Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Before we start today's episode. Wehaven't done this in a while where we
talk about what we're watching. Yeah. Man, there's a few documentaries that
I've been hearing about, and thenI found out that you were watching it
too. But one is is itcalled American Nightmare? Yeah about that couple,
the couple one, and it's similarto Gone Girl, the movie Gone
(00:22):
Girl. Matter of fact, theyactually thought that that's what was going on
in this case, that it wasa real life Gone Girl situation. But
not to spoil it or anything,but it was wild. Yeah, it
was wild. There's another documentary,oh, the one with the texting,
the the it was a love triangle. Uh. That one was like lover
(00:43):
stalker, lover stalker killer. Yeah, yeah, something like that. Yeah,
that's the Both of these are onNetflix. That was sort of a
love triangle situation. Yeah, andthere's a little twist. Yeah, there's
a few twists in there. Therewas kind of wild. So those two
are both on Netflix. On Netflix, I recommend. And then you told
(01:03):
me one that was on Max Chowchilla. I haven't seen it yet. Yeah,
So that one's interesting because obviously chowChilla is not far from Fresno,
so it kind of like hit Homea little bit. Uh. That that
one's another good one. But thatone's streaming on Max. Are you okay,
I'm gonna move on to kind ofshows, but do you are?
Do you recommend any more documentaries?Are you watching any more docs? No,
(01:23):
but I wouldn't mind some recommendations ifanybody got any out there. Those
are the ones that that were onmy list. I haven't seen chow Chilla
yet, but yeah, those arethe recent three that I watched. It
were pretty crazy, really good.Uh. One show that I watched a
few weeks ago that I both ofus have finished, Griselda. Yeah,
(01:44):
with Sophia Vergara. That that wasan interesting one. It gives the a
similarity to Narcos. Yeah, it'syou know, she plays a drug lord
and that's that's an easy watch.Just a mini series, so one season,
I believe six episodes. Yeah,and she you know, we've never
seen her act like this before,so shouts out to her. She she
(02:05):
put in work. That's another solidone. Yeah, you would think that
Sophia Vergara, I've only kind ofknown her as a comedic comedic actress.
Yeah, but she she goes inon this one. So yeah, even
the look that gave her a prostheticlook. Yeah, she got like a
prosthetic nose. I know she reallywanted to like feel different and look different
in that in that series. Ienjoyed that show because I wasn't familiar with
that person, that story in reallife story person. Yeah, neither am.
(02:30):
I I know, like one ofher sons is like still alive and
he tells a little bit of thestory as well. But that's a good,
easy, good watch too. Howabout you as far as what I'm
watching right, Yeah, yeah,I got two on Apple I know a
lot of people don't subscribe to AppleTV. There's a good one, Masters
of the Air that's like a WorldWar two series about like the pilots during
(02:52):
that era. They were like thebomber pilots. I know, there's a
few actors in there. Steven Spielbergand Tom Hanks kind of put this one
together. Other that's a good one. Another one that I'm watching on Apple
TV. Plus this is very lastDance Bulls, but it's Patriots. So
it's called The Dynasty and it's aboutthe dynasty of the Patriots. Uh.
(03:12):
That's a solid watch. And thoseare the two that I'm watching watching on
Apple TV Plus. Right now,let's talk about this real quick on since
we're on Max. Well, wetalked about Max earlier. HBO. Max
has this longtime series called True Detective. Okay, and uh, there's a
new new version. What is itlike, the new the new season?
(03:37):
Yeah, like what they call himan anthology series because it's a different story
every season. Yes, you youdon't need to watch the whole thing to
get the whole series because each seasonit's it's its own story. Yeah.
So this is season four and theweekslightest one and we both Well, for
me, I attempted to watch it, but it was just moving way too
(03:59):
slow for me. I got threeepisodes in and I called it. It
was I couldn't do it. Itried, I just I didn't. Yeah,
the pacing was really slow, thestory was I don't know, I
guess interesting. It's one of thosething where I kind of just wanted to
watch this to see how it ended, but I really wasn't invested in anybody
or anything about it other than wantingto know the answer. Well, also
(04:20):
a lot of people were talking aboutit, Yeah I don't know why on
social media, so you know,you want to kind of see what they're
talking about. You Usually shows likethat are good if everyone's talking about it.
But for me, yeah, itwas just too slow for me.
And I've given up after the threeepisodes for me too, I think,
which I think it was only likesix, so I'm like halfway there.
(04:43):
But I just I couldn't do itbecause even as I was watching it,
I just kept thinking, like,man, is this almost over? I'm
going to YouTube, like how doesit end? Oh? Just tell me,
just tell me how it ended.The answer. Another thing on this
is a movie that just got releaseda few days ago, Aquaman. Oh
yeah, DC's Aquaman. Do youwatch that? I'm three quarters of the
(05:05):
way done. I heard that momentwas bad. Yeah, it's I mean,
I'm gonna finish it because I'm almostdone. But I don't know.
Is it something where am I tiredof superhero movies at the moment where I
need a break. So there's thisthing that's going around that there's like superhero
fatigue. I don't know if it'ssuperhero fatigue or just the movies have been
(05:28):
sucking lately. And that's like evenMarvel has been putting out some shit too,
So, you know, I'm lookingforward to Deadpool. I think that
one's gonna be a good one tokind of like pick things back up.
