UPDATE: Concert Canceled
As if it isn’t hard enough these days as a nonprofit, struggling to make ends meet in an economy that challenges it every step of the way, imagine putting everything you’ve got on the line — every hope for the upcoming year — on one event.
Vicki Gray is events coordinator for the Epilepsy Foundation of Southern Wisconsin. On Saturday, Nov. 21, all that Gray has been working towards since joining the Foundation in June will culminate in a performance by “The Band from TV” at the Alliant Energy Center. It has to be good. Gray is banking on it. Anything less than a sellout could hurt Gray professionally and threaten the organization’s livelihood.
From No Money to Big Money
The story of how a local nonprofit with “absolutely no money” brought this star-studded gig to town is one of dedication and tenacity, but to understand the magnitude of this Madison effort, we must first set the stage as to why this is such a big deal:
The “Band from TV” is the brainchild of drummer Greg Grunberg, veteran television star of “Felicity,” “Alias,” “Lost,” and the current NBC hit, “Heroes.” Together with friends in the entertainment history, the band travels around the country raising money for their specific charities. Grunberg’s band-mates include Bob Guiney on vocals. Guiney, now a game show host and correspondent on “The View,” is probably most well-known from appearances on the “Bachelorette” and was later a “Bachelor” himself, on ABC’s hit shows of the same names.
Adrian Pasdar a.k.a. Nathan Petrelli on NBC’s “Heroes,” plays guitar. Jesse Spencer, otherwise known as Dr. Robert Chase on FOX’s “House, M.D.” plays an electric fiddle. (“He’ll knock your socks off,” promised Gray.) Finally, James Denton, who, in the role of “Desperate Housewives” character Mike Delfino (ABC), is the heart throb of many fans, also plays guitar. Others, like “House” star Hugh Laurie, often performs with the band as well.
Though it is chocked full of notoriety and fame, will the “Band from TV” fill the venue?
Gray has to be optimistic. With tickets priced between $37 and $77 each, if the concert sells out, the Epilepsy Foundation could raise around $100,000 toward programs — enough to nearly cover the nonprofit’s annual budget for 2010.
If they fall short …
“If I can’t sell out, I’ll sell my first-born,” Gray jokes, referring to her 23-year old daughter, “but don’t tell her that!” More seriously, Gray admits they’re “betting the house on this.” She added, “I joined this foundation in June, when a lot of company donation budgets had already been spent for the year. So I’m going at this late in the game, trying to get anyone to donate a large sum of money. We have to take a shot.”
Encouragement from Beyond
It is a position Gray never dreamed she’d be in less than six months ago, when she was packing for Nashville, Tenn., after accepting a job as a Brand Marketing Manager for Sony Corporation.
The night the Epilepsy Foundation offer came in, Gray said, “Dave came to me in a dream. He said I had to take the offer.” (Local comedian Dave Gray, who passed away nearly six years ago of an epileptic seizure, was her younger brother). The next day, local entertainer Mike Mercury called to check in with her — he had been one of her brother’s best friends. “I hadn’t heard from him in two years,” Gray said. “It was a sign.”
Gray misses her brother terribly. “When I lost Dave to epilepsy, the one thing he left me was all his friends,” she said, particularly friends in the entertainment industry. “I can still call Tony Fox (EVP at Comedy Central) and ask for help.” [In fact, that relationship may result in bringing a high-powered comedienne to town in early 2010, she hinted, though details are still hush-hush.]
Almost immediately after accepting the Madison position, Gray — who had heard about actor Greg Grunberg and the money he was raising as a national spokesperson for the Epilepsy Foundation — contacted the actor’s manager in hopes of bringing Grunberg to town for some sort of fundraiser. The manager suggested she contact Day to Day Productions, which represented the band.
“I’d heard about the ‘Band from TV’ through the Foundation,” Gray said, “but then I saw them perform on the Tonight Show one night and they’re really very good!”
With the Women’s Expo being held the same weekend (and next door), Gray contacted Brava Magazine and suggested they get involved with the band’s visit as well, resulting in star appearances at its event. “I know women driving in from Chicago just to see the group,” she said, adding that the event is the only Midwest appearance for the band. Prior to the November 21 performance, the band has only performed on both coasts and in the Bahamas. Since the concert date was announced, Gray has even received fan mail addressed to band members and mailed from Luxembourg.
But as it turned out, securing the date set was the easy part.
Covering Expenses
“All of this takes so much coordination,” Gray said. Whether or not she is successful will depend almost entirely whether she can cover her costs with the money gained from ticket sales.
