Backstage with Magic Men Live

 

Ever wondered what it’s like to be a Magic Man? Myles Hass, the MC for  Magic Men Live, sat down for a phone interview with Civic Center intern, Kristin Drew, to give her the rundown on how Magic Men began, why the show is so popular, and the ins and outs of being a Magic Man on tour. Read on to find out what being a Magic Man is really all about!

What’s an average day in your life like while you’re on tour?

–First we wake up in a new city, so we’re driving to the city as we’re sleeping on a tour bus. The first thing we do after we wake up is get something to eat. Then of course, find a local gym to get a workout in. That’s how our day starts. Then we have to get back to the venue in time for our rehearsal and sound check, which usually happens around 3 or 4 p.m. depending on how much time the production team needs to set up the production for that particular venue. After that, we eat again and get ready for the show, which means prepping your show wardrobe, stretching, resting up a bit, and probably eating again. Eating is one of the most important things for us on the road, which is why I mention that a lot. You have to be careful that you eat all your meals so you’re not depleted by the end of the day, especially come show time. So then around 7 or 8 is when the doors for the event usually open, then the show starts an hour after that and runs for two and a half hours and it’s nonstop and very intense and physically exhausting. After the show, we do a meet and greet with our fans where we go into the audience and take pictures and sign autographs for about 45 minutes to an hour, then we go backstage and shower and get dressed, then we pack up and get everything back on the bus. Once that’s all done, we go find something to eat again, and from there it depends on how much time we have until we need to leave. Sometimes we have time to go out and explore whatever city we’re in a little bit, but we have a bus call time that we have to be back at the bus by so that we stay on schedule and get to the next city in time to do it all over again.

Do you guys stick to a special diet? Is there anywhere you like to get food, or anything you try to get?

–We make grocery stops pretty frequently, about every other day. Everybody really has their own individual diet depending on their body type and what their goals are. There’s definitely a bit of dieting going on. On tour, most people will usually take in more calories than they do off tour, because you’re burning so many more calories and you don’t get the opportunity to eat as often as you would at home. It’s a very fast paced lifestyle with very little rest and you’re always burning a lot of calories.

Do you have a workout routine you stick to on tour?

–There’s really no generalized  workout plan because, again, everybody has different goals and different body types. For me, since I have a very fast metabolism, I try to eat as many carbohydrates as possible and I stay away from doing cardio and I do lower reps with heavier weights to help me put on and maintain muscle mass as opposed to other people who might have a harder time maintaining that lean physique, so they’ll do more cardio and higher reps with less weight to maintain that. Everybody really has their own different situations  and routines. Then of course there’s those freaks of nature who are just born ripped and can eat as much as they want and barely have to do anything to maintain their physiques. We always get mad at those guys.

What’s the best ab workout that you can recommend?

–Cardio and eating right, to be honest. That’s like 95% of it. Eating right is really the key thing. Working out is necessary of course, but if you really want your abs to show and pop, you have to eat correctly. They’re not going to show if you have a layer of fat over them. You can work out all you want, but you’re just going to be pushing that layer of fat out further and further. I think the thing that helps the most of us is staying away from sugar. I think that’s the most basic thing anyone can do.

How long do you rehearse before you go on tour?

–Anywhere from 4 to 5 weeks and we’re probably in the studio five or six days a week for four or five hours a day, if not more. It just depends. We don’t do that for every tour, we usually just do that if there’s new material we have to learn. Our tour this year, for example, has a lot of new material, so we’re going to be in the studio for four or five weeks nonstop to get that down. A lot of guys will rehearse on their own in their spare time before we start our official rehearsing, too. We like to stay fluid and comfortable with it just like anything else you have to practice at.

Who does your choreography?

–The dancing choreography is done by our newest choreographer, Devin. He’s also the newest member of our team as well. He’s a dancer for the NBA halftime show for the Detroit Pistons and he’s an amazing, incredible dancer. Prior to him, we used to have his choreographer, Oscar Hernandez, choreographing us. He’s choreographed all kinds of different sports team halftime shows, but when he moved away, it was really hard for us to find anybody local to help us. Meanwhile, we knew Devin was an incredible dancer, so one day we asked him if he would be interested in joining the team and he was all about it. All of a sudden he just started breaking out moves left and right to our music in practice one day, and we all just looked at each other and we were like, “Holy cow, this guy is really killing all of our stuff.” He was just doing an amazing job improvising, so we were like, “Why don’t you just come with us and help us out here?” So having him with us has been so helpful because he’s really good at helping us improve our routines. If there was something from the night before that we maybe messed up or that didn’t work, he’s with us to help us rehearse on the road which means our show can always be evolving and improving.