Yeah, I just think the storiesof these movies have just been sloppy and
thrown together. Well because on DisneyPlus the Marvels is on there and I
haven't watched it. Well, youknow how when it came out the Negativity
(05:51):
of God, of how sugy itwas. So I watched it just to
see how sugy it was. Itwas pretty bad. I actually might just
gipt that one altogether. Yeah,maybe I'm having that fatigue. I'm having
that superhero fatigue. Okay, anythingelse on your side? I know,
(06:11):
Uh, I'm watching like this isa Weekly Abbit Elementary and all that came
back for the third season. Beenwatching that, Uh the one that everyone's
talking about, Love is Blind.Yeah, Love is Blind. There was
a there was a piece of mewhere I was kind of over that,
and especially the last season was likekind of it was bad. Yeah,
it wasn't very bad. It wasn'tvery good. But again you see social
(06:32):
media people talk about it, ohmy gosh, did you see this this?
And then you just have to watchit for yourself. So yeah,
I could see why people are talking, and I mean I think just the
biggest storyline is I don't think thisis like a spoiler, but the chicks
saying that she looked like making Fox. I mean that's like what started this
whole season and everybody being invested init, and uh, it's been funny
(06:54):
to kind of see that play out. I know the recording of this podcast,
there's just two more episodes left,which is basically if they're gonna get
married or not. Yeah, Ithink the reunion, So we'll see how
all that plays out. But it'sat least been more entertaining than whatever last
season was for sure. Yeah.Man, definitely have been watching some cool
(07:15):
stuff these past few weeks. Andif you got any out there, let
us know. This could give mefire podcasts. What up? I'm Gizzo.
That is John Magic and we areback continuing with some great guests live
in our studio in Fresno, California. Today's guest, I mean I met
(07:39):
him when he was just a localparty promoter and now a big concert promoter
that's doing major things for the valley. But now he's just expanding more and
more. But we'll get to knowmore about our guest today, Brad Jerkeyah
from Brad Jeriki Promotions. Sir Man, welcome to the podcast. Thank you,
(08:01):
thank you for having me. Iguess I'll start with this. A
couple of days ago, you postedsomething on social media where you wanted to
get a meeting together. Can youcan you kind of talk about this meeting
that not only talk about the meetingthat you wanted to put together. It
just happened. How did it go? Yeah? So we we started about
(08:24):
i'd say about three or four weeksago. We had our first meeting at
a local event. Can you justget the micro a little closer to you
or you go closer there. Wehad our first meeting about three weeks ago
at a local establishment called the Rosede. What I wanted to do is when
I got in this game, therewas nobody to tell you anything, right,
I mean, you just did whatyou did and you lost money or
you won money or you you know, you got embarrassed, however it may
(08:48):
go. And so I, youknow, I see a lot of shows
happening these days, and you know, I social media is on fire with
look at this jankie promoter or lookat this you know the artist didn't show
up, or you know, lookat the I was there at the show.
There was only five hundred people there, but they're showing two thousand or
whatever the case may be. SoI wanted to put my hand out there
to lift those people up, togive them a little help, to say,
(09:09):
this is how we do it.We did it, and this is
how you can do it. Andthat was the purpose of those meetings.
So we're trying to have them everymonth. And is this something that you
started? You just was this thefirst one? So the first one was
in Rose it was I think itwas three or four weeks ago, and
then we just had one at ClubEncore this Tuesday, which we had a
(09:30):
lot of people show up. Iwant to say about twenty five thirty people.
So these are people trying to become promoters or yeah, so it's
a mixed bag. So it's peoplewho are promoters, there are people who
are street team people, people whowant to be promoters. Artists have been
coming out, so just I've openedthe door for anybody involved in the entertainment
event business in Fresno and the CentralValley. We had people come as far
(09:54):
as Hilarry as well, o nice. That's awesome to see because of that
thing they always say, where there'sroom for everyone, everybody can get a
piece, You can get a pieceand succeed. So let's all just help
each other out. There was somethingthat even back in the days, we
talked about you know, how arepeople going viral? And one of the
things in a long episode ago froma podcast we're talking about is people just
(10:18):
start collaborating with each other. Yeah, and that's a great way to succeed
is teamwork. Yeah. I thinkwe need more of that out here because
there's always you know, people wantto step on other people, people want
to talk shit on other people,and we just need some more collaborative effort,
especially for Fresno to become bigger andbetter and everything that we do,
there's a lot of negativity. We'llget more into that, but I want
(10:41):
to take it back, like tothe beginning of Brad and then we get
to know you a little bit more. Are you originally from here? Born
and raised in Fresno? Yep?Oh nice? Okay, where'd you go
to school at? I went toschool computech Junior High School. Oh,
you're a bulletgrad too. A Bulletgradhere too. So let's talk a little
bit about how you first got intothe promotional game. I know Magic said
(11:03):
he kind of started off with,like the club. Is that where it
began for you? Yeah? Yeahnny, funny story. There's a lot of
local ties to it. So therewas a club I think Palm and Knees
Area or nope, not Palm andKnees Shepherd out there where Lewis had his
club a while back. Well therewas his club named Aquashee. Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah, he spoke onthat. So Buddy and Mine I
(11:24):
was going through separation at that time, and so Buddy Mine was like,
hey, you got to come outwith us. So I went out there
and he happened to be friends withthe very well known celebrity in Fresno by
the name of Timmy T. Weknow he has a music career. Yeah,
so so Timmy T. So weend up at a table with Timmy
T and Timmy T and I becamefriends. And so he just started inviting
(11:46):
me places like hey, Brad,come to this place, come meet me
here, And we end up goingto downtown Chancey Park a club just open
called the Penthouse and the six hundredclub. I don't know if you guys,
I remember that Chance Park six hunderclub, and I think it was
just opening it. It was hisfirst night. And then he introduced me
to somebody that we all know namedRick Marigan. So so I met Rick,
(12:07):
and then Rick and I hit itoff, and Rick say, hey,
I want you to come help mepromote this this place. You know,
you got some connections, you know, some people. And this is
way before there was no Instagram.I mean it was it was Facebook,
but you really couldn't use it.There was my Space billboard. Now it
was more like flyers and and uh, you know, texts your buddy or
whatever. So Rick and I hookedup and I started being the promoter at
(12:31):
Penthouse and that's that's where I gotstarted. Yeah, so we're talking,
we're talking back in the day.I mean, I think Derek Frank,
who was the president of the Grizzlies, was an intern at that time.
