Tales Of The Entertainment Industry

[irishguy 14]

Up until August of 2005 I had had worked as the general manager for a local campus bar/restaurant. Over the eight years I spent there I was privy to interact with many "celebs". We often joked that we booked talent on there way up or on there way down but there were seldom in betweens. I am bored and playing somee tourneys so I thought that I would share a few stories that stand out. Dates escape me at the moment but rest assured these stories are 100% true. Perhaps the story that sticks out the most to me was the time I got to spend with Vanilla Ice. I believe this was after the whole surreal life thing and we booked him and his band to come in for an evening. Our operation consisted of a 126 seat roadhouse style restaurant(chairs/tables removed at nights for many events) and a hall with some seating but a capacity of roughly 600 patrons. We set up the stage in the hall and had sold out in no time for this event at I believe at $15 per ticket. We promoted the hell out of this thing with many ads and posters depicting the "old school" Vanilla Ice image. My job wasn't directly to deal with talent and everything associated with that as we had an operations manger for the campus plus an entertainment coordinator. More often than not with events like this my job and the coordinators intertwined as I had to staff and run the bar/security and the gate as well as to ensure that the needs of the performer were taken care of. In this industry as I'm sure you could imagine you run into a lot of ego's, oddly enough the biggest ego's seem to be the ones with little to be egotistical about (Danko Jones and his refering to himself in the third person comes to mind) but Vanilla Ice was an absolute breathe of fresh air. Concert days were often long and trying between the loading in and setting up equipment and all the basic prep that is a must in this environment set up often began several hours prior to the doors opening. Vanilla and his crew had shown up fairly early in the afternoon and were wandering around the hall as the equipment was set up and tested. The band drew closer to the stage as some first run sound checks were being done. Most of the group seemed pretty confrontational as there were little sighns of manners for anything. The drummer and I believe the bassist both started to get get obnoxious about there displeasure with the sound/set up. When Vanilla turned to them and suggested they all go back to there dressing room and relax while he set up and tested the equipment. For all the talent that I had seen pass through this hall this was the first time I had seen a "name" this big act as such. He proceeded to set up and sound test every piece of equipment all the while smiling and joking with the staff. Up on the completion of his work Vanilla then helped as we removed extra tables and chairs from the area. His show was also incredible, I suspect many people had purchased tickets and shown up just to laugh at this "has been" and really weren't anticipating a great time. His band had a Limp Bizkit feel to it and put on an amazing performance. They capped the evening off with an atlernative version of Ice Ice baby that had the crowd roaring. After the show Vanilla was escorted next door to the restaurant(which was closed) and was asked if he would meet fans and sign autographs. He readily obliged which was again a rarity in the environment. I got Vanilla a beer as the two of us awaited fans to be brought up in groups. We talked about the show and I told him how impressed I was with his help earlier, he seemed surprised that not all talent had been so gracious. We chatted about my job and our families etc until the crowd arrived. When the first person group was brought in I whispered to him asking if he wanted anything else and he replied that he wouldn't mind some herb. I put the word out through the security staff that I was looking for a hook up and with in minutes passed it off to Vanilla. He signed autographs and mingled for about an hour and even at one point lit an old school poster on fire that someone had brought in before offering the person a new poster, cd and t-shirt in exchange. It was still early (midnight I believe) as being on campus our enternainment often had to be completed early and Vanilla asked if there was something in the area to go to. Vanilla and his crew piled into a few SUV's with my security staff and the entertainment coordinater and headed down the road to a local bar which was hosting a karaokee night. (I was absent for the rest of this story as I had to close up but I have seen the video) Word had spread through the area rather quickly when the group showed up at the bar and the place was bussier than it had ever been. Vanilla bought drinks for the group that had accompanied him from the campus and proceeded to take a seat close to the stage. It was an older couple that was hosting the evenings festivities and it took only minutes upon his arrival for the crowd to start encouraging Vanilla to get up and do the original Ice Ice baby. He politley declined but continue to enjoy the atmosphere. A short while later the woman hosting the event was made aware of who he was and got on the microphone and to try to goad him into performing. After a few moments of declining Vanilla finally stood up. With a stern look at his face he stated he was'n't going to sing that "f-ckin song". The noise in the room quited in a hurry until he spoke again to the woman "but I will get up there and battle rap you". The place erupted as Vanilla took to the stage and had a rap off with a 55 year old woman which he won hands down. As the last call bell was rung the bar emptied into the parking lot where in like a scene straight out of eight mile Vanialla Ice spent an hour battle rapping with any and all takers. For the record he was so much more talented than anyone had ever expected. The night didn't end there as accompanied by my staff and the enterainment coordinater(with video camera in hand) head to Vanilla's hotel room and partied until he had to catch his flight. The next time the old coordinator comes to town (he's a big time music exec now) I'll have to try and get a copy of this tape as its been awhile since I've seen it but the memory of that night will last a life time.