Who does your wardrobe?

–The whole wardrobe thing until just recently has been done in house by all of us. We started as a group of friends just out of Detroit, Michigan and we really just developed it on our own as we went, adding on people to help us out with things that we were originally just doing ourselves, like a tour manager, a production manager, a camera guy, you name it. Wardrobe was one of those things. Now it’s done by someone experienced with costume design and tailoring, but for the most part we originally just did a lot of online shopping and going to different thrift stores and having one guy’s mom or a tailor around town sew things up for us or create things like our rip away pants. Now that’s a part of the show we’ve really upgraded.

 

How do the movies about what you do compare with real life?

–They’re similar in ways, but they’re also really different in ways. What we’re doing now has grown way beyond what we’ve ever imagined, and I don’t think it’s really been portrayed that way in a movie. What we do is more like a male revue show meets a concert experience. We kind of try to fuse those together and create a really high energy type of show. We want to force our audience out of their comfort zone, into our world, and make them forget about the real world for a few hours with us, so we create a really intense show. Obviously with the movies and with what we do, there’s stripping involved, there’s certain themes you’ll see come up in routines. We have little Easter eggs here and there where the audience will say, “Oh I recognize that,” or, “I’ve seen something like that before.” We like to include different references or little tips of the hat to various movies. Our inspiration comes from just about anything, not just “stripper movies.” It’s really anything that we think our audience would be interested in seeing on stage. It’s a fun creative process.

How did you get involved with the show?

–I’m going to have to take you way back to 1989. This was the year my uncle started a stripper agency, and it also happens to be the year I was born. He started his agency way back then, so it’s kind of like a family business. I got involved when I was 19 years old, straight out of high school. I went and worked for him as an office manager. His agency basically hired entertainers for private events, like bachelorette parties, birthdays, bachelor parties, anything like that. If you wanted to surprise someone for their birthday or whatever, you would call up this agency, schedule somebody to arrive at your house in whatever costume you want, perform a routine, and make a more fun and interesting occasion. He did that for almost 25 years and he ran it very much like a structured corporation. He gave it a really professional system that was never really done in that industry before, so it got really big in the metro-Detroit area.

Eventually, I started my own agency after he retired and I tried to incorporate a lot of that into my own business practices. With the show, we got pushed by a radio station that wanted to host a ladies’ night event. They came to me and said, “Hey, we know you’re very popular around town for your male entertainers, and we want to hire a few of your guys to come be the entertainment for our ladies’ night event that we’re hosting.” They said it was going to be a very exclusive event where the only way to get tickets was to win them from various contests the station was going to be doing. They were only giving away 200 tickets. So we said okay, it’s just going to be a regular gig like any others, let’s throw something together and make it a special night for the guests. Come the night of the event, we get to the location, which was this huge yacht on the Detroit River. It turns out that over 400 women showed up to this. There were only 200 tickets given away, you couldn’t buy them, but all these women showed up anyway to try to get into this event. So me and the guys realized that women really love this entertainment more than we thought, so that was when we decided to put together a show.

The guys that worked for me were always bugging me to do a show, but I was always hesitant and wanted to wait for just the right time since I was still just trying to get my business off the ground. At that point, though, I realized the time was right and after seeing the energy and enthusiasm of the women at that event, I knew we needed to start a show. This was about six years ago. So we just started this show from scratch and none of us knew the first thing about creating a show like this. I did a lot of research on various kinds of shows, and I knew that I wanted to do something different that hadn’t been done before and create something unique. I took things that I knew about concerts I’d been to and I took inspiration from the energy at music festivals I’d been to with their big huge productions and just incorporated a lot of elements from all sorts of things and created Magic Men out of it. We spent four years developing the show and we finally put it into action two years ago.

How was it different when you first started out versus now?

–When we first started testing the show on the road, we just drove our cars to every city we went to, state to state, so we’re similar to the sequel to Magic Mike in that way, I guess. Every venue that we went to, we sold out. I think the biggest show we did back then was about 700 people. It started out pretty slow because we didn’t have many shows in the beginning. In February, we had maybe two shows, then in March there were maybe four. April there were none, then in May we did like 12. June there were like 15, then July through December it just escalated very quickly and we were doing 20 plus shows a month. Towards the end, we finally got a small tour bus with a trailer attached for our production equipment, and now we’re in two full size tour busses and a semi truck when we tour. It’s really grown so quickly.

Do you have any background in dancing?

–I’ve never actually danced. I’m the host and MC of the show, so I basically introduce the acts and keep the crowd engaged. I like to joke around a lot, and I do whatever I can to help them feel comfortable, relax, and have fun.