So talking way back in the day. So are you trying to say this
all just fell into you kind ofby accident, you weren't trying to be
a promoter. Oh no, Imean, I guess separation was the best
(12:52):
thing that ever happened for me.Wow, And so was that just something
that you just liked over time youjust got to feel for and it was
like, man, I could dothis, and you just started, you
know, shaking hands with the rightpeople or what made you want to pursue
that even more. Well, growingup at my house, we didn't have
TV on a lot. We hadTV, but my mom had music playing
all the time. We're talking MarvinGay, Keith Sweat, I mean,
(13:13):
all the old school gap bands,that all that stuff. So growing up
we listened to that. That wasit oldies, you know on Sunday night,
listen to Art Lebeaux, all thatstuff. So in my house,
we you know, music was thepredominant thing. Like everything revolved around that.
So it was always something that Iwanted to be a part of.
But just you know, I can'tsing. I'm not a musician, so
(13:35):
that I can't. I guess Ikind of went towards that because of that.
And so when that opportunity happened,I you know, I think I'm
a people person. I meet people, I make friends. You know that
that's kind of something that I've beenborn with. So as I got into
the industry and started meeting people,becoming friends with them. It just naturally
happened. They're like, hey,Brad, can you we want to do
this? Do you want to bea part of it? And so that's
(13:56):
what I did. I just itjust grew from there and expand it to
where it is now and we're stillscratching the service. So you know,
you talked about teaming up with Rick, When did you did you continue to
kind of help him do other thingsor when did it kind of branch out
where you told yourself, let methrow my own party. So so Rick
(14:16):
was a good I mean, Rickand a lot of us know. Rick's
a pretty tough guy, soft guyon the inside though, to be honest,
you know, he was just barelymeeting Jose Ramiris at that time.
So there's a couple of meetings wewent to. Rick had thrown an event
at Chancey Park. It was likean MMA amateur boxing event. Jose was
there at that and I think someFernando Vargas others were there, and so
(14:39):
that's when I saw my first sideof a big event. And so Rick
and I worked together until we didn'twork together anymore. You know, there's
only only so much friction before yougot to say how we're going to go
and go our own way. Sobut I you know, I'm very thankful
for Rick. He helped me understandthe business side because I'm a nice guy
like I probably would have got tookenadvantage of a lot more than I did
if it wasn't for somebody like Rickbeing the person he was. Yeah,
(15:01):
yeah, all right. So isthat when Brad JERICKI promotion started officially or
when was that and when you firstput that together? So what I saw
is I saw all these promoters havingthis this fake name or this pseudo name
of whatever their promotion company is.I wanted people to know that I stood
behind what I did. So that'swhy I used my name, because you
know, there's it's Brad, likeI'm Brad, I'm here, like there's
(15:24):
nowhere you can hide with that.So I've always used that because I want
people to know if it's got myname on it, it's real, it's
genuine, it's gonna happen, it'sgonna be the ship. So that's where
I got where I came from thatfrom that perspective, Yeah, I remember
you, I mean, correct meif I'm wrong of the timeline, but
you started working with us here atthe radio station quick. You were booking
(15:46):
the DJs, meaning you know,the honored personalities to host your clubs.
And then I could be wrong,but I think the first time we sort
of officially start talking is you hitme up because at the time I was
weuring with Joe Coy and I wason tour with him and he was coming
to town and you hit me upto to DJ host and have him be
(16:08):
the celebrity host of what was itcalled? Was it Rome at the time,
And I can't remember. It's likeClub Rome, Club Eva, Club
Imperio Wow Eva. I mean eventhrough a we do it through a birthday
party for you a lot of time, Yeah, a couple of my birthdays
there. Thinking well, if I'mthinking if I'm imagining the because I still
remember the flyer with Joe on it, I'm on it. I think it
(16:30):
was like a color blue, butI think it was Rome. I think,
Uh, but is that sort ofone we first met. Yeah,
so I when I got involved withB ninety five, it was through that
club. Yeah, because Pino,who was running the club at that time,
he was using you guys for hispromotion. Yeah, Yeah, I
missed that club by the way onetime. The birthdays. Yeah, so
(16:52):
we we hooked up and I gothooked up with Devo your guys yep.
Yeah, she's our salesperson. Soher and I just connect and then she
kept saying, well, what whatdo we got to do to get there?
I said, you got to getme some big and then I guess
she had talked about, you know, you working with Joe Coin. I
was like, that's something big.Can we make that happen? And and
it, you know, it justfell in place. So we we would
do a comedy show beforehand and thenit would be a it would be a
(17:18):
party afterwards. So I think atthat time Andre was hosting, Yeah,
because they even did a roast.Andre did a roast of me on my
birthday for the club. That wasactually a lot of fun. Brad asked
me if I want to do andI was like, yeah, fuck it,
you know what I'm saying. SoAndre roast me and a couple of
my friends that roasted me too,and then after that then it was like
the club that was there. Yeah, it was a different night. Yeah,
(17:41):
that was like the pre party ofme getting roasted in the comedy show,
and then like after that, peoplestarted trinkling in for the club and
we're trying to find a way toget people to come. So what we
did is we said, okay,we're going to have a comedy show before
the club part and you know,if you came to the comedy show,
you got to stay at the club. So, you know, we thought
what would work. It was aroundJoe's birthday, so just as birthday,
(18:02):
so we're like, we're gonna roastthem dres like I'm gonna get them now.
