Today we’d like to introduce you to Chase Padgett
Hi Chase, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I began my journey as a producer and performer in 2010 with the premiere of my first solo show six guitars. It very quickly changed my entire path. Before that shows premiere I was a full-time performer at the theme parks here in Orlando. Good experience, but I definitely wanted to explore my own voice and six guitars gave me exactly that opportunity.
Since the premiere of six guitars, I’ve also made about half a dozen other shows throughout the years to various degrees of success. Some other notable ones include Nashville, hurricane, Lucky break, and heart attacks and other blessings. During this time, I was finding great success in the French festival circuit and finding decent success in the performing arts market beyond the summer touring across Canada. However, things were really taking an upswing with a prominent gig of shows in Toronto with Mirvish productions. However, that prominence and potentially lucrative gig was set for later March 2020. We all know how that went.
During the pandemic, I pivoted towards videography to survive in the week of all of my live performance gigs, totally collapsing. It wasn’t my first choice, but it’s what I had to do to get by. I’ve learned a little bit of video and audio for live stage work prior to this, but this pandemic time proved to be a real crucible and self-directed apprenticeship in the craft. To date, I filmed nearly 160 multi cam shoots for live performance work, ranging from Theatre, clown, storytelling, comedy, music, and much more.
Now that the pandemic is over and ticket, sales are roughly where they were prior to the pandemic. I recently folded my video editing expertise into remaking my own marketing materials for my solo shows, and it has been revolutionary in my life. Last fall during a tour, I wanted to see if I could rent a venue in a town. No one knew me in and just put the strength of my ads, sell enough tickets to make it wor I rented the Broadway theater in Saskatoon Saskatchewan, which seats about 400, ran abs that I made for myself, and much to my delight, the entire event sold out.
Now I find myself at an interesting crossroads of my performance work as well as my production capabilities. I’m now able to produce effective digital advertising assets for not just my own shows but for other live work as well and as long as it’s deployed properly, it can be life-changing not just for me, but for other people, I’m excited to work with. In the next 3 to 5 years I see myself moving not just well into the height of my performance career, but also producing other artists and enabling their performance career on a whole new level as an independent producer.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It is for sure, not in a smooth road. At the age of 34 I had a heart attack on a cruise ship, but thankfully that invitation towards life changes has left a net positive effect in my life. The pandemic was also some of the hardest years of my life, but luckily I was able to use that time to get better at the greatest bottleneck of self producing: developing quality media assets for marketing purposes. Also, I’ve been through some tough relationship stuff too. I found out a lady I was dating post divorce had lied to me about her alleged divorce and in reality had used me to be an affair partner.
But now, I’m healed, healthy, and excited for all the endeavors in front of me!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The thing I’m most known for are one man shows that I tour in performing arts centers and festivals. They typically combine guitar playing, singing, characters, comedy, and storytelling in a unique blend that audiences seemed to really love! I think the thing that sets this work apart from other performers is that I’m able to execute a pretty high level of skill in all of those disciples. I’m just a naturally curious person and I’ve always been fascinated by multidisciplinary arts. Forging a Career using all of these interests has been an absolute blessing despite the typical ups and downs of an artists path forward.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I typically find people are willing to guide those down a path they know can be tricky, especially if the person asking the questions is sincere, kind, and always shows up to do their best. I also find investing in friendships with quality people always leads to the best kind of networking. You never know when one of those people can “do something for you” but even if they never, can you still get to have their light in your life and that’s really what it’s all about.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://chasepadgett.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chasethatpadgett/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chasethatpadgett
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chasepadgett1983/
Image Credits
Daniel Cooksley
