ShowStoppers Stop Guests in Their Tracks

Frank the Tank at your last cocktail party, Uncle Herb and his stupid human tricks at Thanksgiving and Danielle the Drama Queen at your last company holiday party. As much as you remember these characters, you’re in dire need of better event entertainment. Enter, ShowStoppers Talent Agency.

This life-of-the-party company has been around for almost 25 years – long enough to build a solid reputation and a good feel for being the life of the party. Besides private individuals, ShowStoppers works with corporations, organizations, country clubs, shopping centers and even the city to make social events memorable.

ShowStoppers works with clients to come up with a plan on how the clients’ events can go from the ordinary party to the spectacular affair. “We can do as little or as much as our clients want us to do,” says Carolee Schwartz, president, owner and founder of ShowStoppers. From a caricaturist to a palmist to a string quartet, ShowStoppers works with all of their clients’ desires to achieve fun and quirky or classy and elegant or anywhere in between.

While the name can be deceiving, ShowStoppers is much more than just a talent agency. The agency works with many event planners in town to create the whole package: venue, food, decorations, entertainment and more. ShowStoppers employees themselves are event planners as well. Starting with the invitation and going through to an after dinner dueling piano show, ShowStoppers ensures a complete occasion. “Details are so important,” Schwartz says, and ShowStoppers is there to make sure every detail is there.

One of the most important ways ShowStoppers can help in throwing a party is in the idea process. “I love to be creative, and this is my creative outlet,” Schwartz says. And Schwartz uses that creativity to offer suggestions like having a Dickens’ themed Christmas party with Dickens carolers and old-fashioned decor. Another idea might be to have a self-portrait interactive activity at an office party where each guest paints a white block as a self-portrait and the finished products create a masterpiece to adorn the office walls. “We go overboard with our clients because we like to get repeat business,” Schwartz says.

Prices for ShowStoppers’ performers have a wide range because of the wide range of talents the performers have, but ShowStoppers will work with their clients’ budgets to determine the best choice in type of performer to hire. Some of the performers, especially musicians, even have demos that each client can hear before they make a hiring decision. Every performer is a seasoned professional, and most will require a four hour minimum fee on a Saturday night unless they can do an early performance and make another booking after that event, Schwartz says.

Even if your budget can’t fit in a performer, ShowStoppers can work with you on other aspects of the party like lighting. ShowStoppers works with lighting specialists to create an atmosphere above and beyond the everyday. “If you don’t do anything else but do lighting, it can make the party,” Schwartz says.

Whether it is a performer or a lighting specialist, ShowStoppers works to ensure each event goes off without a hitch. “Everything we do is with contracts,” Schwartz says. In depending on outside entertainment, nobody wants to be let down when the strolling musician doesn’t show up to play. “Our people show up,” Schwartz says.

So whether a tuxedo-clad, stilts-walking champagne server fits your fancy or a hip-hop dancer suits your groove, ShowStoppers can hook you up. Just sit down with a piece of paper and your imagination and think up how you’d like to make your event your own. Or sit down with Schwartz or another ShowStoppers representative to dream up an unforgettable affair. The possibilities are endless.

PHOTO CREDITS
Photo: Courtesy of ShowStoppers Talent Agency