SPAFFORD - Simplified Entertainment, Inc. is a small business focusing on show business.
Headquartered at 2335 Shamrock Road in Spafford, the talent-booking agency specializes in creative entertainment, entertainers, and shows for parties and various events.
"Our number one client is the college market," says company president Thomas Bresadola. The company has performed shows at Syracuse University, Le Moyne College, most State University of New York campuses, the University of Notre Dame, Villanova University, and others.
Simplified also books entertainment for corporations, such as a carnival for a company picnic, training seminars, and trade shows, and school events, such as after-prom parties at high schools.
When customers call asking about an act or a show, Simplified Entertainment quotes them a price and will provide a written proposal, if need be, says Bresadola. Once the show or act is booked, a contract is sent out, and Simplified remains in contact with the client and performer right up until show time.
"With any show, we're there two hours beforehand," says Bresadola, noting the early arrival is meant to alleviate any concern the client might have about the entertainment being there on time.
The live acts that Simplified can book include comedians, magicians, jugglers, and ventriloquists, among others.
Simplified Entertainment employs six full time workers at its 5,000-square-foot office in Spafford. Bresadola also works with a dozen independent contractors locally and independent booking agencies in major cities like New York City, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.
As a trained hypnotist, Bresadola says the agencies had previously booked his show. The agencies also like the shows and acts that Simplified owns and performs, and they help the company sell the shows to clients in their markets.
"They know up front when they book a show how much they're going to get as a percentage off the show," he says butwouldn't disclose what percentage they receive.
Simplified Entertainment pays the performer once the show is complete.
Bresadola wouldn't disclose his company's revenue totals, but says the firm has grown 30 percent annually since it was incorporated in 1994. The growth is a direct result of the quality presentation he demands from his staff and the acts he represents, Bresadola contends.
Simplified Entertainment is in the process of recruiting 100 new acts that could include improvisation groups, comedians, magicians, and jugglers. Bresadola says the process takesa while because many of those who apply for representation just aren't talented enough for live performances.
The agency only works with three acts based in Central New York, he says.
"There are people in this area we'd like to work with, but they don't have the right attitude," Bresadola says.
Having the right attitude means being willing to "bend over backwards for the customer" and he says not many local acts are willing to do that.
The acts Simplified has worked with from California, Texas, and Florida, as well as New York City, Chicago, and Boston have never given the company any problems, he says.
Besides owning the company, Bresadola is also a performer.
"I like to tell people I started this business with one show and that was my hypnosis show," he says.
Bresadola began studying hypnosis at age 17 and was trained professionally through the Merrimack, N.H.-based National Guild of Hypnotists, Inc. He says it took a decade to fully understand hypnosis.
He incorporated the agency in 1994, and at the time, worked from his home until 1997. He then shared office space with his brother Michael, the owner of Simplified Computer Services, which currently operates at 995 North Ave. in Syracuse.
Bresadola figured he'd refer to his business as Simplified Entertainment, so employees could just use "simplified" when answering the phone.
He eventually hired an agent to book his hypnosis show, but he soon realized there wasn't enough work available to generate the income he was seeking. So, to give his clients another entertainment option through Simplified, Bresadola created another show called "photo fantasy" in which a person can put his/her face on someone else's body.
Bresadola spent $29 to create "photo fantasy," and the show has generated more than $120,000 in revenue, he says.
After several years of working from Bresadola's home office, the company moved in early 2007 to its current site on Shamrock Road.
Simplified Entertainment competes with about 20 agencies in the Northeast, including ones in Buffalo and Binghamton. Bresadola declined to name anyone he competes with, but did say some of his competitors are former employees of Simplified.
In addition to live acts, Simplified can book game shows and novelty acts, such as a haunted house.
Bresadola says the company's current project is meant to take advantage of computer software the company uses to place people in movies, so it, appears they're right on screen with the other actors. Because of the costly royalties involved with using footage from a major motion picture, Simplified has been filming its own movie - a murder mystery.
Party-goers would be placed in the movie at varying times, and in the end, the audience members would use their cell phones to take a guess as to who the murderer is.
"Entertainment in this day and age is interactive," Bresadola says.
© 2008 Central New York Business Journal Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.