It was funny. It was alot of funny, and it actually
got people to get there early,so it worked. So during those club
times where you were booking us DJsfor these parties, what was it in
your head already to start booking actsor were you just taking it for what
it is, where I'm just tryingto book a good nightclub. Well,
(18:23):
if you go back to Chancey Park, back then we had the Penthouse.
Our goal was to eventually make thatan entertainment center, so we did DJs
to try to build it up.And so when we tried to reach out
to artists, we did a coupleevents with artists at the club. It
just didn't work. It was toosmall and we just couldn't make the money.
So then we talked about doing thingson the field and just it didn't
(18:44):
It didn't work out because at thattime, if you remembered Chancey Park,
that was the only thing out there. There was no title, goa,
there was nothing. Yeah, therewasn't as trendy as it is now,
but there was absolutely nothing. Sowe would be out there and we would
just chill on the outside area andjust drink and talk and just because there
was nothing there. And so backthen nobody wanted to go downtown. So
when we tried to do events,I think we tried to bring some bigger
(19:07):
like Shakira or somebody like that,and you know, nobody bought tickets,
so we ended up having to cancela lot of those concerts. So you
know that that's where it started.And then when we went the club,
I think it was Club Rome wasthe first name, and it was Club
Rome. Lewis Everck was there withPino and he was bringing artists like he
had brought Stevie b and E fortyand a bunch of people. So when
(19:29):
Evereck stepped out, I stepped inthere and I started not only doing the
DJs. I said, well,let's take advantage of this club and let's
bring some of the artists. Sowe brought Too Short. I think that
was the first one. It wasa B ninety five ydiverson we did Too
Short. I think we did fortyagain, we did Scarface, I mean
exhibit. We did so many gothrough yeah man. Yeah. So we
did Jay Holliday and it was onmy you know, my birthday's coming up.
(19:52):
It was a Pisce's birthday bash,and we sold out that club.
We sold so many VIPs that night. We had to go out and buy
tables to put up because we soldso many. Yeah. Peace. So
when was the transition from doing youknow, events at the club and then
doing your first show like at aat a venue. So that was sort
of the ground. So we wedecided to try to do some shows and
(20:14):
we reached out to uh to someof the artists. A lot of artists
didn't really want to come to Fresnelbecause they're like, that's not our stop.
And and you know, when wetalked earlier about why did I put
these groups of people together, becausesome people would say I'm not going to
Fresnel. That's JANKI promoters over there. You know, I've seen stories about
artists coming to town and uh,you know the promoter would try to pay
the back end and weed you knowwhat I mean. Just we just had
(20:37):
bad We had bad name out there. So I I tried to do something
small. We went to Woodard Parkand I think we did Travis Porter and
and oh I was there. Itwas uh, what was that drinking the
cup? Yeah? What was hisname drinking the cup? Kirkle Banks.
Yeah, she's wait, Travis Porterdidn't even show up. Didn't show up.
(20:59):
Yeah, that's wild. And Kirkowas sick, he had the flu.
Yeah, I remember. So thatwas the first one and man,
I hot took some lumps on thatone. Man, we lost some cash
on that. So you know,I just fell down and picked myself up
and said what's next. And youknow a lot of the stuff that I
got involved in with the big showswas because other people came into town.
(21:19):
So my big show, first bigshow was with partners such as Diamond Productions
and such. When we did theydid, you know, like Whiz Khalifa
and those other ones. You know, I came in and helped out,
and I mean I was when Idid stuff for them. I was hanging
posters, man, I you know, I start from the bottom, hanging
posters, setting up rooms, talkingto radio about promotion, you know,
(21:44):
that type of stuff, and thatthat was how you learn and get there.
I don't think I did my firstshow till probably Tatchy Palace, you
know. Tatty Palace reached out tome and asked me to do something,
and I did the car show there. We did Straight out of Compton.
The movie just came out, soI reached out to We had DJ Quick
Warren G and we had a littleeasy e and we called it Straight out
(22:06):
of the More and we did.I remember that that was a great show.
You know. There's a little backstoryto there. You know, Warren
G wanted he he don't perform unlesshe drinks. At a casino. You
can't drink, so so we endup having to sneak some patron to him
and he got a little too lit, and so I'm off the side of
the stage and talking to somebody andmy I don't remember, was say,
(22:27):
hey, Brat, look up there, and we look and I look at
Warren Gen. He had tolet paperhanging from the back of his pants.
Oh no, stage performing. Ihad to get up on stage and say,
hey, come here, my man, he's like, pull it on,
pulled that out. So they pulledit out and he came on and
perform. So that's that's a storythat Warren and I when we see each
other, I say, hey,man, remember that toilet paper? Yeah?
Shut up? Yeah. I meanyou you've been saying all these artists
(22:51):
that you've booked already, A quickquestion is how do you Is there a
website or who do you go toto find you yet artists? For these
people that are are new to thepromotion game, or people that are just
curious, how do you find artists? I think today it's a lot easier.
Back then, there there wasn't Howis it back then? I mean
(23:11):
you had to know somebody, knowsomebody, then know somebody, right you
thought somebody somebody would And there wastimes, I mean I got burned before
that that Travis. Somebody told methey were ray Ja's management. We shot
them, We wired them six thousanddollars, and all of a sudden we
didn't hear anything, and I hadsomebody to reach out and they said no,
that wasn't r J's guy. Soyou know there's and people still do
(23:32):
that now, but I mean itback then, it was who you knew
that you connected to somebody and youbuild relationships. And I think that's one
thing that I think I'm I'm now, I think I know I'm proud of,
is that I built a relationship thatartists called me. I can I
can physically call artists on the phone, genuine and others and say, hey,
bro, what's going on? Andhey, can you help me with
this? And and I mean they'llconnect me. And when they connect me,
(23:55):
they don't just send a number,They say, this is my guy,
take care of them. And sothat's that's how I've gotten where I'm
at is by doing that. AndI've never really been a web search person.
