his roster and the clients they entertained, Joey started his own agency. In the last 25 years, JOEY EDMONDS Presents has booked over 20,000 comedy dates in the college market.

Joey has seen every entity in the college market come and go; heck, this guy was even in it when the organized national conference was in its infancy. “In 1974, EDMONDS & Curley emceed the entire five days of the NACA national convention. It was an amazing experience. Over the course of five days, we were on the stage over 3 1/2 hours (laughs). We received something like 120 dates from that convention, but at that time we were the only people doing comedy in the college market. The exception was Bill Cosby, who was $25,000 and George Carlin, who was $10,000. We came in at a pretty reasonable $2,000 when you view the other choices (laughs). Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld and the rest didn’t come along till about ‘76. I have a bunch of stories about Jay Leno replacing us on a particular date, but I don’t want to get too windy in that area.”

Joey is someone who has seen comedy in the college market go from something struggling to breathe to the major force on campus. “Comedy is the biggest thing on the college market and has been since about the early eighties. Things have just exploded. In the early eighties when we quit, the comedy clubs were first starting.”

And comedy clubs happen to be a venue Joey chose not to perform in or book his performers. “I always joked that you had some guy out in Wisconsin who owned a gas station he closed on Sunday and opened a comedy club in it on Monday. These people didn’t have a clue how to book great comedy consistently. All they did was book acts and make money.”

Joey says he always knew he would have a home in the college market and says he is confident that JOEY EDMONDS Presents will continue to be viable for students buyers for years to come. Comedy is ideal for a number of reasons, some of which Joey fires off.

“First of all, it is so easy to set up. All the artist needs is a microphone and a stool. While music is always going to be around, historically the applications for showcase in this market have always been two to one in favor of comedy.”

Obviously Joey has seen al LOT of good comedians in his very prestigious history, many of whom he has worked with or managed. “John Reep is a name that most readily comes to mind because he is the current reigning ‘Last Comic Standing.’ Alonzo Bodden, Daniel Tosh, Kyle Cease and of course, Buzz Sutherland. Now Eric O’Shea is a biggie. People learn how to do things. Buzz was a wild man when he first started because he wasn’t sure where to go. We really were a tandem and then he decided to go more into corporate stuff, which was not what I really wanted to be involved in so we kind of went our own way. Oddly enough he called me a few weeks ago and he is involved in a corporate thing that he wanted my assistance on. I’ll see him in a few weeks when he comes to California.”

So exactly what was the appeal of the college market for Joey?

When we first started, you could go to New England, they all had pubs on their campuses. We were supposed to do two shows with a band. When we went out to do the second show, we did the exact same material. They were so bombed, they didn’t know the difference. Once they got rid of the booze, it was fun because then we were dealing with sober audiences who were coming in to enjoy the comedy. The amazing thing about the college audiences now is that it is the same audience it was ten or twenty years ago. The hair styles are different, the music is different, but the students are the same. They are kids 18-22, basically, who enjoy comedy. Our acts enjoy doing campuses. A lot of acts don’t do clubs because they really don’t like it.”

Joey admits that his favorite part of this business is going to conferences. “It’s amazing. I have been in this business for so long but every time I go to a conference, it is like my first one. The energy that the students bring to a conference or a comedy show is amazing. They are young and they have all of that ‘go,go,go’.”

Perhaps the basic question that any agency will ask is “Why the campus market.” For Joey, the answer is pretty plain.

“Unlike a lot of markets, schools have a designated budget each year. Obviously some have more than others but almost every campus designates revenue for activities. The question is ‘how to spend it.’

“Having a lot of good acts on our roster who are reasonably priced gives us an excellent opportunity to sell to this market. Even though the students change with constant regularity, many of the advisors remain from year to year. When you have students say they want comedy, because we have been around for 35 years, most of the advisors know us so we have an excellent opportunity to land some of that business. Many schools send out to all the agencies they have worked with a new list of students who will chair various committees within the activities board and we actively try to keep a relationship with those chairs.

“Our artists understand that the reason they have this date this year is because an act from the agency did this school last year and did a good job, worked clean and well with the board. We establish a trust with the school. They know that if they get a comedian from us that the act is going to be good , there are not going to be problems and we will deliver what we promise.”

