My Kollaboration 9 Experience

First, I would like to thank everyone who came out to support Kollaboration 9. Everyone from audience members to performers to volunteers to show staff was a part of history as we sold out the Shrine Auditorium. Empowerment Through Entertainment! It was an amazing night as we had an UNBELIEVABLE line-up of talent.

Team Millennia set the tone for the night as they opened the show. They jumpstarted the crowd with an amazing routine. I missed that performance because I was in the front trying to figure out a problem. BoA had to walk the red carpet. She was waiting to come out of the car but her heels were too high to navigate the slanted driveway in the front of the red carpet area. Now while we’re trying to figure this out, I’m called by the stage manager to get my butt over to the stage because the intro video (the one with Brian Tee, Moon Bloodgood and Aaron Yoo) is playing and I’m supposed to be onstage at the end of it. But… I need to get BoA on the red carpet. Numerous fans are waiting for her grand entrance and the reporters have their cameras ready. One idea that floated around was to bring the golf cart from the back to take her to the carpet. Golf cart? Not just any golf cart—this one was a bad-ass one with rims. OK, get the golf car. I’ll be right back. I run through the auditorium as I see the video playing. I go backstage and enter just in time with PK. Brian Tee follows onstage and we throw t-shirts out to one of the most deserving audiences ever. Our Kollaboration 9 audience was showing serious love for the show.

Now while I’m onstage, I’m only thinking about BoA and getting her to the red carpet. The golf cart can’t be any golf cart. BoA is an international pop star so this golf cart better be good. I run outside and I see what I had hoped for—BoA getting into the golf cart. OK. Problem solved.

Then I get word of the chaos that occurred with the ticketing. Here’s the real story with the ticketing. We were informed by Ticketmaster that we could do our own tickets. We come to find out a few weeks before showtime that we MUST use Ticketmaster tickets. Fine, we’ll adapt. We start selling ticketmaster tickets and plan to exchange the tickets on the day of the show, except on that day, we find out we will get no help from Ticketmaster. That’s ok. We have a team of volunteers ready to handle will call and the ticket exchange. The problem is we were ready for 5000 people (only 4500 tickets had been sold or donated at this point). We were not ready for the 7000+ people that showed up. Now, if you’re only prepared for 5000 people, every additional hundred people makes it exponentially harder. Chaos ensued, there was cursing, yelling, shoving. It’s something that I take responsibility for, but we now know exactly how to handle it next year. It was a big jump to go from 2000 people at the Orpheum to 6300 people at the Shrine.

Many people missed a good portion of the show. As I write this, I am answering emails of those that were affected by the chaos. I will take time to write to each person who writes to us.

So I wanted to go over some of the highlights of the night. Kenichi was amazing. That night, everyone knew how Kenichi was able to be the grand champion of Showtime at the Apollo two years in a row. He ended up taking home the grand prize. Jane Lui blew everyone away with her amazing voice. Gives me chills. And Lilybeth won the audience award where audience members could text message vote for their favorite performer. Fanny Pak and Kaba Modern brought down the house with their SICK routines. Norman Ng, the magician, showed us some really cool tricks. Some people asked whether the cell phone trick was staged. Absolutely not. Very fortunate for us that the volunteer’s cell phone carrier was Verizon. Of course, David Choi recording his performance to post on youtube was ingenious! Check out that video if you haven’t already.



Our freestyle vocal and freestyle dance competitions ended up being very interesting. Ace (from Culver City, I believe) took home the $500 prize for the freestyle dance. And Gabe Bondoc (another youtube sensation) took home the freestyle vocal prize. That was awesome to see Gabe onstage. And it was great to see the fans show their appreciation. If any of you reading this blog want to lobby for Gabe to be one of the competitors for Kollaboration 10 next year, please let me know. One of my favorite parts of the show is being onstage and FEELING the roar of the audience after a great performance.



So anyway, the show is going smoothly and we’re actually only a few minutes behind schedule. Great. We’re going to end right on time, and we can celebrate at the afterparty. That was not to be. Jo Koy got onstage, and his 20 minutes became 40 minutes. Why? The crowd LOVED him. We knew they would, which is why we wanted him on the show. He rocked the crowd. He kept going with his jokes because the audience loved it. Now here is where it’s tough for me. I think Jo is one of the funniest comedians out there. But I assured countless parents that our show was a family show. So while I am loving the fact that our Kollaboration fans really enjoyed Jo’s performance, I am dreading the many conversations I’ll be having as I have to apologize about the language used. So… now that Jo has gone 20 minutes OVER his time slot, BoA is waiting backstage for Jo’s performance to end. Finally, BoA gets onstage and puts on a great performance, and the crowd shows their appreciation.



Here’s my opinion on BoA (let me know if you agree or disagree): she’s a superstar in Asia. She’s obviously an amazing performer. She can dance, and sing on key while doing so. But… if you come to America, y ou HAVE to start over if you want to win new fans. It’s sort of like going to a new school. It doesn’t matter how popular you were at the old school, the students at the new school are going to check you and place you somewhere in the hierarchy that exists in the new school. BoA is the new student, and from all appearances, she looks like she’s headed for the in-crowd, but we all know that in-crowd (meaning mainstream American music), is a pretty fickle one. It will chew you up, tear you up, throw you against the ground, and see whether you belong. BoA has a certain appeal to fans in Asia. What appeals to fans in America is a little different. If she can find that secret ingredient that will appeal to American fans, she’s got a shot at making it. On that note, I think it would be awesome if David Choi wrote a song for BoA… and they performed it at Kollaboration 10!

