Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Bollotta.
Hi Anthony, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I came to the meeting and event industry when it wasn’t even thought of as one. At the time – the 1980s, there were no international or even national standards of practice guiding those of us who had stumbled into it. I had just graduated with a degree in musical theatre, working retail to pay the bills, when a friend told me about an audition for a performance troupe that did private events.
The troupe was called Zanadu (with a “Z”), and the performances were based in musical theatre but also included larger-than-life costumed characters that would interact with attendees for extended periods of time. As a cast member, I was expected to both dance and wear these ridiculously uncomfortable, sweat-inducing costumes for hours on end, with few, if any breaks. And if we didn’t treat those costumes with absolute, unmitigated care, we’d be scorned, “Twenty-five dollars off your G-D pay!”
I stayed with Zanadu for five years, sans a brief period during which I was part of a three-man musical revue produced for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Called “The Hooligans,” we headlined the Song of America, doing just four 30-minute, fast-paced musical comedy revues a week. Then in 1991, I was offered the Director of Entertainment for then Carlsbad-based Irwin Productions.
Cheryl Irwin had built a successful business as a talented decor and floral designer. At the time, La Costa, Philip Morris, and Kraft Foods were among her most well-known clients, and she wanted to be able to provide them entertainment services in addition to her incredible designs. I was hired to build an entertainment department and to produce a Zanadu-like troupe on the west coast.
In addition to building a roster of talented local artists, I learned to produce headliner entertainment at Irwin Productions, and during my three years there, worked with Huey Lewis, Ben Vereen, and Marie Osmond. Our performance troupe, Escapade, performed throughout southern California before I left in 1994 to open Bollotta Entertainment later that year.
I obtained a business license and a California Talent Agency license – something no one else in my industry had done. I felt it important to delineate my business from the other unlicensed players, some of whom were having a hard time paying their artists. I also met and paid artists on-site for those first few years to gain their trust. I wanted them to know without hesitation that working with me would be different – better – than working with the other booking agents.
The agency grew year over year until September 2001. After 9-11, the idea of entertaining people wasn’t top of mind. Fear halted travel as the nation continued to grieve the events of that solemn day throughout 2002. Eventually, meetings resumed, and we were able to transition from providing just entertainment to providing meeting and recognition event creative support. My studies in theatre enabled the pivot, and I began dabbling in creative meeting direction and scriptwriting, producing recognition events for the San Diego Business Journal and Better Business Bureau. Within a few years, through the connections of business colleagues, I would be working with Qualcomm, Petco Animal Supplies, Microsoft, and Mitel, producing meetings and press events in the U.S. and Europe.
We would also continue working with celebrities, producing private concerts starring Kelly Clarkson, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Jennifer Hudson, Peter Frampton, The Moody Blues, Train and so many others. Then in 2020, we were forced to pivot once again when the pandemic shut our industry down. I could survive a few months with no stream of income, but certainly not a few years. By this time, I have a small staff of five counting on our ability to pull through.
And that is where my theatre training (and that of my team) came in handy again aiding us as we worked to develop viable virtual entertainment strategies and help clients pivot their live meetings and recognition programs into virtual affairs – a completely different paradigm. I also went back to school during that period, earning a master’s degree in meeting and event management this past December.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Is there such a thing as a smooth road for any business? The bumps remind us to keep our eyes on the road ahead, and the twists and turns keep us nimble. It’s not and never will be about actual struggle because one thing is for sure, struggle will come. It’s about how one responds. I start by reminding myself that there are struggles far greater than those I face and more importantly, that there have been far greater struggles transcended. And then I get to work.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
As a provider of entertainment and production services, we understand that what we offer is very subjective so we go to great lengths to understand our clients – their objectives, their audience demographics and psychographics, their logistics, and their budget parameters so to select the most appropriate formats and options for them.
Where our preference counts is in ensuring the quality of whatever type of performance or service our client’s contract from us. And the breadth is as wide as a soloist to a celebrity concert or a roaming sleight-of-hand magician to a fully developed staged performance, plus creative general session services from stage design and production fulfillment to speech writing.
We demand as much from ourselves as we do our artists and technicians and choose to work with only the most qualified professionals – those we know will not only perform at a very high level but who also arrive on time and understand that their attitude trumps their talent. Just as we do.
How do you define success?
Success for us is providing clients with solutions that make a genuine impact on their meeting and event goals and objectives. We sincerely believe that no one hosts an event or meeting for the sake of just doing so, so we take enormous satisfaction in helping them achieve results. And, of course, we love seeing them again and again and again.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bollotta.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bollottaentertainment/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BollottaEntertainment/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonybollotta/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bollotta-entertainment-san-diego
- SoundCloud: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bollotta-fide/id1537468711
- Other: https://www.bbb.org/us/ca/san-diego/profile/entertainment-bureau/bollotta-entertainment-1126-10018023