If I can't connect through that person, through somebody, then I probably
won't reach out to me. Andyou guys have been a help too.
I mean, when I reach outto you, guys, are radio said,
Hey, I'm interested in somebody.You guys have helped as won't.
(24:15):
I think again, that's that relationshippart. But yeah, these days there
is a lot of you can goon the web and find somebody's contact,
but that don't mean they're going togo with you. Yeah, yeah,
exactly. Something that I've always beencurious about, and you don't have to
go into super detail. How issometimes I'll even you'll share how much an
(24:37):
artist costs, and then you'll tellme, Okay, we got this artist
for X amount. Sometimes in mymind the math ain't mathing, Like how
do you make your money back withthese artists that are charging X amount of
money? Yeah, not to mentionlike the venue, the security, the
marketing, all that. Well,the world's turn. Like when I was
(24:57):
working at let's say Clubby or whateverthe name it was that time. I
mean we could get too short forfive thousand dollars maybe maybe four thousand,
and the world was different than too. You got to remember the game has
changed. Back in the day whenartists before distribution, artists would get paid
by the record labels and then whateverwas sold at the record stores. And
I mean that that could be sixmonths to a year before they get paid
(25:19):
for that. Yeah. So artists, they you know, these guys out
there flashing the cars the money,they need that money. So they would
you know, if you said Igot five recks, you want to do
a show, they would probably doit. But these days, with distribution
and them getting paid monthly checks,that need isn't necessarily there as much.
So we're talking about supplying to manat this point in time, so that
artist used to be able to get. And the other thing is that the
(25:41):
venues now, the venues are theones making the money. Man. You
you go in there, you payto rent that venue. They charge a
facility fee. They get all themoney for the liquor, they get all
the money for the merchandise. Imean, they're just they're raking it in
the promoters. The games flipped wherea promoter used to make a large amount
of money, it's it's the oppositeway. And the other thing with artists.
(26:02):
People used to be able to callradio and say, hey, can
you get so and so to showup and do a radio show, and
you guys would probably get that artistfor free or for a discount of price.
That don't work anymore. If youguys call an artist now, they're
like, what do you want?I mean, it's a lot of recks
regardless, No, it really is. What are some of the difficulties in
putting on a show like let's justsay, in Fresno and dealing with like
(26:26):
the artists and the venue, whatare some of the like roadblocks that you
run into, Like what are someof the hardest things that you have to
overcome. Some of the hardest thingsis getting into some getting into some of
the venues because a lot of themanagement's change in the venues locally as an
example, so those relationships we've hadin the past, they're not there anymore.
So when these new gms and directorsof sales come in to these venues,
(26:49):
they already have all their people,so they're you know, they're calling
their out of town buddies. Hey, I got this new market and Fresno
come here. And a lot oftimes us locals get we get pushed aside.
We got dates for you, Wow, we're not interested in doing business
with you. And so I mean, I can be honest here. I
mean I had to go to thecity of Fresno to the Mayor's office and
say, hey, bro selling Reena, I've been doing shows with you guys
(27:11):
forever and now they're not letting mein what you know, can you help?
And they did, they did.They helped me get it back in
there. But some of the hardestthings are just trying to make money.
And everybody's got to get a piece, right everybody. I mean the piece
you talk about marketing your street.Everybody's there with their handout, but their
hands not there when the money ain'ton this side. Yeah, exactly.
(27:32):
And so the reality is even thesebig promoters these days, they're doing ten
fifteen shows a year and they're notwinning on every show. So it's a
rule of average, right, soyou won on this one, so you
probably lost on this. You know, balance out, and especially in Fresno,
we're a B slash maybe C marketand paradise other ones because you know,
(27:53):
not a lot of artists come here. If you look at if you
go look at routing, I meanlike we get some of the big Spanish
shows, but if you look atrouting, almost every big artist bypasses Fresno
and hits that's a good point,Oakland, Sacramento, LA. And we
just get bypassed because they don't youknow, maybe they don't feel that the
market's here for them or that wecan pay. Because you use an example,
(28:14):
look at the pesl Pluma tickets.They're starting at five hundred and ninety
nine dollars. Wow, like mytickets for my show. I just did
Valentine's Day twenty five bucksenty five dollars. And I'm not making a whole lot
of money, you know, I'mI'm doing that because I love Fresno and
I want to make sure Fresno's okay, right, And we put a big
package of the six six artist packageon there, and that was a very
expensive show. You know, someof those artists I used to pay ten
(28:37):
grand, five grand. I'm nowpaying fifty sixty grand. You look at
inflation and then the cost of thevenue, the labor. It's all union
labor there, promo. So Imean, at the end of the day,
if I walk away with a tentwenty percent profit, man, I'm
happy. But that that shouldn't bethe way it is. But that's just
the reality of the game, now, is that? Like? Because I
(28:59):
want to dive into a little bitabout like the negativity that you always hear
from Fresno people out here, oflike how come we always see the same
acts out here all the time?Why don't we get these artists? And
you've sort of touched on it abouta little bit with they just don't come
through Fresno. Is that the biggestreason or is it just because we don't
have enough people out here to paythese artists? Essentially, right, there's
(29:21):
not enough people. Yeah, I'lltell you the negativity. I'll cover the
negativity thing. I struggle with thatfor a long I still do like when
somebody says something negative about my shows. Sometimes social media, I see you
clopping back, I like, especiallyif I'm drinking my tequila. Like,
I mean, we see it too. Every time we post on Facebook of
an artist coming, they're like,oh, not again, or I'm surprised
it's not pit Bull again or whatever, and it's just like, I know,
(29:41):
like we're getting something out here.Well. The funny thing is,
I think that's just the thing aboutFresno and maybe other cities, but just
because we live here. I've hadpeople say, hey, like tech nine,
Hell you just last time the dudewas out here was six years ago,
and you guys say he's always outhere. Well, that's not the
case. I think it's just peoplecomplaining to complain. And there's artists that
(30:03):
do well in Fresno, like man, if I could I love the forties
music, If I could bring himevery year and sell I would, and
I think people would agree. Butthere are some people that bring in the
same you know, Jay Stalin orwhoever. Yeah, twelve times a year.