This is a history that Joey has established and Kate and Robin, who now do the booking, are carrying on that proud tradition.

“It really is a great market and you always get paid. At comedy clubs, that doesn’t always happen.”

When it comes to advice to student programmers about what they should know when buying comedy, Joey says in reality, it just shouldn’t be that hard.

“You have the choice of a lot of agencies. Know who you are working with. Have there ever been problems with that agency’s comedians? Is working clean a major criteria? What do you know about the act and the agency?

“We invite potential buyers to question other campuses where our artists have played. There have been acts that we have worked with that we had to part company with because they simply weren’t right for this agency.

“Take Grant (Edmonds) for instance. He is at the Nationals as we speak and will be doing an orientation tour this summer. If a school hasn’t booked anything yet, he’ll say ‘Here is a list of schools I did last year. Feel free to contact any of them.’

“Grant is doing an excellent job and I am very proud of him. We have the same philosophy when it comes to the audience. When he is on stage, it is all about the students (the audience) not him. He is funny and an excellent host. He knows how to interact while still being respectful.”

For more information about JOEY EDMONDS Presents and the artists the agency represents contact Kate Edmonds at (818) 426-1279 or Robin Menier at (651) 261-1466. On the web:
www.JoeyEdmonds.com

Gina initially got into the business as a planner for a community college in the helium capital of the world. “I started as an event planner in 1993 for my school, Amarillo College. I ended up going into teaching with my literature degree, but I put myself through college as a planner not only for my campus, but also for a few corporations and hotels.”

Eventually Gina realized the teacher’s life wasn’t for her and found she liked working in entertainment. “When I decided teaching wasn’t for me, I went back to corporate event planning and happened to find a couple of local artists who were looking for help getting into the college market. They asked if I knew anything about it and of course I did since I had been a student activities coordinator on my campus. I started out just helping, I didn’t intend to start a company at all.”

This was in 1999 and since 2000, Gina has focused the majority of her energy into providing great artists for America’s campuses. She enjoys focusing specifically on entertainers and acts with a cultural or academic appeal. The market is already flooded with standard contemporary music and comedy acts, so the agency enjoys offering something different, though Kirkland Productions has an interesting dichotomy. “We focus a little bit less on entertainment and a little bit more on the academic side of things, although we do have a novelty division, which completely strays from everything else we do (laughs). It’s funny, because a lot of artists can be really touchy about what agency they want to work with based on that agency’s full roster and the company they will be in. Some people bristled at first, but what my artists have found is that the novelty division has been a really nice way to establish good relationships with campuses. Once we have those relationships, they begin to look at more extensive offerings and live acts that take a little bit more programming time. It has actually worked out really well.”

A wide variety of topics fall under the culturally aware and educational headings that Kirkland provides, with matters including women’s issues, culture, race and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues among others. And unlike many issue-based agencies, Kirkland Productions is far from a lecture-only agency. “What we have found is that lecture is not always the best way to get the message across. So, although we do have a couple of speakers that I would consider as presenting a traditional lecture, most of our academic pieces approach things from a different angle. For example, Kimberly Dark is a lecturer (in fact she is actually a sociology professor focused on women’s issues), but she is also a slam poet and a theater performer. Her program incorporates storytelling, poetry and lecture into one big piece that delivers that message. I think that style is indicative of a lot of the innovative approaches our acts take toward entertaining while educating.”

With such an intense focus on the quality of her acts, one might imagine finding such a diverse and qualified roster would be difficult. Gina says the opposite has been the case to date. “I am extremely selective when it comes to who we take on, but I have also never really had to look for anyone. I haven’t gone out and recruited someone, not once. It has always been a matter of the artists finding me or the other artists on my roster and saying ‘That’s where I fit.’ We have taken it that way and been lucky, but there has always been a conscious choice to remain small as well, allowing the agency itself to devote the time and attention to each client we have, both artists and schools.”

Every act that Kirkland Productions books for the college market is exclusive and you won’t find them anywhere else. Dr. John Corvino presents an engaging presentation on homosexuality and morality, among other interesting topics. And An Dóchas and the Haran Irish Dancers is a unique group that brings some arts-style entertainment to campuses as a ten-member ensemble, a five-person band and a five person dance group that presents a mixture of traditional and contemporary original and classical Irish dance with song.