When you’re not on tour, what do you like to do?

–When I’m not on tour, I’m usually working on the next tour. In my spare time, though, I like to go see different kinds of shows, like comedy shows or concerts. I like to travel and see cool, unique things and have fun experiences. I love seeing different things.

Do you have any crazy stories from shows?

–Every show has a story. Every single show has a crazy thing happen, so it’s hard to think of one particular thing offhand. When we were in New Orleans, though, we were just about ready to start our show, and I come out to introduce the show. Just randomly, out of nowhere, a grandmother, this older woman, walks up to the stage, dead center, right in front of me in the middle of my entire speech. Everyone can see her, obviously, I can see her, and she keeps waving at me and saying, “Come here, come here!” like she wants to have a personal conversation or something. I was like, “I’m kind of in the middle of something,” so it was kind of awkward for me, but I was like, “Everybody give it up for Grandma, we’ve got Grandma here in the house!” Everybody just started cheering, they were loving her, but she just keeps telling me, “Come here, I have to tell you something!” Finally, I’m just like, okay. I ask her what’s going on, and she just looks at me with these sassy eyes and she just goes, “How you doin’?” And turns around and walks away. Everybody, including me, just starts laughing and I completely forgot everything I was supposed to say. She had me off guard, but we brought her back onstage later on in the show and she was one of the most fun people at that show.

How has social media influenced your show?

–I think social media is really the reason we’ve grown so big. I think it’s because of the engagement we have with our fans on social media. We’re really personal with our fans and our fans know each and every one of our names, what we like, our favorite candy, and it’s all because they follow us on social media. We really try to show them that side to us, especially through our Snapchat. When we’re on tour, we post a lot and give them behind the scenes looks and they really get to know us through that. If you look at our website and watch teaser trailers or anything like that, you’ll get an idea of what the show is going to be like, but if you really want to get to know us, follow us on our Instagram and Snapchat. When fans come to see our shows now, I’ve noticed it’s like they’re coming to see their friends perform because they feel like they really know us, so it’s a lot more fun for them and a lot more fun for us.

Follow the Magic Men on their Instagram, Snapchat @magicmenlive, and get your tickets to see the whole Magic Men Live team at the Civic Center before they’re gone!

Backstage Access- The Catwalks and Beams

Have you ever been to a game or concert in the arena in happened to look straight up? The maze of grated walkways- better known as the catwalks- are used for much more than strutting your stuff 75 feet up.

Check out our Backstage Access video with Eric, our Technical Coordinator at the PCC, and find out all the answers to the questions you have about the tip top of the arena!

Check back often for more Backstage Access videos, blogs, articles and more!

 

Backstage Access: SMD and the Underground

Sarah Marie Dillard from SMD & The Underground met with Clare Zell and Kristin Drew to discuss what it’s like being a musician who grew up in Peoria, her memories at the Civic Center, and much more!

As she recounted the story of her musical life, the band’s upright bassist, Brandon Mooberry, stood nearby, warming up for the sneak peak performance the two were about to put on for the Civic Center’s Facebook Live followers.

The deep notes of the upright bass and Sarah’s clear passion for music combined to show only a glimmer of the soulful feeling the audience is sure to get when SMD & The Underground opens for Joe George on March 5^th.

How long have you been performing and making music?

I got into music pretty much when I could stand and talk. I joined church choir at the age of 4 or 5, I got my solo in about 7th grade and I learned guitar shortly after because I knew I wanted to be able to play and sing whether anyone else was with me or not, and I knew guitar was useful for that. I was always in choir and I started diving in more deeply in my alone time. I went on to major in music education and now I teach privately out of my home like Brandon and Nick do as well. I’m very proud that all three of us are private music educators and the area and that we’re all really passionate about teaching others about enjoying what we enjoy.

What was growing up in the Peoria area like? Where did you go to school, and how has Peoria influenced your music?

I’ve lived about a half hour from Peoria my whole life, but everything has happened here. I was never really in Hanna City that often. I went to church in Peoria and I went to Peoria Christian. It was a really good school for me, and it was definitely where I was supposed to be. I learned a lot about discernment there and I learned to love music through a lot of the educators. I went on to Eureka College, then to ICC, which provides an excellent education, especially for musicians.

Did you used to come to shows at the Civic Center when you were younger?