I can understand that. But Ithink if something works and it sells,
why not do it again? Andagain? That's what I usually tell
people. I say, these peoplethat you complain to come out here all
(30:26):
the time, they also like sellout all the time. So I don't
know, y'all are still going yeahexactly, So I don't know. And
then we've had some bigger hip hopshows that have tried to come but you
know, they won't sell out orwe're not big enough to hold him as
many people. So I mean,there's there's a bunch of reasons. I
want to get back to the artiststhough. Who's the most difficult artists that
you've ever had to deal with?Man, she's gonna kill me. But
(30:48):
snow, the Productno really? Ohwow? That I remember that that show
was a good turnout. That wasa great turn out. What was the
issue there? Well, if soyou asked, how do we make our
money? So we've got to dodifferent ways of selling ticket prices at and
do you know, premiums to beable to make our money, and so
we did a we do a VIParea where you know, the front area,
either we have tables or stay AIPmission. Right, So you talk
(31:12):
about us trying to get everybody inthe show that we can, That's the
only way I can do it isI can do a low ticket, but
I also got to do a highticket for those that are willing to pay.
So Snow was unhappy that I hada barrier. She's she loves her
fan. I love her for that, but she wants everybody to get the
ability to get to stage. Soshe made me tear down the barriers,
(31:32):
and I had people wanted to killme, like I paid X amount for
this ticket, I want my moneyback, and so you know, we
had a battle about that. Sothat was the difficult part. I mean,
I can kind of see why onan artist performer end, you know
it when when we're on stage asa DJ or any performer, we go
(31:53):
with energy and with that barrier,it feels like the energy is beyond the
barrier. So I could get whatshe's saying, but I get what you're
doing too with making that money forthat VIP section. But I could kind
of see what she says, butyou're right, she didn't. She doesn't
need to be all mad about it. Yeah, and making demands about it.
(32:15):
But it was in the contract.It was all contractually there, So
I was the thing about it.It was one of her, if not
one of her largest shows that she'sever done. And that's some of the
biggest things that I can say thatwe've done in Fresno is some of the
events that I brought have been thelargest turnouts for some of these artists,
regardless of the area. Yeah,remind me of this was you. If
(32:35):
it's not you, I apologize becausewe're just talking about the craziness that happens.
Yea, the Big Sean show atthe Celling that was that. That
was my friends of mine. Yeah, okay, do you because I remember
that Showliday jam. Yeah, itwas big artists was supposed to perform.
No big arts did perform that night. Everyone that we said performed that night.
(33:00):
But do you remember it was aboutto not happen. Yeah, the
day of because she wanted a screen, right or something like that. He
wanted the screen behind him and itwas like gonna be an extra like fifty
thousand or something. Crazy. Wecould do a whole episode on the writers
Man for artists. I mean,just honestly, somebody that was actually one
of my questions is some of thecraziest, ridiculous things you've seen on a
writer that you've had to deal with. I mean, some I probably can't
(33:22):
say, but I'll you know,one at Club Eva, we brought remember
Gucci, Gucci Creshan, Yeah,yeah, so she wanted like serial at
a certain milk, at a certaintemperature for her. Man that was like
this a little club, you know, and she only had one song at
the time you could relax, youknow what I'm saying. Well, we
thought she would do extremely well.You know, it was a loss for
that show. But she she haddone that Gucci Gucci. But her next
(33:44):
song was called Cereal, so maybeshe was going to go on the stage
with it. But I thought thatwas the thing that bothers me is I
grew up, I grew up poor, so like my mom was struggled.
So when we get these artists allthis special food and they leave it,
that just kills me. I'm like, oh man, And it's more often
than not. And that's the thingthat bothers me because I've been back there
and you see all this food thatyou've paid a lot of money for and
(34:06):
it just barely gets touched. Mything is they just they want something on
their rider just in case they mightwant it, but essentially they never even
get to I've seen a lot offood be wasted and some you've heard stories
before where they'll put something on there, some crazy shit just to see if
you do it. Oh no,just to see if you were paying attention.
Y yeah, the rider. Sothis last Saturday, the tenth show,
(34:30):
the February tenth show at celen Arena. My daughter, So my family's
involved my business, but my daughter, who was eighteen, I have her
take care of certain artists. Webrought. We brought baby Bash with a
chante I think two fairs ago whenwe sold out, so my daughter took
care of her. It was ourbirthday. We put balloons in the room
(34:50):
cake. I mean, she wasso happy. Jontay wanted to meet her
and give her a hug, andthat writer this time was tough. So
my daughter was in there trying todeal with it and it was a bad
time. My daughter comes out crying. I'm like, what happened? She
goes, I think I forgot something. Oh no, so it could get
pretty tough. So I mean yougot to get thick skin in that in
that you know, in that place. But what I've been doing with the
contracts lately is I'll look at thecontract and I'll go back to them what
(35:14):
must you have? Right? BecauseI can't get you all this stuff,
but what must you have? Andwe come to some type of meal.
