Organiser's Guide - Entertainment

Venue Review of Organiser's Guide - Entertainment

The right performers can turn an ordinary event into a great one.

When booking entertainment, the golden rule is: know your audience. Will guests be in their 20s, or 50s? Predominantly male, or female? Do they know each other or not? Is the company involved a respectable City blue-chip or a funky Shoreditch start-up?

Next, think about your budget. Entertainment generally falls into one of five categories – background music, dancing music, table or strolling entertainers, after-dinner cabaret and interactive activities. A high-profile party will often feature more than one. Where money is tight, it’s better to target spending on the start of the evening. Good strolling entertainers are a cost-effective way to give guests a memorable first impression and break the ice. Later, once everyone’s introduced to each other and the alcohol is flowing, you can save by having a DJ rather than a live band.

Once you know what type of entertainment you want, start looking at specific acts. There’s no shortage of possibilities, from free-runners to beatboxers and contortionists. Any reputable act should be able to supply references or DVD clips, and while showcases are increasingly rare, trade shows are a great place to see entertainers in action. One thing all booking agencies agree on is that comedy is difficult to get right, so if you’re going to hire a comedian, accept that you need to splash out on a successful mainstream one: think BBC1 rather than BBC3. It’s also worth asking the agency to brief the performer thoroughly on what will be taken as a light-hearted dig and what will mortally offend your chief executive. Be prepared to pay tens of thousands for a top comedian such as Michael McIntyre or Bill Bailey – and make that hundreds of thousands if you want an A-list musician or band, such as Cheryl Cole or Kings of Leon. Overall, booking a big name act is a trade-off. It will undoubtedly generate buzz for your event, but that comes at the cost of potentially higher security and insurance bills, plus all the hassle that dealing with a star brings (those insane ‘riders’…). Many entertainment agencies recommend celebrity headliners only for ticketed events, where their name has genuine selling power. Instead, consider a tribute act: the best are not remotely cheesy. After all, why pay upwards of £10,000 for a one-hit wonder from a TV talent show, when for a fifth of that you could get a seasoned performer who’ll expertly perform classic hits that everyone loves?

Finally, if you want to be on-trend, insiders say that 2011 is set to be the year of gypsy jazz – think Gogol Bordello – and ‘rockeoke’. The latter is, as the name suggests, karaoke with a live band, and it’s already spawned some intriguing offshoots: caravaneoke – karaoke in a caravan – and kara-uke. Yes, that’s karaoke with a ukulele backing band.