We were lucky to catch up with Joe Laureano recently and have shared our conversation below.
Joe, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I wanted to be a professional musician since maybe 6th grade, when I figured out that I would never make it as a professional baseball player. I knew music theory, and I found I really liked the sound of the piano. When I was a sophomore in high school, I finally got my first piano, an upright Yamaha P22, which I still have. I wasn’t able to take piano lessons, so using my theory knowledge, I taught myself piano. A couple years later, I was off to college. On a random Tuesday, I went out to the bars with my friends, as Tuesday nights were college nights, and you didn’t need to be 21 to get in. We ended up at a dueling piano bar, where my friends surprised me by paying a $20 stage fee to have me go up and play one of the half dozen songs I knew at the time, “Hey Jude”. I played and sang the song, and when I was done, the entertainment manger asked if I was interested in playing there full time. I jumped at the chance, as I was going to be able to perform 5 nights a week, make great money at the time, and I would get to act like a rock star in front of hundreds of people every night. It took a lot of work, as I needed to learn how to play and sing hundreds of songs, as well as learn specific skills to encourage audience participation. I learned very quickly that even though my job was in music and entertainment, it wasn’t any different than any other job. Nose to the grindstone, dedication, and constantly learning new ways to get better. That was 31 years ago, and I still make my living as a professional musician and entertainer, so it paid off!
Joe, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
The best part about my job is I get to be the ringleader of a party to help give people an escape from whatever is going on in their lives to simply have fun for a few hours. The ultimate setting where people are gathered to have a good time and celebrate is a wedding reception. Planning a wedding reception is a giant undertaking, and not the kind of event brides and grooms have a lot of experience planning. On the other hand, the two groups I perform with regularly, Main Street Dueling Pianos and the band, Great Scott, are performing wedding receptions practically every weekend during the summer months. We’re incredibly knowledgable with how wedding receptions flow best, how to time space the individual events within wedding receptions, and are more than willing to help our clients set up their timeline for the evening. This ensures the reception will seamlessly flow from one thing into the next. Our experience also means we’re able to adjust and adapt on the fly if plans need to change in the moment for any reason, we adapt immediately. Brides & grooms only have one responsibility at their reception, and that is to have fun. We take care of everything else. Our clients get peace of mind that no matter what, everything is taken care of, they can simply have fun.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a professional musician and entertainer is knowing that when playing a public show, I get to create an escape for every person in an audience. Stressed about your job? Come to one of our shows. Been trapped in the house taking care of kids for weeks or months on end, and you need to get out? Come to one of our shows. Burned out from the monotony of life? Come to one of our shows. No matter what, my job is to give people time off and get away from whatever it is they need to take a break from.
It’s also very rewarding performing for wedding receptions. It’s an honor and a privilege to be hired to entertain friends and family for such a momentous occasion in the lives of brides and grooms. There’s truly nothing more rewarding than when a couple invests their trust in me and my fellow performers that we’ll make their big night an unforgettable experience for them and all their family and friends.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The only goal that drives me is to make sure the product I’m putting in front of people creates an atmosphere that exudes fun. I play cover songs, not originals, so the songs I perform are familiar to audiences. The same song means different things to different people. My job is to create a new memory of that song for everyone in that moment, in an entertaining way to ensure they’ll retain the new memory. At the end of any performance, as long as everyone who witnessed the show had a great experience, I’ve accomplished the goal. It doesn’t matter if I put on a flawless show-that’s an unrealistic expectation. If my concern is to be flawless, then the focus is about me, not about the audience. The only way to truly entertain an audience is to put them ahead of yourself, and the only way to do that is to constantly learn new ways of creating that atmosphere.
Contact Info:
- Website: greatscottlive.com, mainstreetduelingpianos.com
- Instagram: @greatscottlive
- Facebook: facebook.com/greatscottlive, facebook.com/mainstreetduel
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAVrNJ9armClOxnL7b_8UYQ