That's good. Yeah, I knowyou just brought up the fair. How
does that work with putting on showswith the fair? Because I've always assumed
that the fair just paid for it. But you kind of have your own
thing at the fair. How doesthat work? Yeah? So the it
was coming out of COVID and somehowI got connected to the to the CEO
(35:35):
of the fair and we started talkingabout doing events outside of the fair,
and she's like, well, whydon't you just do some events at the
fair this year? So that's howwe got connected. So I did two
shows for two years in a row. The first year I did BBD John
B. Maya, and then Idid Chris Perez and the Kumbia Kings,
and then the next year we didBash and and Ashante. They normally do
(35:57):
everything themselves, which I understand.I think once the COVID numbers or the
COVID situation stopped, we decided topart ways. They probably felt there was
more money for them to stay init. Okay. So was that a
situation where they put up the venueand the money and then you marketed it
or how did that work? Iproduced it? Okay? So I produced
it and they the tickets went tome. So yeah, okay, got
(36:20):
you. So obviously we've known youfor years. We've seen the come up
do you and you've been throwing someamazing events these past few years. Do
you feel like you're getting in thatgroove of this is what you do?
So now you know the routine ofputting on these great shows. Yeah.
I mean I think most of youknow my kids, So my oldest son,
Yeah, they're like big na.Yeah. So when I started doing
(36:44):
this years ago, they were involvedas close as they could be. It
was a nightclub, so it wastougher. But they've they've been involved for
the year. So my oldest sonis actually in San Diego in law school,
entertainment corporate law. Wow. Mysecond oldest just graduated from Presno State.
He's working at accounting firmison I certifiedtax preparer. And then my daughter
who's just turned eighteen, she's operations. So it's a family business. So
(37:07):
my sons are going to take overthe business and my daughter and I'm going
to do my thing. They'll startin a couple of years, you'll start
seeing them producing shows under our brandname. That's very godfather of you,
you know what I'm saying. Sendthe kid to go be the lawyer and
then yeah, the counts in Ilike it. Let's talk a little bit
about what you got coming up inthe near future as far as like shows.
(37:30):
Yeah, so we have, ofcourse, we have a brand Fresnel
Smoke out So April twentieth and thisyear it's actually on April twentieth on Saturday.
And those who know that, yeah, is this the second or third
year doing this? For this isthe third Okay, So we had a
coming out of COVID. I wantedto start it in April, but I
couldn't, so we actually started itin September around Mexican Independence Day, and
(37:52):
so we just taken that and flippedit over to four twenty. So that
first show we did, we didBernard E forty. We almost sold out
the whole baseball stadium at Chancey Park. Then we've done other artists behind that,
but we have Pelo coming out,and we have Jenny sixty nine.
Phoenix Flexen has just been added.I think dB about a Bag is on
(38:14):
there, and there's someone else Ican't remember the name. I'm these younger
artists. I was calling him Ebtsleeping bag at one point. So I
don't know that you know you weretalking about the past smokeouts, was Berner
was the headliner and which the artistfits the event recently? I don't know
(38:36):
how much you could talk about onthe podcast, but there's almost a reason
why he's not on this year's Smokeout. Yeah, So when they opened the
Cookie Store, I reached out toBerner and I said, hey, you
want to be on the show.We agreed from to be honest, he
thought it would be a great fit. But when we started placing openers,
local openers on there. We talkedabout earlier about me and and help promoters.
(39:00):
Well, I also want to helplocal talents. So every one of
my shows that we could, youknow, like Ashante's show, we're not
gonna we're not gonna put local necessarylook openers even though we did we put
me and may whose Baby Bash's artists, but we put openers on there because
you know, they need an opportunityto shine and so and it happens early
in the night anyway, Yeah,exactly. Yeah. So when we did
(39:22):
that, I got a call fromfrom Berner saying he no longer wanted to
be on the show. So wewe had to pull them off because of
openers. Because of openers, yes, sheees. All right, Let's go
through some of the big shows thatyou've brought to You have like these,
like you said, these staple nightsthat you brought Ladies Night to town where
(39:45):
it's always a different old school Rand B artist. Is that fair to
say? Yep, it's like onetwelve has been on there. Twelve Keith
Sweat, Yeah, we had thelargest we talked about that again. We
had the largest crowd for Keith Sweatever in Fresno at the late night out
we did at sat Mart Center inApril twenty twenty two. Wow, and
that you know, that was agreat night. You know, there's different
(40:07):
brands I have. I have LadiesNight Out now. We just created the
new one for Valentine's Valentine's Night Out, and we're going to try to do
that every time. This year comingup in twenty twenty five, Valentine's Day
will be on a Friday, Sowe're going to have a big show.
Then artists to be determined, wehave smoke out, and then I have
a new artists or concert series calledCruising of the Soldies. So those who
(40:30):
don't know Soldise, you know,sold these as a new brand of oldies
by younger artists. So these satesI seen that pop up a lot.
Yeah, Sacred Souls, Duran Jonesand Indication, Aaron Frasier, those type
of artists. So there it's funnybecause you listened to them and you're like,
man, when did this come out? It sounds old twenty twenty three,
like WHOA did it really? Andit's really good music. So I've
(40:52):
got a concert May twenty fifth atWoodward Park Rotary Amphitheater with Joey Keona's the
Charities, all these up and come. I mean sold these artists that you
know when they come to town,they're selling out five hundred, six hundred
cap rooms. Now we're going totake all those artists and try to sell
out a four thousand seat rotary amphitheaterman. Well, we appreciate your friendship
(41:15):
number one, but also just justhow of a good person you are.
