Sign before you sing

Each week, scores of talented and not-so-talented singers, musicians and other performers flock to stages around Hollywood hoping to be discovered at open mike and talent showcases. By day, they are students, barbers, computer programmers, receptionists, teachers, or bus drivers.

Some have been hopping around these circuits for years, while others are taking their first shot before a live audience. Few among them have star potential, many are naive about the entertainment industry and all hunger for the limelight.

But lately, the spotlight has been falling instead on one of the most high-profile talent showcases around, Steve Harvey’s Talent Search, co-sponsored by The Beat 100.3 and Harvey’s production/management company, NuOpp Inc.

Unlike other showcases and open mikes around town, Harvey’s Talent Search, held at the El Rey Theater on Wilshire Boulevard, requires performers before they take the stage to sign a contract agreeing to give NuOpp 10% of their future earnings and 10% of any agreements already in existence.

Some would-be artists have voiced concerns about the contract, and its use is derided by some talent representatives and people who put on other showcases and open mikes. But Harvey’s manager, Rushion McDonald, said it is justified “because we’re giving them a vehicle that’s better than any other vehicle that they have in this city. And we’re just asking for a commitment.”

The contract, signed by an estimated 400 to 500 people since the Talent Search started in mid-January, initially was open-ended and did not specify that it covered only deals coming out of a single performance at the El Rey. However, it has been revised twice and now includes a one-year term. The language also was changed to state that only future deals growing out of “the audition at the El Rey” would warrant the 10%.

Harvey’s showcase, held each Wednesday night, is one of the few local open mike-style venues for R&B; talent. It stands out in other ways as well. The wannabes perform in front of a live audience, numbering up to 400. The crowd, full of regulars, often pounces on unsuspecting singers with a vengeance, enthusiastically booing them off the stage, sometimes after hearing only a few notes. As performers watch their dreams shatter, Harvey, the emcee, takes the stage and sometimes pokes fun at them before launching into his own material. Performers pay $10 for the privilege -- and another $5 if they want to stay for the show after they get booed off.

It’s not for the thin-skinned or the untalented.

But there is an upside. The audience is peppered with agents and record label executives and, for a period earlier this year, talent scouts for “Star Search.” A $500 cash prize also is awarded to the act the audience likes best.

“It takes a lot of skill to compete there because people come to boo,” said independent manager Earl Franklin, who represents three artists. “People end up there because it lets you know whether you are ready to perform and record. That’s my favorite one because it’s so tough. If you can make it there, you have a shot.”

McDonald, who started the Talent Search with the comedian/radio personality, said executives from MCA, Arista, MGM, In Demand, HBO and Showtime, and agents from firms such as Endeavor, attend the showcase to scout for talent.

“If they get anything out of this,” he said, “it allows us the opportunity to negotiate the deal. ‘Cause these people are coming in raw, and we don’t want them to get ripped off. We have lawyers, we have agencies, we have people we could forward them to. If they don’t want to do it, they don’t have to go on stage. You could go to any other venue you want to.”

While executives in the audience are a plus for performers, for the state Labor Commission, they raise questions about whether NuOpp is acting as an unlicensed agent.

“If the talent comes on stage and performs and the talent gets employment from someone in the audience, then this group [NuOpp] is acting as an agent. And they are not licensed agents, so they can’t do that,” said Susan Gard, a spokeswoman for the Labor Commission. While both talent agents and managers represent performers, under state law only licensed talent agents may procure employment.

“I know the rules very clearly,” responds McDonald. “We never said we were an agent. If the talent brings something to me, then they are coming to me. Endeavor is our agency, and if we wanted someone and if they [the agency] want to represent them, then they will represent them. They are the agent.”

Hope Shorter, a 25-year-old singer, is one of about a dozen performers interviewed this spring who said the contract was presented to them, unexpectedly, when they showed up to perform. Shorter said she was standing in line when she was handed the contract by a woman working for NuOpp.

“I’m looking at it and I was confused. I didn’t expect to be given a literal contract just to perform one song,” she said. “When I asked about it, she said it was in case anyone in the audience got me work. They said they had record companies coming. I asked if I would be allowed to take the contract with me and then have someone look at it first and then bring it back. They said no. I started reading it. It seemed so unnecessary just to perform one song.”

Shorter refused to sign and was told she would not be allowed to perform.

She soon was back at her regular venue: Microphone Sessions, a nonprofit, weekly workshop run by her manager, Leila Steinberg, from a modest stage in the back of Studio 56 on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood. Here, there are no contracts, and performers make a donation if they can. (Many in the youthful crowd are financially unable to but are allowed to participate anyway if they do reading and writing assignments each week.)

Despite his misgivings, Kedrick Johnson, a 23-year-old singer, did sign the contract before the first of two performances at the Harvey showcase.

“They said if anything was to happen as far as, like, getting a record deal, or anything from this show that would involve some money, they would be involved in 10% of it. I asked them, well, can I wait until my representation gets here, you know, to sign it? They were like, no, you have to sign it now. But I was, like, is this really what this paper says? And they said, yeah. I didn’t read it. I asked if I could get a copy of it and they said they would send me one, but I haven’t gotten it.”

Even Franklin, Johnson’s manager and a fan of the showcase, said he was not happy that his client was “pressured into” signing. “It’s also an open-ended contract. Kedrick doesn’t have a copy of it and they won’t give him a copy of it. They didn’t have a date signed on it. He dated his portion of it but they didn’t sign it and didn’t date it in front of him, so they could put any date they want to on it.”

For Johnson, the section of the contract dealing with “engagements, employment and agreements now in existence” is particularly worrisome. He has performed as a recording artist on the soundtracks for the movies “Bones,” “Above the Rim” and “The Ride.” For her part, Shorter has a song on the Tupac Shakur documentary “Thug Angel” and recently had a song placed on the TV show “Soul Food.”

