OUR BUSIEST MONTH TO DATE

August was busy. Busy, busy, busy. Busy-as-a-bee-busy. No, busier than that. Mmmm.... what is busier than a bee.... basically.... SHOW WORKS! If you don't believe us, this is a little run down of our month...

31 days, 18 events, 10 flights to Joburg, 6 happy clients, 47 performers, 20 very late nights, 20 very early mornings, 150 cups of coffee (at least!), 45 new grey hairs, all whilst running an ongoing schools project for Henkel, producing 500 stationery lists for primary schools across the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape, and redesigning and rebranding our entire website and CI!

But, to end it all off, we also had 3 rejuvenated workers after a reward day at Mangwanani Day Spa!

Okay, so we'll stop bragging/moaning and give you a proper run down of what these events entailed...

DISCOVERY CHANNEL & TLC STAND AT THE GOOD FOOD AND WINE SHOW, JHB

Discovery Networks hosted a stand at the Good Food and Wine Show at the beginning of August. The stand showcased two of Discovery Networks' most-loved channels: TLC Entertainment and Discovery Channel. The stand featured a filming booth where guests could leave lines to camera for their favourite channel, with the hope that their message would make it onto the channel's promo line-up! The stand also hosted a press event with Buddy Valastro: The Cake Boss. People came in hordes to see him and he did not disappoint! The weekend was a fabulous success, another amazing Discovery event which Show Works was thrilled to be part of!

DISCOVERY NETWORKS CLIENT EVENT WITH BUDDY VALASTRO

We were delighted to organise a client event for TLC Entertainment Channel, hosting the fantastic Cake Boss, Buddy Valastro! Buddy was in South Africa to launch his new range of "Cake Boss" merchandise and appear at the Good Food and Wine Show. TLC Channel held a client event where guests were treated to a cake-decorating demo by the man himself. They then broke into teams and tried their hand at matching his skills. He took time to judge each cake and awarded a winner. Guests all had the opportunity to interact with Buddy and raved about his larger-than-life personality, and the how much they loved the day spent with him. Another great event in Show Works' books!

NBC UNIVERSAL 'A SCENT TO REMEMBER' WOMAN'S DAY EVENTS

This year NBCUniversal treated their top clients and press to a ‘Scent To Remember’ event in celebration of Woman's Day. Hosted at top venues in JHB & CPT – Morrells Boutique Estate and Shimmy Beach Lounge – guests were invited to intimate affairs boasting a hot line up of upcoming content and well-known MCs. The brand-immersive experience included a stylish Cap Classique bar serving Channel-linked bubbly, as well as an incredible Fragrance Workshop facilitated by the ladies from Kumanov Cosmetics. To add to the experience we created 5 Signature Scents inspired by the personalities of the 5 NBCUniversal Channels: Telemundo, Universal Channel, Studio Universal, Style and E! Entertainment, that guests took home with them in their goodie bags. At the end of the day, the events left guests in no doubt that Entertainment truly IS Universal!

IFAC CONFERENCE 2014

Show Works provided entertainment for the International Federation of Automatic Control at their triennial conference held at the CTICC this month. The opening ceremony, gala dinner and closing ceremony all featured our entertainers: a praise singer, African contemporary dancers, African Divas, The Gugulethu Tenors, Ama Ambush Marimbas, a Zulu warrior and even a Can-Can dancer from Paris! The international delegates were thrilled with the proudly South African performances and loved immersing themselves in our rich heritage and culture.

PRITT 'EXCITE & EDUCATE' TEACHER'S FORUMS

This week Show Works facilitated a series of educational forums for primary school teachers in Cape Town, hosted by Henekl. This CSI initiative featured a sponsored workshop on 'Dealing with Challenging Learners', a meaty and sensitive topic which teachers delved deeply into, and left feeling equipped to face their classroom challenges.