And there are plenty of costs.
The band takes $125,000 off the top, just for appearing, Gray said. But in addition to Epilepsy-related charities favored by Grunberg and Pasdar, much of that money is then donated to each member’s favorite charity, including the Conservation Fund (Denton); Indiana University’s Kenya Partnership (Spencer); and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (Guiney).
The Alliant Energy Center’s fee for one evening is $8,500. Security will cost $175 an hour for an armed officer, and $75 for one that is unarmed. Gray must also see that the entertainers are fed, to the tune of $4,000, which includes special requests (Grey Goose Vodka and Hansen’s Diet Peach Soda). “That soda’s not even available in Wisconsin,” Gray exclaimed, “but we knew someone who vacationed in California, so we asked them to pick up a six-pack for us!”
There were so many requests, Gray told IB. In fact, the contract came with a 37-page rider full of demands. “I’ve been living with this rider since June!” she chuckled. The contract called for a five-star hotel, which was problematic since the only five-star venue around here is The American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin — not exactly a hop, skip and a jump away. “We couldn’t figure out a way to get them to and from Kohler in a limousine,” she laughed, so they had to rewrite that part of the deal. Luckily, one local hotel (which must remain nameless for security reasons) generously donated 25 rooms for the night.
A particularly large expense ($16,600) went towards securing the musical equipment — right down to the Dunlop 1mm, black guitar picks requested. (“Couldn’t they just bring their own, in their pockets?” Gray mused.) But because it is not a typical touring band, the “Band from TV” does not travel with any instruments. With the help of personal friends in the music industry and IntelliSound of Middleton, Gray said she was able to sort through all of the techno-jargon on the request list.
“They wanted a ‘Wal (Mach III) 4-string Bass Active Pickup 9-Volt Left-Handed Guitar,’” she mused. “We had to go all over heaven and hell to find it, which we did. It’s coming from Nashville. I have a very good friend who happens to know the Kentucky HeadHunters. They’re loaning it to us.”
Another request was for “Two American Standard HSS Stratocasters — in white.” “It’s not enough that we had to locate them, they had to be white!” she laughed, incredulously, saying it took two weeks to figure out what all the items were. “I had to know what I was talking about before contacting vendors, or risk getting ripped off.”
Gray did have to draw the line somewhere.
“When they asked for extra backstage passes, I had to say no to many of the requests, because I can’t risk anyone getting back there and playing with all of this equipment.” Needless to say, insurance costs also figured in to the mix, a cost she admitted was completely overlooked in the planning stages: “We have a lot more courage than money, and a lot more faith than experience,” Gray said. “Some of the logistics…. Well, we won’t know how it will work until they get here.”
For a Good Cause
Putting on an event like this takes a lot more than money. It takes energy, commitment, a dedicated team and some very generous donors. Area businesses such as J.P. Cullen & Sons, and M&I Bank came through with donations. In addition to the donated hotel rooms, the Foundation also received in-kind gifts including advertising from Brava, and airline flights from both Air Tran and Midwest Airlines for 25 people from Los Angeles (though Gray is still working out details to get the band members to Madison via a private carrier — their request, of course).
Of course there is a slight wrinkle: Gray said she recently learned that her original expectations of 25 individuals have blossomed to as many as 37, thanks to the band members, who have been inviting other entertainer-friends to accompany them on the trip, such as Barry Williams (Greg “Brady Bunch” Brady), Brad Savage (child star from “Escape from Witch Mountain”), and Louise Griffiths, a popular English singer. Most will perform — perhaps even jam — with the band in some fashion, but where they stay once they get here will be their problem. “I’ve got 25 rooms,” Gray said forcefully. “Who stays with whom, and how many stay in a room, will be up to them.”
“We’ve put everything on the line to get these guys here,” she said. “We lost up to 30% of United Way funding in some of our counties (the Epilepsy Foundation of Southern Wisconsin’s nine employees serve 27 counties statewide), and spaghetti dinners just won’t cut it anymore. It’s just so important to keep these programs going.”
Gray says ticket sales to the November 21 concert are going well, but she is hoping for traffic to pick up as the event draws nearer. “This is a whole different way to fundraise,” Gray said. “It’s not a car wash, a walk, a run or a spaghetti dinner — which are each important in their own right. It’s so much more than that. We’re not promoters. We don’t have the funds, but we have energized a lot of people.”
Will the “Band from TV” fill the Alliant Energy Center? Are you planning to attend the concert? Let us know! Tickets are on sale through the Coliseum Box Office or ticketmaster.com.
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