John Legend is one cool dude.  He's an amazing singer, his music is cool, and the way he carries himself is definitely cool.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was flying on a plane and sitting next to John Legend's manager with John sitting right behind them.  Since John was performing in Seoul on March 28, they casually suggested a performance in Seoul the night before to raise money for charities-- John's Show Me Campaign to fight poverty in Africa, and various Korean orphanages.

Kevin Kim, my friend who was on the plane, calls me to tell me about this idea and also getting the US Ambassador (whom we met the year before) involved, to which I reply "That's a great idea." I say this because it would be impossible to try to set something up with only a few weeks planning, and he wouldn't dare ask me to help him on such a project.  A few days later... we're in full planning mode (a direct violation of my Lunar New Year's resolution to start saying no to people).

We decide it would be A Night of Charity for Children with John Legend.  Guests of honor would include the US Ambassador to Korea, Kathleen Stephens, as well as Tasha (Yoon Mirae), the #1 R&B singer in Korea.  And having a performance with both of them would be great.  We wanted an intimate event with high ticket prices.  So Kevin and I land in Seoul 4 days before the event date.  Radio interviews, newspaper interviews, meetings at the Embassy, coordinating through email with John's team, coordinating with the venue (Bamboo House), and getting the grand piano and sound equipment had to be squeezed into the 3 days.  Add to that the jet lag, Kevin and I were zombies in suits.

On March 28, everything fell according to plan.  With the help of other Netkalers (Netkal is an org that I'm a part of - Network of Korean American Leaders) Esther Song, Sara Kim and Sonny Hong, the event went smoothly without a hitch.  Ambassador Stephens was so accommodating and friendly.  She met and took photos with every single person in the room.  Her popularity is rising very quickly with the Korean people.

Prior to the event, I had a chance to sit down with John, Tasha, and Tiger JK (Drunken Tiger).  I mentioned to John that Tasha had a rap for "Greenlight" (his current hit) ready.  Well, since he was only doing the piano tonight, how about if she rapped for him right there to see if she would be right for his concert the next day.  She raps, he says ok, and the plan is set for her to come onstage during the last half of "Greenlight."

I had the privilege of experiencing John perform live in front of a small group.  The next day, I went to the concert.  Not a flashy concert with a bunch of theatrics and pyrothechnics.  It was a basic, music-filled, nonstop lineup of John's music-- an amazing performance.  The Korean audience showed their appreciation on every song-- confirming the fact that there ARE big John Legend fans in Korea, with many of them singing along.  Move to "Greenlight," and as soon as it's time for the rap part, Tasha walks onto the stage and is met with a deafening roar from the crowd.  What a nice surprise it must've been for the audience!

So it was just a whirlwind five days in Korea-- really just a blur.  I want to thank all the people along the way who put their trust in us and believed that this would all happen. Tasha and JK I've known for a very long time.  JK and I grew up together.  Good people, and they just celebrated their son Jordan's 1st birthday.  And John Legend... softspoken, unbelievably talented, and a nice guy.  I work with celebrities quite often, and occassionally, I have to deal with big egos, divas, primadonnas, and whatever other negative term you could think of.  John isn't one of them.

By the way, the only reason I agreed to do this event is because we want to turn it into an annual event-- a night of Musical Diplomacy.  Music builds bridges.  I wonder who our next artist will be...

So it's Friday night, May 1.  I'm leaving for Korea at 12:30pm on Saturday.  Our company, Mars Entertainment, is releasing Terminator Salvation this coming May 21 in Korea.  It's our biggest project by far and we've got everything on the line-- so I'm a little nervous, anxious, excited.

From everything we've pieced together, this should be the best Terminator ever made.  We're having a special screening on May 7 in Seoul.  If you're reading this blog and you're in Seoul, comment on it and I'll invite you to the screening.

Then on May 11, I'll be heading to the Cannes Film Festival to check out what films are coming up and to buy some films.  Despite having to cram in meetings while being jetlagged, it's always fun to see what product is out there, and to meet up with old colleagues.  If you ever want to understand the film industry, learn about distribution and attend a film market.  What's a film market?  Well... that's exactly it.  It's a place where sales companies will sell films to domestic and foreign distributors.   Or sales companies will try to pick up new films to represent.  Producers will also promote their films or try to get them picked up by sales companies.  Some producers will sell their films directly to foreign distributors or buyers.  What are buyers?  Buyers are companies or individuals that will claim or purchase exclusive rights to their territory so they can release the film there-- which is what Mars Entertainment does.  So at Cannes, you have the film festival, where you celebrate films and have a competitions.  And you have the film market, where buyers, sellers, distributors and everyone else in the chain converge to make deals on film properties.  Wish me luck on this year's Cannes!  Hopefully we can come away with a Terminator-like blockbuster!