Franklin said Johnson signed it because “it’s Steve Harvey, so he trusted him.”

“But,” he added, “I can’t believe Steve Harvey really knows about this.”

Harvey said in a recent interview that he never has seen the contract. (His manager, McDonald, also present for the interview, said: “He shouldn’t have to.”)

Still, Harvey said he understands why his management would ask people to sign it -- and why aspiring artists would want to.

“I’ve been on the thirsty end of this business before. I’ve been the guy looking for the break, so I know the mentality of the people coming to Steve Harvey’s Talent Search. You never know how it’s going to shake out,” Harvey said. “You are going to be in front of possibly Star Search, some record label or major industry people. The word is out. Everybody knows it. That’s why it’s the place to come to perform. The other reason is, Steve Harvey is there. You never know, maybe this guy will put me on the radio or do something with me. You do not have to sign the paper. It’s OK. Walk away from it.”

McDonald insisted that performers are given copies of what they sign, and disputed the contestants’ contention that they had not been told in advance they would be required to sign a contract.

“We always tell them,” he said. “That’s a lie. We tell them beforehand.”

McDonald said the contract was drawn up by a project manager at Harvey’s NuOpp company. Asked about the initial contract signed by hundreds of performers, McDonald first said it was drafted without a specific term. Later, he said he was unaware that it included no time provision. The contract was later revised.

Harvey and McDonald said the Talent Search was begun primarily so that Harvey could try out new material. Harvey said he also was being sent mountains of tapes by aspiring artists and felt a talent showcase would give them an outlet. Plus, McDonald added: “We do these contracts to run off people who are wasting our time.”

In addition to his radio show on 100.3 (KBBT-FM), Harvey is gearing up for his new talk show, “Steve Harvey’s Big Time” which the WB Network has picked up for the fall. He also is juggling movie roles. McDonald said NuOpp has not benefited from any of the contracts signed. Expenses, he said, include paying for the space, security, the high-quality sound system and complimentary food and drinks for the talent. He added, though, that if someone did get signed to a lucrative contract based on a performance at the El Rey, “we would have an active involvement in it.”

And some of the singers who’ve signed the contract said that would be OK with them. Roderick Holmes, an Applebee’s manager on leave from his job in Georgia since he arrived in L.A. two months ago, said the contract wasn’t a problem for him. “I’m not represented by anyone, so I didn’t mind signing.”

L.A. Benjamin, who lives in Montreal, won the $500 prize singing Natalie Cole’s “Inseparable” last month. “It’s definitely a good outlet, especially for someone like me who was out in L.A. on vacation,” said Benjamin, who signed the contract. “I’m always kind of wary about signing something that gives someone 10%, but I feel like I did get something ... they gave me an outlet. Some people might think it’s unreasonable. But if you don’t perform, no one gets to see you. I don’t see it as a negative thing. I didn’t necessarily want to sign it, but that is the way of the world.”

Although some participants have gone on to appear on “Star Search,” McDonald said no record deals have come out of the talent search and NuOpp hasn’t benefited financially from the contracts.

Harvey and McDonald said they look at all talent showcases and open mikes as a business. “Anytime anybody opens a door, someone profits. Somebody serves drinks at a place, someone takes an admission at a door. Somebody profits. This is a business,” Harvey said.

But the contract requirement is hardly a common business practice at other open-mike and showcase venues around town.

“Not in L.A. that I’m aware of. That’s a crazy policy,” said Tina Suca, the House of Blues’ artist and industry relations manager. The House of Blues showcases, among the most sought-after because of the many music label executives and agents in attendance, don’t require any signed agreements, she said.

“We just hope that when they get big, they’ll come back and play in our main room,” Suca said. “We do it because it’s really about developing local talent. We want to support emerging artists.”

Tom DeSavia, head of ASCAP’s pop and rock department, started the organization’s talent showcases in 1989; they’ve taken place in such well-known clubs such as The Viper Room, The Mint and Largo. He said that the only time the organization asks anyone to sign a contract is “if we’re compiling a CD, and then it’s just a license agreement.”

“Not only do we not get paid,” DeSavia said, “but we try to get them paid.”That makes sense to musicians like the singer/songwriter who goes by the name Stefano, who plays in the band Proper Villains with his music partner, Cindi Law. He’s been performing at open mikes and talent showcases for three years, and “no one has ever asked me to sign.”

“It’s not legitimate as far as artists are concerned,” he said.

Discoveries that hit it big are rare, but DeSavia cited Grammy winner John Mayer and Toad the Wet Sprocket as acts that ASCAP events helped launch.

Stefano’s venue of choice for trying out new material is Highland Grounds on Highland Avenue. Highland Grounds charges $3 at the door for open mike night and shepherds in about 40 to 50 performers every week to sing on a small stage in front of a barroom crowd. Highland Grounds requires no contract.

Performers say one of the most musician-friendly open mikes takes place at Taix, on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park. It was started five years ago by musician Chris Olson (a.k.a. Johnny Fargo), who had been working at the time as a night manager for the family-owned French restaurant.

Olson believes that a musician should never pay for an open mike and that no one should have to sign a contract to perform: “I don’t feel I have any take on anybody’s stuff. I’m giving them the outlet, but they’re the talent.”

After the interviews with Harvey and McDonald, NuOpp’s publicist called and said that they were making changes to make sure that people would be informed about the contract and that it would be disclosed on the Steve Harvey Web site. As of midday Tuesday, the Web site had not changed.

In the end, Harvey and McDonald talked about getting out of the showcase business because they said it is not profitable. “We’ll probably only do it for another year,” Harvey said.