10 Surprising Facts About Celeb Club Appearances
A chart-topping song or TV role can yield a pretty paycheck, sure, but for many celebs, the real bread and butter is in the two-hour club appearance. So what goes into these lucrative deals, beyond fist-pumping? Cosmopolitan.com spoke to David Weintraub, CEO of DWE Talent, a management, film and television production company that represents the likes of Scott Disick, Brody Jenner, and Ray J - all big-paycheck club headliners - to learn more.
1. From beginning to end, a club appearance usually takes less than two hours. “The job is to come in, take pictures, do something like a press line - but without any real important press - and host. Obviously a 90-Day Fiancé star is not going to be talking to Cosmo about their future in the TV business at a red carpet at Omnia. However, Scott Disick for an example, he is going to do 20 minutes on the press line, which will be five to 10 interviews; he will probably do four minutes of pictures with [the club’s] big-dollar spenders who are guaranteed to get a picture with him, and then after that everything is cut off, he has to go in and do his appearance, talk on the mic, say hello to everyone, maybe do a couple of inside pictures, depending. His total amount of job duties [take], like, 30 minutes, tops.”
2. The celebrity isn’t actually there to party. “They are not really trying to hang out at the club - it’s a meat circus for them. You can’t really have fun there, especially if your life is getting scrutinized. Everything they are doing is being looked at and talked about: Who did they talk to? Who did they hug? Who shook their hand? How did they treat somebody? Any picture can be taken out of context. A photo at the wrong angle of some girl saying, ’Hi, I am a huge fan,’ and whispering in your ear can all of a sudden become, ’Are you dating that person or did you hook up with them?’ The world of Instagram and social media has complicated public appearances. I would say [it can cause] issues at home.”
3. The negotiations are intense. “You don’t just walk up and you get handed a stack of cash. This is planned out, weeks and sometimes months, in advance. There are a lot of [logistics] like hair and makeup, arrival time. How many pictures they are going to take? How many autographs are they going to sign? Are they drinking? Are they bringing their TV-show crew with them? Then there are all the travel arrangements. Will it be coach tickets, first-class tickets, your own private plane? How many hotel rooms, meals per diem? I have seen crazy demands.”
4. Seriously, the demands can be crazy. “Sometimes I will talk the clients into the crazy demands - I know that we can get them, so why not? If you’re going to a major hotel like Omnia at the MGM and you’re going to go perform, I know that they can give you 10 rooms, two suites, a fantasy suite, all the ground transportation, all the food, anything you want, because it’s really just a write-off and it’s all there. There is also picking and choosing what type of crowd you want in the club that night - you want it to be mostly girls, mostly guys, a mix? Big things that people demand a lot of these days is Don Julio 1942, Johnnie Walker Blue. Ace of Spades is the big "It" Champagne that everybody has to drink. The bottle is [about] $300 and it comes in this black box, and it’s a whole thing to open the box.”
5. Social media stars aren’t a major draw. “The biggest payday is in the DJ world, reality TV, and rap. You’ve got to remember, to do an appearance, it’s not that you need to be highly skilled, it’s that you need to have some type of value that is going to attract people to come. So the Instagram and YouTube world, a lot of which is semi-comedy, [aren’t as profitable]. It’s not like people are going to go to a nightclub to hear somebody do some type of shtick or do some weird Vine video. Also, women make a lot more than men - not compared to rappers or DJs, strictly in the reality world."
6. Paychecks range from a couple thousand to over a quarter million dollars. “Bottom-of-the-barrel reality TV stars, they are probably getting between $5,000 to $15,000 to do an appearance. The next tier up is going to be your Love & Hip Hop, your Housewives, and they are going for probably between $15,000 and $50,000. And then you have the Kardashians, Paris Hilton, Amber Rose, Blac Chyna, Future, Drake, 2 Chainz, Snoop Dogg - they have their own tier, which is probably $50,000 to $250,000 and upward. I am not doing a deal for $5,000 - I don’t have time to do that kind of deal. I don’t have time to hear your demands. I don’t need to make $300 on a deal, I need to make $30,000.”
7. Venues expect exclusivity. "These guys have to commit to some level of exclusivity for a period of time - that will [affect] the money they are going to receive. Depending on the talent, they likely can’t [go to another club prior to their commitment]. It really comes down to the territory. If you’re doing something in Atlantic City, you’re not going to be affected by an L.A. pop-in. [But] they do try to keep the attention that you may be getting to a minimum. You definitely can’t allow [another venue] to do any marketing or advertising with your likeness."
8. There is a constant need for damage control. “As a manager and as a booker for those celebrities, you are in a constant battle between the client and the venue and all of the rigmarole that goes in between. I have to be the sane person to mediate, to let talent know that their demands are maybe off the wall and crazy, and to let the club know when they are oversold and they have too much press and they want too many pictures. Or they want you to meet this guy because this guy usually spends $100,000 a week at the club and he has got to sit right next to the talent - but your talent doesn’t like that person and they want to sit next to [the talent].”
9. You can’t cash in on appearances forever. “You got to get it while you’re hot. You are only as relevant as your last hit or your last look. You got to monetize it immediately. If a big story hits or a big show is about to come out or we know there’s going to be a big media circus surrounding something, you got to be preemptive, out there booking the dates ahead of time.”
10. There’s a huge market for private parties. And foodie celebrities are on the rise. “People assume club, club, club - OK, but the other huge world that we deal with is the private world - and it’s 10 times the money. The bar mitzvahs, the private birthday parties, the rich family get-togethers, the holiday parties, those are the big ones. [An artist] can go get $300,000 to play two songs at a party for somebody. Also, the foodie scene is starting to emerge as a big payday world. This is the next area. I haven’t seen the big plateau with the Instagram/model world; everybody thinks that these Instagram models are making money but they are not. They are making $100 to $500 to go do appearances. I am not really going to deal with somebody who takes pictures all day unless you’re the biggest one in the game.”
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