MOMENTUM TOP ACHIEVER AWARDSEvery year Momentum rewards their top salesperson with a trip to an international destination, the location of which is revealed at their yearly awards ceremony. Next year's surprise destination is RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil! Show Works participated in the big reveal portion of the event. We provided larger than life stilt walkers, hot and steamy poi dancers and bejeweled and blinging samba dancers who shimmied and shook their way into audience members imaginations and created a carnival experience for guests.

SHOW CALLING AND STAGE MANAGEMENT

Once again we worked with the fabulous Mela Events, show calling and stage managing the Nandos Patrao Conference in Sun City. This week-long series of events was lots of hard work, but as always a great experience and we look forward to the next one.

Shew... we feel tired again after rehashing that all... it was a very busy month. (has that been said yet?). Think another Mangwanani trip might be in order...

Like a (Cake) Boss!

This past week was a biggie in the Show Works books. Big client, big events, big stress, big fun! We had two high profile events on the cards, both for our fantastic client Discovery Networks. Discovery hosted a stand at the Good Food and Wine Show in Jhb this past weekend. The stand showcased two of Discovery Networks' most-loved channels: TLC Entertainment and Discovery Channel. The stand featured a filming booth where guests could leave lines to camera for their favourite channel, with the hope that their message would make it onto the channel's promo line-up. The stand also hosted a press event with Buddy Valastro: The Cake Boss. People came in hordes to see him and he did not disappoint!

Buddy was in South Africa to launch his new range of "Cake Boss" merchandise and appear at the Good Food and Wine Show. Discovery Networks also held a TLC Channel client event where guests were treated to a cake-decorating demo by the man himself. They then broke into teams and tried their hand at matching his skills. He took time to judge each cake and awarded a winner. Guests all had the opportunity to interact with Buddy and raved about his larger-than-life personality, and how much they loved the day spent with him.

Well, they weren't the only ones... we also loved our day spent with him. Over the years we have racked up quite an impressive number of celebrity meetings, including Dynamo, Oprah and many more. (Click here to see our hall of fame). This is the second time that we met Buddy Valastro and we have to say that this was our favourite famous-person-encounter yet. Often the 'talent' are whisked in and out of the event, and although we are always lucky enough for a photo and a handshake, it is seldom that we have the kind of time that allows us to get to know a little bit more about them than just their image. With Buddy, we had a whole day. A whole, lucky, wonderful day.

He flew in from NYC early on Thursday morning, after a connecting flight from Vegas, so he arrived pretty buggered, with an entire day of press events and interviews ahead of him. He had every right to be grumpy. But, he wasn't! Not in the slightest. He greeted each of us with a big warm bear hug and double cheek kiss (no handshake here!) and very quickly pulled out his phone to show us the latest pics of him and his son skydiving. He has a 4 kids and a beautiful wife, and he is very proud of them and talks happily and openly about how important family is to him. Being invited into his dressing room to view photos on his phone felt very intimate and totally surreal. You're thinking, this is Buddy Valastro, world famous Cake Boss, millions of fan watch him every day, he could demand the world and get it. But all he wants to do is show you pictures of his kids. Just like a normal dad.

He genuinely seems to love people and very definitely loves the people that share his trade. When we arrived at the venue of the Client Event and Cake Demo, we needed to whisk him in as quick as possible as his flight delay had meant a schedule delay and guest were waiting for him to arrive. But, no such luck, he would not be whisked. (hehe, baking pun!). The event took place at a culinary school and Buddy made sure to greet every single student and cook he encountered, calling them all 'Chef' and delighting in the comarderie he felt with his kinsmen. He made many a young novice's day, that day. Nay, week, year!

So, he's lovable and funny and warm and welcoming. But that is not all. He is also an incredible performer and consummate professional who delivers his absolute best for his audiences and the camera. His itinerary was jam-packed that day: a press event at the GFWS, one-to-one press interviews, a cake-demo at a client event, a cake-off which he judged, a photo session with all guests, a live skype chat and a film shoot where he did lines-to-camera for upcoming TLC programming. All this after a 24hr flight from the States! Shew! As the day wore on his energy, naturally, began to ebb. When he had moments alone he would just sit quietly and rest, looking completely and understandably shattered. But, the instant the camera was on, or a guest was there, he sprang to life, to larger-than-life, like an animated cartoon character, giving everyone a taste of his effervescent personality and indefatigable charm. He truly dominated that day, like a BOSS... a Cake Boss!

