Interview With Kenneth Feld

PREV 2 of 5 NEXT

L.G.: You describe Doodlebops as rock and roll for four-year-olds?

K.F.: Exactly. I don't know if you've ever been there, but you would probably agree. I think the great thing is that a lot of the music is very derivative of music out of the '70s, so it's not what I would call total bubblegum. It's actually quite appealing to adults as well. The Doodlebops were on TV, which was produced by a company called Cookie Jar. We licensed the live touring rights from Cookie Jar. They've been on tour for two years, so this is going into the third year now with them.

L.G.: Give me a sense just of the scope of Feld Entertainment. With all these shows touring—Disney On Ice, Disney Live, High School Musical, Doodlebops, of course the circus—how many people are employed doing all this all over the world?

K.F.: We have something over 2,200 employees, but I think the most amazing thing is, we will play to over 25 million people this year around the world with all of our shows. We have three touring circuses, and currently we have 18 shows touring around the world. We'll play in 52 countries every year.

L.G.: And you have these mile-long trains that you own and operate?

K.F.: We do. That's really one of the most unique things. I think we're the only entertainment in America that travels on its own private rail train, each one over a mile long. And all the performers actually live on the train. All the equipment goes over the train as well.

L.G.: This is pretty much a unique business. I don't think there's any other like it of this scope in the world. But are all the people who work in the circus...are they your employees? Or do some of them, like your stars and some of your performers, have special contracts?

K.F.: No, actually, even the star performers, they're all employees. But they're on contracts that may be of a finite term. Typically, the star would actually be on a minimum two-year contract, and each show, when it's produced, goes minimally two years. It may go longer.

L.G.: But, for instance, Bello Nock is in the same boat? He's obviously a marquee performer and has his own identity, but he works for you?

K.F.: That's right, he's a full-time exclusive employee of ours, and he's been with us now—this is his eighth year.

L.G.: And what about Siegfried & Roy? You had a different kind of relationship with them, right?

K.F.: Well, with Siegfried & Roy, the relationship really went back to 1981, because I produced the first Siegfried & Roy show at the Frontier, and that went through, like, '87. And then in '88 and '89 I took them to Japan and then to Radio City. In 1990, we opened the show at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, which went until October of 2003 when the accident happened. But with Siegfried & Roy, they were the stars of the show. We produced the shows, obviously with a lot of creative input from them, and they had a participation in it as well. So no, they weren't employees in the same way, in the same sense. There was a long-term contract, I mean, basically their entire career. We took them from really being a specialty act into becoming headliners and worldwide entertainers; so from '81 through 2003. We were in charge of their career as far as the production and all the live shows that they did.

L.G.: Obviously you're in a business that's "death-defying" by definition, "tempts fate daily," I think. So tell me, how did you hear about the accident? [During a live performance on October 3, 2003, a 380-pound white Bengal tiger named Montecore attacked and nearly killed Roy Horn, sinking its teeth into his neck.]

K.F.: The great thing about live entertainment—and all we really do is live family entertainment—is it is dynamic, things can happen every day. I think the reason why I love it is every time I go to one of our shows, it's always different. There are always nuances and things that happen. We do deal with a lot of risk. In the circus, you have people walking on high wires, you have people working with tigers, you have all of these things that go on. If you think about it, with Siegfried & Roy, they worked for their entire career with exotic animals, and this was just another day. And the difference, I think—and it may sound a little cold, and it is not meant to be—is that these people are so extraordinary and they have to have every day a good day. I mean, we could have a bad day. You could have to work today and have a headache, and you could still conduct this interview with me. These people have to be the same every day; they have to be perfect. In many ways, it's more disciplined than Olympic athletes, because the Olympic athletes, although they go through this constant training, they get up for that moment and that one day. All of our performers and our people have to be up and in prime condition for the eight, 10, 12 shows that they may be doing each week. So this was the case of something happening, and I don't really know that anyone will know for sure what happened. Roy is one of the most extraordinary human beings I've ever seen with his relationship with animals. There was a moment of something that happened. I firmly believe that it was not intentional, it wasn't what you would call an attack. I mean, if he had been bitten on the arm, he probably would've continued working the rest of the show. The problem was that it was on the neck—and the carotid artery—and that's the seriousness of the whole incident.

L.G.: They're not house cats, they're wild animals-and very efficient killing machines in the wild.

K.F.: They are, but it's also the relationship and the bond. If the intent was to kill him, that would've happened.

L.G.: So where were you?

K.F.: I was actually in Maryland at the time. I got on a plane, and I was there literally less than 12 hours later.

L.G.: And Roy Horn was in surgery?

K.F.: Yeah. So we had to make some very crucial decisions at the time, and make assessments of the whole situation. The one thing that I've always believed in and what we do here, we're in the family-entertainment business, but we feel a great obligation to all of our associates and employees. So we're always very direct and up front with them and tell them exactly what's going on, whether it's good news or bad news. We felt that's always the best way to work with our employees. There's a great level of trust and dedication they have. Everybody wants to know what happened, so I did gather all of our people together, told them what was happening and what I thought the prognosis was at the time, and that I didn't believe the show would be able to continue.

PREV 2 of 5 NEXT