wonytineres 0 Report Share Posted July 25, 2005 Just sharing information... today we had an entertainer by the name of Richard Smerin come in and play for our residents. We have had many requests lately for new music by our younger residents i.e. Beatles tunes. This guy gave me a call about a month ago, (he's from the Detriot area) and he shared he played 50s/Beatles and some Blues so we had him come in. I checked 3 references and all the other activity directors said he was good to great. Anyway, he was HORRIBLE!!! One of my residents actually started crying! God was watching out for me though because half way thru his performance we had a tornado warning issued and he had to stop; that's pretty bad tornado warning is better than the musical entertainer for the day. ANYWAY... what do you do when you book an entertainer (after checking out his references) and they show up, start playing/singing and they are TERRIBLE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gina 2 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 Hi Wonytineres, What I have always done is tell the entertainer that I will only use them if they offer a free trial entertainment show( say a half hour show,instead of their full hour) and that way I can see how the residents react to him and also if he is not good I have not invested my hard earned petty cash money!!! Most new entertainers do not have a problem with it and the ones that do are usually the ones that are the "Prima Donnas" and want you to basically do all the work yourself(borrow all your equipment,have the chairs set up a certain way,etc) and there are so many entertainers out there now you should be able to do this,just stand firm and dont let them push ya around! Did you pay this guy or what? :-o Have fun! Gina :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diana 0 Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 Oh, yes!!! I have been there too!!! I had residents walking out and family members rolling there eyes! This guy had repeatedly called trying to get in and I needed someone in a bind so I thought, let's try it! Definetly, any musical entertainment - TRIAL TRIAL TRIAL! Never pay them on the first try - lost $40 bucks in a heart beat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonytineres 0 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2005 Good advice- the free trial perfomance is a good idea. I am fortunate that I have a great budget so I guess we are probably not as tight with our entertainer budget. The entertainer did get paid, our accounting office send checks out to all our entertainers way ahead of time. Last week a group we have booked for Oktoberfest called me and asked why they got paid already. Have a good day everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigchris 1 Report Share Posted July 29, 2005 I try to avoid this by getting references and demo tapes. If they are not willing or the tapes are bad, we then reject them. I also network with other facilities and find out who they like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StacieO 0 Report Share Posted August 1, 2005 We are unfortunate in the rural area that I'm in that there aren't that many entertainers, but on the other end, I communicate w/ other facilities to find out what they think of the entertainers, before I agree. But - I think it's a "rite of passage" to get burned at least once by an entertainer. I had a lady come to play the organ, & after 10 minutes announced, "I have a dentist appointment in half in hour, so I'd better get going" & before I could back into the room, she was gone! Luckily, she was not a paid entertainer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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