Finally, a much better photo than our last one in 2012!

A quick, before the show, dressing room snap.

MAURITIUS BABY!

This June, Show Works took our business internationally. We had the distinct privilege, and treat, of organising NBCUniversal's "Entertainment is Universal" Event in Mauritius, to showcase their channels to top African journalists. The event was a rip-roaring success and a "banging party" (overheard on the dance floor) which gave guests a truly immersive brand experience. Each channel was represented by an activation of it's own: an E! Red Carpet arrival, a Style Network Nail Bar, a Studio Universal Photo Booth, a Universal Channel Cocktail Bar and two Latin American TV Stars, Ximena Duque and Carlos Ponce, representing Telemundo Channel and leaving guests gawking at their drop-dead-gorgeousness.

Now, writing that concise 5-sentence description of the event does not in any way hint at the lengths we went to to create said 'banging party' (also tweeted by a journo as #bestpartyever). Working away from home means that you can't rely on your regular trusty suppliers, so the first task at hand was sourcing a local events company that would give their all to our event, just as much as we would. Thankfully, we found them. Adele and Guillaume from Impact were amazing, can-do people with whom we had a many a midnight up-a-ladder-threading-fish-gut-IN-THE-DARK french laugh, and if we could, we would ship them over to RSA for all our future events! Talking about shipping things over, now there is a challenge that comes with working across the water! There is this little thing called Customs and it is not your friend. In the weeks leading up to the event we had all of our branding and gifting shipped over to Mauritius and every single item encountered red tape at customs. The goods were seized for 'inspection' and were released in drips and drabs up until the very last second. We received the last box of goods 3 HOURS before the event began! We are indebted to the staff at Trou Aux Biches Resort for working tirelessly to get our goods from customs. Fatima, in particular, was an angel, without whom guests would have walked away empty goodie-bag handed!

Luckily we did not have any custom-related trouble on the way in, despite there being 75 silver-sequined scatter cushions in Sally's bag (say that sentence five times fast!). We also carried over 150 flash drives which we sat on the plane loading with content for the journalists; picture all three of us in a row with our laptops on our tray tables, loading documents onto flashdrives for the duration of the CPT -JHB flight. It was rather awkward when they served us bacon and eggs! Thankfully we got through customs without a hitch and arrived at Trou Aux Biches Resort safe and sound. 

Setting up branding is the worst, but this location made it quite bearable!

The resort was picturesque and we loved the restaurant where we held our event. The staff were friendly and helpful, food delicious and the view out of this world! As soon as we arrived we climbed up ladders and started the very long and tedious process of Hanging Branding. Which honestly felt like a never ending story while we were doing it, but once all done it really elevated the venue from a normal beach restaurant to a unique NBCUniversal environment.

The event itself was one of our best and guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves. And yes, it was hard work with lots of stress and very late up-ladder nights, (Sorry, did I mention ladders again? There were lots of ladders) but, when all was said and done, we too had a ball! After wrapping all of our work up we had a day off to soak up the island sun and we made the absolute most of it. We walked on the beach, swam in the ocean, lay in the sun and celebrated this incredible experience with a cocktail... or two....

For more pictures of our event, check out our Facebook page.

DOUBLE SHOT LATTE PLEASE

May has been a month full of surprises. It started pretty quietly, with one or two campaigns running smoothly, no big shakes and nothing to stress about. So, a little bit ho-hum. We even did some marketing, a task generally reserved for the beginning of the year. This year started with a bang though, so it took us 5 months to get around to it. We drank Vida coffee and caught up with old clients and sent our stuff to prospective clients and just chilled out a little.