And the reason why I say thatis because you know, obviously Rad will
take care of us. He'll giveus either backstage passes or even be the
host of the show. But asfar as like just getting inside the show
(41:35):
and going backstage, where he'll say, just hit me up on the cell.
The first thing you think about isyou're like the head promoter, you're
the producer of this show. You'renot gonna pick up your phone, like
you're gonna be too busy. Butno, Brad picks up. He does
meet me the side. Here's whereyou you can hear the crowd in the
background, and I'm like, dude, I wouldn't pick up the phone.
(41:57):
You know, sometimes I don't.I was like, man shouts outs of
Brad Man like taking care of us. So we appreciate. I appreciate that
you got it. You know.The thing about it is the humbleness.
And I was raised that way andyou always got to take care of people,
and you know, if they takecare of you, then that's a
blessing. On top of that.But as long as I do the right
thing, I know things will comeback. So that's my it's my opinion
(42:17):
on that. And you guys aremy friends. We've known each other.
Yeah, you just talked about mykids. I mean they'd come here in
the studio and wow. Yeah,and we just saw them recently and I'm
like, whoa, when did yougrow up so fast? Yeah? Your
daughter, like you said, doingoperations with the next generation. So yeah,
so that's coming up. Smoke out. Oh that's what I wanted to
(42:37):
ask you, because you and Ikind of had a small conversation. You
might even start diving into country that'swhat you want to look into. Oh
yeah, yeah, so we're lookingin the country right now. Unfortunately,
the show that we were trying todo, we couldn't get it done in
time. But it was a verybig artist, I'll say that. And
it's still in the works, justgonna be a little bit later. But
you know, I've never really listenedto country man, but I'll Yeh's a
(43:00):
story I'll tell you really quick.Tell you guys. Years ago there was
an artist who I met his managersomewhere and we were talking about doing shows
in Fresno. Was like, Iknow nothing about country. She's like,
well, just bring him to townand you know, try it, and
I was like, nah, Inever did it. Well, you know,
later on Boots in the Park bringshim. His name was Kane Brown
(43:21):
sells out twenty thousand seats, youknow, And you know those are the
stories. I mean, there's Ihave stories with other artists, Bruno Mars,
others that have reached out to mewhen they're the weekend when they were
small and I didn't know where theywere and I just bypassed them. And
now I'm like, dude, you'rean idiot. Ye imagine that. Yeah,
you just never know. Man,Well, thank you for stopping by.
We appreciate, like I said,your friendship and just being part of
(43:42):
today's episode. Do you want toleave some last words with some up and
comer promotion people in town that wantto do what you're doing. What's probably
like the biggest advice you could give, don't you gotta be humbled if you
got to go out there and hangposters and around which, by the way,
you know your marketing. You know, you still do the Instagram,
(44:05):
the social media posts. Of courseyou do radio ads. But I'm driving
on the streets and you see thoseclassic flyers. I can always tell when
it's a Brad flyer too, becauseit always adds that distinctive look and I'm
always like, there goes Brad rightthere. But you got a good team,
bro. Yeah, you know what'swild. It's those posters that just
says the artist and it says toget your tickets here, so it doesn't
(44:25):
even say the venue. Hell no, we we grill a street team.
Bro. We go back and we'regonna do every aspect of that we can.
And you know, I get introubled by the city all the time.
Clovis is mad at me, likewe see another one. We're finding
you. You put those posters up. But the thing about it is we
take them. We're going to takethem down. That's our thing. We're
not just gonna leave it up therefor trash. And you know, we've
had people take our posters down orput their posters over ours, and as
(44:50):
mad as I've been, and I'mlike, I'm gonna tell all your posters
on I've left them up because thatI'm not that person. Right, you
make a decision. I won't dothat. And can I leave it with
this real quick. You know,earlier we were talking about when people leave
hate comments on social media and sometimeswe see you clap back and like,
my question is do you really needto like say something or can you just
(45:13):
leave these haters alone? Because youyou get into a straight up it's funny
though message conversation and I'm like,this guy, why are you trying to
change this guy's mind like this?You know, I'm working on it.
Man. What I've been doing isI just haven't been touching the phone after
a show. Yeah, there yougo, just because it don't matter.
We can have the most perfect Imean, even this last show, people
(45:34):
were which, by the way,congratulations a shanty show. Just I saw
so many people posting on their storiesit was you guys even had to sell
more seats. Yeah, we soldmore seats in Mount Wesmore. Oh wow,
sold that Mount wes Moore one wasgood. Yeah, but not We
didn't make as much money as MountWestmore of course, but you know that
was one of the biggest shows inselling Ena and the reality is selling Arina
(45:57):
doesn't get shows like that, andthat's what we're trying to build theirs.
I want to build downtown. Iwant to build Fresno. I wanted to
be all local, local events,local shows, with local promoters, local
everything. And so that's our goalis to build on Fresno and people know
this is our town. And thoseshows that are bypassing Fresno, I want
them to start calling us and sayinghow can I get it? Yeah with
(46:21):
you? Yeah, there it is. I Brad appreciate you stopping my man.
Brad Jerckie Promotions. You got tofollow this dude. You want to
put out your social media links.Yeah, at Instagram it's Brad Jericky Promotions.
Spell it out, all right.It's the same with the same with
the Facebook. Brad Jerickiet Promotions.Trying to get into TikTok. I have
(46:42):
no idea what I'm like. Mydaughter can figure. I'm to look at
it. I ended up looking atrecipes for three hours. Yeah right,
you go down a rabbit hole.