It’s not easy being Blue. Learn how they did it.

I found myself in a very intriguing conversation earlier this week with the creator of a new theatrical piece based on movement (actually three different kinds of movement, which is what made it so intriguing).  In discussing the possible avenues of development and production that this project could take, I found myself telling some of the anecdotes I’ve heard over the years about the development of another movement/performance art-based project . . . Blue Man Group.

I talked about the mythical stories like “The Door to Nowhere”, “The Funeral for the 80s”, and a bunch of the other buzz-making activities I heard about through various sources close to those big-blue-creatures, as well as some of the things I heard about directly, since I was an NYU student when they opened and made their big ‘smudge’ on New York City.

Of course, as you know, what started as a very small project blew up into a giant corporation with a Vegas production, a Grammy Award winning album, Intel commercials, a school, and a whole lot more.

And, of course, that’s what everyone sees now . . . nothing but success.

Because everything is an overnight sensation if you’ve never heard of it before.  And just because you haven’t heard of it, doesn’t mean it wasn’t out there, trying to find you.

The relevance of the Blue Man story to my conversation with this passionate artist, who was looking to make a Blue Man of their own, was where they started, not where they finished.

Where did they start?

Small.

If you’re looking to introduce something new to the world that perhaps hasn’t been seen before, roll it out slowly.  It takes a long time for an audience to adapt to something new, and if you don’t have millions of dollars to make them adapt, you have to give them time instead.

I became a bit obsessed with learning more about the birthing process of the Blue Men, and during some late night googling, I stumbled on this great article from Inc.com that talks about the early years.

Read it here.

 

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Ken created one of the first Broadway podcasts, recording over 250 episodes over 7 years. It features interviews with A-listers in the theater about how they “made it”, including 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners, 7 Academy Award Winners and 76 Tony Award winners. Notable guests include Pasek & Paul, Kenny Leon, Lynn Ahrens and more.

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