But, as Cristina said on the last episode of Greys (how much does her departure suck? I mean, seriously?!?), everything can change in a heartbeat. And... it REALLY did! Not only is no one ho-ing or humming any more (actually, scratch that, Sally is always humming), but in less then a month we will be packing our bags for Mauritius baby! Yep, Show Works has booked our first international event! The call came in from NBC Universal and we downed our coffee and sprang to action. 

NBC: can you put together a high profile event in a foreign location for 150 journalists showcasing 5 different aspects of our business... and make it an extravaganza.

SW: YES!!!

NBC. It's in 35 days.

SW: Gulp. More coffee! But still, YES!!!

We are now hard at work putting together this very exciting event, which has us thinking even more out of the box than usual, because we can't use our trusty suppliers and need to source everything locally. We have already hooked up with some great companies in Mauritius and are feeling confident that we will indeed produce extravagance.

But wait, there's more.... The next day, we got an email from Discovery Networks asking us to put together an event and 4 day stand at the Good Food and Wine Show in JHB this year, in two months time. We always look forward to  working on Discovery's Upfront every year and so are very chuffed to have another DN event added to our calendar. 

On top of those two big events we are also in the process of confirming all entertainment elements for the International Federation of Automation Control Conference this year for our client African Agenda, and brainstorming ideas for an upcoming Paarl Media event which just popped into our inboxes this week. 

And, and, and! There is another super-secret, high profile, shhhh don't say anything, event in the pipeline and it will also require our passports! Watch this space.

Shoo... reading back on this we are feeling incredibly blessed and quite astounded that our little business, which we started by taking children's shows around to local schools, has reached international heights. It's pretty great. Coffee to celebrate? (Vida moved in across the road, can you tell?)

IT DOESN'T GET BETTE-R THAN LUCY

Show Works had a fabulous night out at the Alexander Bar Theatre last night, to watch "Stealing the Show: Bette Midler", performed by Lucy Tops, direction by Garth Tavares, written by Jon Keevy. The show features Lucy Tops as a luckless and desperate diva discovering the reasons why Bette’s music has the power to move us like no other in the most intimate the­atre in Cape Town. And a powerful and intimate experience it was. The theatre is little, but lovely,  and we were highly impressed with how quick and easy it was to book on their website. They have a great line up of shows upcoming and we look forward to many more nights of entertainment there.


The show is fun, and funny and we enjoyed the natural and honest rapport between Lucy and her talented pianist (and director) Garth Tavares. And Lucy...well, Lucy is a superstar. As an actress she is warm and funny, vulnerable and engaging. As a singer, she is faultless and in control, power-house and knock-em out of the stadium GREAT, and the total package that she delivers has one-of-a-kind star quality that truly moves people. It moved every audience member last night. In one 45 minute show Lucy had fingers clicking, toes-tapping, hands clapping, people singing along, 80 year olds dancing (and almost stealing the show), the entire house doubled-over with laughter and a row in the middle weeping their hearts out.
We won't mention any names.
Okay we will.
Dammit!
It was us.

We love Lucy, and if you don't love her yet, make sure to catch this limited-run of Stealing the Show, so she can steal your hearts too.

A LITTLE BIT OF CHARACTER

Did you know that Brad Pitt's first job required that he covered his face? In addition to working as a furniture mover and chauffeuring a limo for a strip-o-gram service, now-famous family man Brad Pitt also dressed up as a chicken for bills. He dropped out of the University of Missouri’s journalism school to pursue an acting career in Hollywood, but wound up withstanding 100-degree temperatures outside of an El Pollo Loco restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. Pitt handed out flyers for the chain restaurant, according to People magazine, in full poultry garb.

Well, Brad, we've been there too!

One of Show Works' offerings is that of CHARACTER MANAGEMENT. We have been responsible for many much-loved characters, including Mr Pritt, Cartoon Network, Takalane Sesame, Spur Soaring Eagle, Buggles from Cavendish, The Cape Gate Gators and the BBC Fimbles. We source and train actors to perform as these characters, where they appear at family days, festivals, corporate launch events, brand activations and parades. 