Kirkland Productions is a company that cares about this market and the clients they work with, as a direct result of Gina’s presence here. “I think working with colleges is the most rewarding aspect in the field of booking, especially coming from a corporate event planning background, where the money is good, but it isn’t exceptionally rewarding. This really is, in the sense that a lot of times we may be working with a student who is planning an event for the first time and learning the ropes. It is fun to have the opportunity to brainstorm with them and become a part of their education in this industry. It keeps me young. I have to be on my toes all the time, especially at conferences with a bunch of 18 and 19 year-olds (laughs). Serving the colleges is definitely where my heart is and it’s not something I could give up.”

BOOK IT! Contact Gina Kirkland at Kirkland Productions at (866) 769-9037 today to see what exciting and potentially educational acts they have to offer your students.

It was the first SAG/AFTRA agency in the Midwest and the largest talent agency in the region. Mainly focused on actors, voice-over talent and models, it soon grew into a speakers bureau, which eventually spawned its entertainment division. Chris Hansen, co-owner and vice-president of TalentPlus, tells us a little bit about the company. “We now have a staff of about 20 and represent a plethora of models for print and runway and exclusively represent about 40 different live music acts and specialty entertainers. We have been the premier entertainment talent agency here in St. Louis for 30 years.”

The 40 exclusive acts that TalentPlus represents spans the array of appropriate genres, with many original ideas that campus programmers will find especially appealing. “We are really proud of our roster and the diversity of our roster. What sets us apart as a boutique agency is having that type of depth. We try not to fill our line-up with competing acts; we hand select each and every entertainer we work with based on style and price point. We have a great educational component as well with acts like Nuclear Percussion Ensemble, Autumn’s Child and Farshid Etniko, which are all world music groups that have very strong master classes and clinics.”

TalentPlus also specializes in a wide variety of music, much of it being in more culturally diverse content of quality and that is often hard to find in most contemporary music agencies. “We have a vibrant selection in our jazz roster from vocalists to 13 year old drumming prodigy Tito Pascoal. We also have some of the industry’s most smoking-hot dance bands that generally specialize in corporate entertainment but can get a party started anywhere. We have some great Americana singer/songwriter type stuff, which include people like Scott Ryan, who toured the world with Sheryl Crow for five years and wrote a couple of platinum songs.”

The well-rounded roster that Talent Plus represents is a perfect fit for the college market, but this wasn’t the original intention. The agency just realized they were in a perfect position to meet the special needs of college buyers. “We built our roster initially for corporate, private, not-for-profit and educational aspects and in doing so we started to find that we had talent we wanted to expose to the college market. From there we started to cultivate those relationships and as a result we went further out to extend the roster with college appropriate acts and fill in the things we didn’t have. We now represent some really interesting hip-hop and rock fusion acts like the Midwest Avengers and some great comedy like our sketch duo out of Miami, A Pair of Nuts. We have worked hard to expand our college roster without polluting and diluting it just for the sake of having more to offer.

Doug Hall, an agent at Talent Plus and head of the campus activities division there reiterates the focus on quality. “I think the most important thing to keep in mind for us and many of our clients is that we truly do stand behind each and every one of the acts on our roster,” he says. “We want to make sure that every artist is represented in the best possible way and we want to make sure they are the best possible fit for the given client. It really keeps things interesting for us. Just yesterday, within a 30-minute period of time I went from trying to book a live electronica act to working with a Native American flautist to talking to a dance troupe out of San Francisco. That is the key here. We are not just rock-driven or pop-driven. We are not trying to find all of the cookie-cutter acts that are the easiest to book. We are entertainment-driven. When someone comes to us with a particular need, we have an entire gamut of acts that we really believe in and that actually makes our jobs really easy and fun to do.”

TalentPlus brings a lot of experience and a fair amount of clout to the table, so even deals with national touring acts can be mediated by them for the best possible options for their clients.

For true commitment to quality, diversity and education, TalentPlus is as passionate and involved as anyone you could hope to work with. With an unwavering level of dedication to both their artists and their buyers, this is an agency that can bring you something new, exciting and different to your next event and most importantly of all, you can bank on their quality.

BOOK IT! For more information of the exciting array of services TalentPlus can offer your school, contact them at (314) 421-9400 or for a link, log on to our website at campusactivitiesmagazine.com