Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie Newell.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jamie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I married a man who was working for a singing telegram company. He had aspirations of owning his own singing telegram company and I wasn’t opposed to since he was really good and always made incredible tips. I also began to perform occasionally doing shows that honored people on special occasions. As a professional actress and someone with a head for business, I realized that our money and efforts would be better invested focusing on entertaining in the corporate market rather than the residential market. Once I convinced Jim that we were good enough comedians and deserved to be paid well for our abilities, we began pursuing the special event industry in the corporate world.
This special event and hospitality industry was just beginning to take off and we jumped on this wave and took the ride…right place at the right time. Now, because I was already a professional actress, I knew a lot of very talented people in Chicago, so casting the shows with my colleagues was the best part of creating our company.
What did we do that made our company grow? We followed a golden rule that all Chicago Improv actors learn from the beginning; just two simple words: “yes, and…” So, we always said yes to a client’s request…and then figured out how to make that happen. It grew ideas, opportunities and creative challenges. It allowed me to write myself and my partner into any show I wanted to be in…a great impetus to continue growing this company, right? This little mantra has allowed us to create concepts that have stretched our imaginations and have inspired us to make artistic choices, take chances as comedians and improvisers and build a variety of fun characters.
Clients constantly give us challenges to meet with ideal reasons to connect with the top talents in town and who wouldn’t want to work alongside Second City folk and Jeff Award winning entertainers? See why this is a good idea to keep growing? Fun job. Good money. Great opportunities to grow as artists. So, it has been a no-brainer to keep moving forward. Success is not giving up….even when it’s hard. Perseverance, for me, equals success.
What do I do? I provide a wide variety of entertainment for any function. I am a licensed agent.
There are changes in requests for entertainment as the decades pass so it is important to stay fresh with what the industry is leaning towards and watching this metamorphose is, at the very least, amazing and wonderful. I will never tire of performing or helping other performers get work. There is a passion that has kept our company alive, even when the economy took a dip. I found the college and university market was still hiring and toured for a few years through that market with some fun comedy improv mysteries. Where there’s a will…there’s a way.
I am about to open a branch in Atlanta, in another few months, and help celebrate the wonderful talent in that market and hopefully get more gigs for myself. My partner Jim Bina will continue to run our Illinois office.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I had made a choice early on to diversify our clientele, which we did. However, I had never thought of “Corporate America” as a client. When the economy tanked in 2008…we nearly dried up. No one was hiring entertainment, especially when companies were laying folks off and people were losing their jobs. Christmas parties ended and the summer company picnics were cancelled. Team building for company meetings all stopped. Even the trade show market was being affected. We needed to find a new client and we did. College and Universities were still bringing in talent for the students and so we focused our efforts on that market for a while.
Other challenges have included the obvious: age. Most of my entertainers are getting too old to do what they used to do so we have to reinvent new ideas that keep us in the evolving world as well as keep our talent search fresh for younger, hipper performers. The audience’s appetite changes and we have to roll with it or be left behind.
Please tell us about Custom Comedy Capers.
Custom Comedy Capers, est. 1990, a respected player in the Special Events Industry, is keeping the entertainment facet in special events fresh, interesting and valuable in an ever-changing industry. CCC embraces their client’s creative concepts and enthusiastically works to customize to meet budgets, logistics and visions. Hiring “the best of the best in the Midwest” is Custom Comedy Capers greatest value. Refreshing and easy to work with, the CCC agents, producers and talent are all funny people but they take their business very seriously. Professionalism includes personalized proposals, prompt performer call times and easy contractual agreements with simple invoicing. We strive to be the easiest element of any event because Custom Comedy Capers is in the business of making life more fun!
Based in Chicago, Custom Comedy Capers attracts and signs talent who have been trained at Second City, IO (Improv Olympic), ComedySportz, The Annoyance Theater, The Comedy Shrine and Players Workshop. Some of our performers have toured nationally with great organizations like Cirque du Solei and N.Y. Broadway companies. Many of our talent are award winning artists. All our performers are dedicated, educated and committed to their craft, including their costuming. They are extraordinary.
We specialize in live atmosphere and strolling entertainers. Typically, our clients choose a theme for their event, say, for example, Chicago’s Roaring Twenties. We would provide Al Capone and his cronies and a group of dancing flappers and maybe a Keystone cop raid just to bump up the fun. Interactive characters add special memories for guests.
They can be used to kick off the evening and get people to interact and mingle, to get folks onto the dance floor, to move crowds from one place to another….we even create bus tours with themed characters. Our imagination is our limitations….and mine seems to be endless.
I am most proud of our integrity and the value of our services. What sets us apart is something I decided on day one when I agreed to jump on board with my then-husband, “Let’s pay the talent more than any other agency and pay them as quickly as we can.
Let’s try to get them parking and fed, if the client can do so. Let’s treat the actors with respect.” That motto keeps our people happy and willing and wanting to work for us.
Sadly, our industry has not kept up with the increase of running a business dependent on technology and clients constantly ask for lower prices. We try to work with all budgets but I would guess to say there are not many people still making the same rate hourly as they did 20 years ago. For some reason, most clients today want the artists to cut their rates but do not ask the caterers, the tent people or any of the other elements in special events to cut their rates. Oh well…we are happy to be working because we LOVE to perform.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I address every new job as its own unique request. Because of that, I have written hundreds upon hundreds of customized proposals and creative concepts, generating something ideal for each new gig. No two shows have ever been the same that I have produced. I would change that. I would try to sell some of the same shows and concepts as pre-designed packages. But then we might have to change our company name, Custom Comedy Capers, and drop the word Custom….and that would never do. So, I guess, I would not change much.
Contact Info:
- Address: Custom Comedy Capers
1307 Modaff Road. Suite B10
Naperville, IL 60565 - Website: www.CustomComedyCapers.com http://www.jamienewellactress.com/ http://www.jamienewell.biz/
- Phone: 630-718-0915 Chicago Office
- Email: Fun@ComedyCapers.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ComedyCapers/
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