Now, getting dressed up in a big padded suit and walking around waving at people is not as easy as it sounds. It is as FUN as it sounds, but not easy. It comes with a huge responsibility, as the 'character', you are the embodiment of a personality the reflects a company's brand. You are the brand-on-show and you need to at all times do it justice and genuinely sell it to the people you come into contact with. And you need to sell it silently! Yep, characters never talk. (How disconcerting if a female South African accent came out of Johnny Bravo!) Their handler's talk for them as they mime away, dealing with the people that the character meets. Inside the costume, you are hot. Hot and sweaty. Hot, sweaty and happy because you know you are losing weight while baking away and jumping around like a mad thing! The best part as an actor is that in a character suit you can give the most outrageous characterisation that you could ever imagine, giving the biggest craziest performance, all behind the safety of a mask, remaining completely anonymous. 

The handler's job is not easy either... they have to manage the hordes of people flocking to meet their character, protect the character from the inevitable idiot who wants to use it as a punching bag (why, I ask you why?!?), help communicate the brand's message, and guide their basically-blind character (when you're in a a suit you often have a tiny dot in the nose to look through) from falling on their face. As a handler you also have to secure a safe and private dressing room for your character, where no one can spy on you and catch you unawares, because the first rule of character performing, is DON'T GET SEEN HALF DRESSED! It is imperative that the illusion of the character is never shattered - especially for children who believe that Kami from Takalani is a real live fluffy animal. For a child to see her in pieces, or half dressed, would be a very sad and traumatic experience! We can only imagine how many confused little kiddies there were after seeing this....

DISCLAIMER! This is NOT a Show Works performer!
(And no lions were harmed in the taking of the photo.)

At Show Works we always ensure our characters keep their heads about them!

We love our characters and enjoy every minute of the limelight they bring! And also the many more minutes of sweat, heat and exhaustion! 

WHAT'S ON IN APRIL

Well hello there April, you got here sooner than we expected, but you ain't made fools of us yet! In fact, so far we're feeling rather fond of you with all that you've brought and still hold in store. Let's have a little look-see at what the start of Autumn has meant in the life of Show Works...

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING

Show Works has just finished running a School Holiday Drop and Shop zone at Cape Gate Shopping Centre. It was a great success. We are not sure who loved it more: parents, who got to take a breather and get some shopping done sans little hands taking sweets of shelves; or kids, who got to PLAY!  The zone was perfectly designed to be Child-Heaven, with  face painting, crafts, a movie chill zone,  a ball pond, colouring in and specially trained child-minders ensuring non-stop fun!

WHAT IS HAPPENING

This is a busy week for us, we are show calling and stage managing for the KFC RGM Awards (Regional General Managers) in Sun City on Tuesday and then dash off to do the same at the Samsung S5 launch in JHB. Both of these events are being organised by Mela and we look forward to another fab week aboard their 'ship-shape ship'.

While working at these events we are also coordinating an Easter activation for DSTV media sales. We have Cheerful Chocolate Cherubs (sorry, that was a stretch, they are really just people, but I am a sucker for alliteration) visiting the media agencies' offices with mobile hot choc units. Media Agency personnel will get to make their own delicious hot choc, and then participate in the ultimate Easter egg hunt facilitated by Supersports Niel Andrews, where some amazing channel-sponsored prizes are up for grabs!

WHAT'S UPCOMING

Life is all about Easter for Show Works this month, as we are also organising an  EASTER FAMILY FUN DAY at Cape Gate on Saturday 19th April. The event will be choc-a-bloc full of egg-tivities (hehe) with a Treasure Hunt around the centre to collect eggs from participating tenants, Crafts and Easter basket making, Colouring In, Face Painting and our favourite friends the Cape Gators, Willie and Ally, will be there to meet and greet the kids. AND - this is amazing, hold onto your hats - the Easter Bunny is coming to personally hand out eggs. (Yep - we're that good, we know the EASTER BUNNY!). People of all ages are welcome, so come to the centre on the 19th and join in the fun!