[iveyfan30 0]

i saw a thing on vh1 where they take a has been <in this case vanilla ice> and hire a stylist,vocal coach,choregropher and work with said band and try to respark their career. in vanilla's case every body hired to "help" him said the same thing" he's too difficult to work with". all of the training was supposed to lead up to a major gig where music execs would attend to see if he still ha s a future in the music bizz. the night of the show vanilla freaked out because on the flyers promoting the show was an old pic of him wearing those clown clothes and that thing he called a hairdo. he threatned to cancel the show,after some goading he preformed and the music execs attending said the best thing about his show was the drummer, she said he was one of the best shes ever seen. 3 weeks later the drummer quit....not sure why i typed all that, but i just think he is a freak that nade his own bed...hes a multi millionaire..poor him

[Jordan 1]

i saw a thing on vh1 where they take a has been <in this case vanilla ice> and hire a stylist,vocal coach,choregropher and work with said band and try to respark their career. in vanilla's case every body hired to "help" him said the same thing" he's too difficult to work with". all of the training was supposed to lead up to a major gig where music execs would attend to see if he still ha s a future in the music bizz. the night of the show vanilla freaked out because on the flyers promoting the show was an old pic of him wearing those clown clothes and that thing he called a hairdo. he threatned to cancel the show,after some goading he preformed and the music execs attending said the best thing about his show was the drummer, she said he was one of the best shes ever seen. 3 weeks later the drummer quit....not sure why i typed all that, but i just think he is a freak that nade his own bed...hes a multi millionaire..poor him

please believe everything you see in "reality" tv.it's all real!- Jordan

[irishguy 14]

i saw a thing on vh1 where they take a has been <in this case vanilla ice> and hire a stylist,vocal coach,choregropher and work with said band and try to respark their career. in vanilla's case every body hired to "help" him said the same thing" he's too difficult to work with". all of the training was supposed to lead up to a major gig where music execs would attend to see if he still ha s a future in the music bizz. the night of the show vanilla freaked out because on the flyers promoting the show was an old pic of him wearing those clown clothes and that thing he called a hairdo. he threatned to cancel the show,after some goading he preformed and the music execs attending said the best thing about his show was the drummer, she said he was one of the best shes ever seen. 3 weeks later the drummer quit....not sure why i typed all that, but i just think he is a freak that nade his own bed...hes a multi millionaire..poor him

Yeah I had seen the samething before I met him and totally expected him to be a prick but as you could tell from the op he was anything but. I hold the guy in high regard for the way he treated everyone around him that day.

[king_tanner 84]

You didn't actually call him Vanilla like you did in your whole post right? I could see that setting him off after watching surreal life.

[whale_hunter 0]

Cool story, how about telling some more of them?

[irishguy 14]

You didn't actually call him Vanilla like you did in your whole post right? I could see that setting him off after watching surreal life.

No if I remember correctly everyone refered to him by Ice or bby his real name.