Staging a Really Big Show

By MARTIN MILLER

Jan. 8, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

TUSTIN — Dennis Despie is catching up to the Dallas Cowboys.

America’s Team has been to a record eight Super Bowls. The Tustin businessman has been to five, and is preparing for No. 6.

But come game time, Despie doesn’t have to worry about being crushed by 300-pound linemen or being victimized by bad referees. As president of Select Productions International, which is producing the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans, Despie is more concerned with being blindsided by electrical glitches Jan. 26.

“My biggest worry is when the show is handed off to us that the plug is plugged in,” joked Despie, a former Disneyland executive, whose company has seven full-time employees and about 140 part-timers and freelancers.

Considering the spectacle’s logistics, it’s easy to see how the obvious could be overlooked. There are 1,000 performers, dancers and musicians to line up, and big name entertainers to position. All that chaos is sandwiched between 500 crew members who have five minutes to assemble an enormous portable stage--and then another five minutes to tear it down after the show.

And having an estimated 800 million viewers in 160 countries, plus a Superdome crowd of 78,000, watching every move doesn’t exactly alleviate the tension.

“I’m usually pretty calm until the second quarter and then I start getting the butterflies,” Despie said. “When we push our buttons to start, I just want the show to go bang and go right.”

Assuming the electricity is on, the worldwide audience will see an 11-minute halftime show featuring the new Blues Brothers--Dan Aykroyd, James Belushi and John Goodman--inside an imaginary “House of Blues.” The stage, which will be equipped with the largest theatrical lighting package ever used at the Super Bowl, will also showcase the rock band ZZ Top and the “Godfather of Soul,” James Brown.

“It’s going to be a mega-challenge,” said Despie, 51, who broke away from Disney and formed his own special-events company in 1986.

But it’s a task Despie has proved he can handle, according to Jim Steeg, director of special events for the National Football League. One of a small stable of special events companies that vie for Super Bowl business, Select Productions received the nod from the NFL because of its success with the halftime show at the 1990 Super Bowl, also in New Orleans, Steeg said.

“We needed experience this year because this year’s show is so huge in terms of logistics, the talent and all the other variables,” Steeg said. “We knew if anyone could pull it off, it would be Dennis.”

Oddly, the 1990 Super Bowl show could have been a disaster, though the huge audience never suspected anything was amiss. For the show, which featured jazz musicians, the company designed an elaborate stage to look like a huge riverboat.

But when Despie saw the stage in the stadium about a week before the game, he realized it would block the view of hundreds of fans during the game. So, crews cut two feet off the stage and stored it in the stadium’s main tunnel. The stage was pushed onto the field at halftime--after the goal posts were uprooted by crane to make room.

“Ever since then, I’ve been known as the guy who took down the goal posts,” Despie said.

Putting on a good halftime show demands almost as much time as it takes an NFL team to reach professional football’s most coveted event. Other than choosing the theme and signing the talent, practically everything involving the halftime show is Despie’s responsibility.

Despie said his staff has labored full time since September doing everything from choreography to elaborate set design for the entire performance.

All this must be accomplished within a budget of about $1.5 million, say NFL officials, who wouldn’t disclose the exact figure.

Despie orchestrated his first halftime show for Super Bowl XI in Pasadena in 1977 when he was vice president of entertainment for Walt Disney Co. That year, Despie got more than 100,000 in the Rose Bowl stands to participate in a series of card stunts--something that had never been done at a Super Bowl.

But in 1993, Super Bowl halftime shows changed from the relatively simple to the wildly extravagant. Michael Jackson performed in a mini-rock concert, live, at the Rose Bowl--and TV viewers stayed tuned. Since then, Despie says, the networks and NFL have demanded bigger and better productions.

“The Michael Jackson concert really woke everyone up,” said Despie. “Now, they want the spectacular.”

Super Bowl halftime shows are only part of Despie’s business. Select Productions, which posted $7 million in revenue last year, has organized scores of parades and ceremonies across the country, including the dedication of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace, President Ronald Reagan’s 1985 inaugural parade and the opening of the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis.

But there’s nothing like the thrill and the pressure of a Super Bowl, Despie said.

“It’s not easy entertaining hundreds of millions of people,” he added. “But let me tell you, when the show is over and everything worked, it’s one great feeling.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Select Productions International

Headquarters: Tustin

Founded: 1986

President: Dennis Despie

Full-time employees: 7

Part-time and freelance employees: About 140

Super Bowl productions: Six, including Super Bowl XXXI

International clients: Lotte World, Korea; Asian Village, Singapore; Ocean Park, Hong Kong; Parque de Espana, Japan

Some additional Despie credits: Grand-opening celebrations for Walt Disney World, Epcot Center, Tokyo Disneyland; Mickey Mouse’s 50th-birthday celebration, US Festival, 10th Pan American Games opening ceremonies

Source: Select Productions International

Don’t Touch That Dial

When the second quarter ends on Super Bowl Sunday, Select Productions has only five minutes to set up a 4,000-square-foot stage for an 11-minute show that took as many months to produce. Then they get five minutes to tear it down before the third quarter. It happens live and involves a cast and crew of more than 800, not to mention the hundred or so artists and designers who put it all together. The details of Super Bowl Halftime XXXI:

Theme: “The Blues Brothers Bash” starring Dan Aykroyd, James Belushi and John Goodman as the Blues Brothers; ZZ Top and James Brown

Dancers: 500

Stage crew: 300

Lighting crew: 50

Pyrotechnic crew: 11

Special television crew: 13, directed by Louis J. Horvitz

Cameras: 23

Costumes: About 800

Miles of cable: 100

Stage: 4,000-square-foot representation of Aykroyd’s House of Blues nightclub

Rehearsal time: More than 100 hours

Months in production: 11