We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joe Pari. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joe below.
Joe, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
Our name comes from the company’s co-founders, Joe Pari and Eric Augers love and passion for costume making, transformative experiences, making pretend and of course, Halloween, October 31 aka TEN31
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
TEN31 Productions, Inc. grew from a simple, powerful idea that art can be “brought to life” and provide emotionally inspiring entertainment. The human form is TEN31’s canvas. In 2000, founders Eric Auger and Joe Pari began performing as Living Gargoyles at art events and festivals. From their very first performance to today, the designing and creation of characters and costumes never stopped. Like the pieces and installations TEN31 creates, the company continues to grow and transform itself, driven by that simple and powerful idea born over two decades ago.
TEN31 has been honored to perform for the Obama White House, Harvard University, the American Heart Association, Nike Corporation and at hundreds of prestigious institutions and social and corporate events throughout the world.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
COVID taught us how to be grant writers! We never gave up. We applied for everything. Followed guidelines, supported staff, created special projects and events when there were none to be had.
We even created a short movie: Unalienble which you can watch via this link on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPGE3BFATvQ
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Contrary to conventional about not starting a business with a friend or family – co-founders Joe and Eric meet in junior high and have been friends for 39 years and business partners for going on 24 years.
We started busking at WaterFire in Providence as two living Gargoyles – from there – we’ve created a collection of hundreds of costumes and have performed all over the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: wemakepretend.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wemakepretend/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wemakepretend/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2Fwemakepretend
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcfv2MsZu4K4ZFnEwv1Rvww
Image Credits
John Deputy Josh Edenbaum Joe Pari