My earliest memories of the Civic Center were probably the circus. I used to come to the circus with my dad and I remember the clowns going around and tickling people with feathers. I also went to a lot of sporting events here, and as I got older I started coming to a lot of concerts. Brandon and I are dating and our show coming up on March 5th is our one year anniversary, and I remember shortly after March 5th on one of our first dates, we came to see Jerry Seinfeld here and he was amazing. I’ve always really respected the traveling acts the Civic Center brings in, like The Avett Brothers, James Taylor…when they’re playing in Peoria, you know that this is the place you need to gravitate towards.

How did you meet Brandon and Nick, the other members of your band? Did you meet them intending to start a band, or did you know them before you decided to start the band?

I tell my students all the time, I never thought in a million years that I’d have a band and I never thought they’d be a part of my band. I just had an 8-year-old, Elliot, who did her first open stage performance at the Limelight, and she said her favorite thing about doing that was meeting all the people that were there and meeting all the musicians. I kept reminding her that those aren’t just your future friends and your future associates, they could be your future bandmates and you don’t know if they’re in the room right now, and her eyes just lit up because that’s so cool. I think about that when I think about how I met Brandon and Nick. We met at open stages. Brandon and I met at a music festival, but we met each other and a lot of our friends through live, local music. The social part of live music is just so important.

What advice do you have for aspiring musicians?

First thing that comes to mind for an aspiring musician is to try to discern what voices should be listened to. You’ll hear a lot of feedback. When you get feedback that’s invited, treasure it whether you understand it or not because they’re giving you a piece of their own past, their own history and their own education. When you get feedback that’s not invited, some of it you really need, and some it you don’t. Don’t be afraid to say, “That person doesn’t know me, how hard I work, or what kind of music I’m trying to make, so I’m going to let that comment pass by.” Also recognize that a lot of people think music is a competition, and it’s not. When we’re a community, we all get better, and our music rises to a higher quality. We’re not in competition. People who make it a competition aren’t going to help you grow and learn, so try to discern who you need to listen to.

What has kept you in Peoria throughout your musical career?

There’s two sides to that, really, what Peoria is, and what other cities aren’t. People ask me all the time why I don’t go to Nashville, but how I see it, I could be in Nashville living on the street, or playing in a restaurant or bar full time and paying them to let me play there, just drowning in that life with a million other musicians who were told that was where they needed to go, but I believe that if you work hard enough and you have enough passion and dedication, you can do it right no matter where you are, whether it’s Hanna City, Peoria, Nashville, or Chicago or New York. We need music to be growing in smaller towns like Hanna City and in growing cities like Peoria. I fully intend to travel, but I think my home will always be in this area, partly because my family is here, and partly because I strongly believe in the future of Peoria. People in this city will be the ones affecting change and growing our community.

What are some of your interests outside of music?

Oh, very little. There’s really not a lot outside of music. I love to eat. I really like to read. Besides music we don’t really spend a ton of time doing anything. Netflix is always a go-to, which brings up something kind of interesting about our most popular song called “Bad Man.” It was inspired by the Netflix docs-series, “Making a Murderer.” It was a very moving series and it makes everybody feel something, whether that’s indignation or depression. I felt indignation. I was complaining about it at work one day and I joked that I should write a protest song, and one of my coworkers was like, “You should. You should write a protest song.” So then I sat down at my computer and I wrote the first verse of “Bad Man.” It was very inspired by the Bob Dylan idea that I can use my music to change my country. Our band’s whole theme is about bringing light. Our logo is a coal miner’s lamp with stained glass instead of plain glass, it’s bringing change and light and color to the world. So we played the song at Northwestern University where most of Brendan Dassey’s legal team was from, and hopefully we’ll be playing it for his family soon. It was just added to his website, too, which is super cool.

What’s the most rewarding thing about being a local musician?

As teachers, you can’t get any better than seeing a child’s face light up as they discover how good it feels to sing without worrying what anyone else thinks about them, or how good it feels to play a bass line, or their first melody on the piano. There’s nothing more rewarding than hearing them say something back to you that you’ve been telling them over the past nine months and them not really realizing that came from you. I don’t care if you remember that I said it, but by you saying that, I know that it’s in your brain and you know that no one else sounds the way you do, and you know how cool it is that you get to carry your voice around in your body with you wherever you go. With being a local performing musician, I would say it’s rewarding to have a day job that makes me so happy. We joke that our day job is the worst part of our job and that our day job is when we play in bars or restaurants where the people don’t really care that you’re there. You’re kind of their jukebox, and if that’s our day job and that’s the worst part of the job, we’re really blessed beyond compare.

Catch Sarah Marie Dillard with SMD and The Underground on March 5th, opening for Joe George, and like out their Facebook page to keep up with the band! Get your tickets here!

Check back often for new backstage access blogs, videos, and more!