We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joseph & Theresa Callari a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Joseph & Theresa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
Taking A Risk
We met in early 2008 while both pursuing acting and singing careers in NYC. Theresa was working in one of the busiest restaurants in Times Square and I owned and managed an engraving store full-time. A business I’d owned for over 30 years. We were married in 2010 and started thinking ahead to what life we wanted to create for ourselves.
The pressure of running a full-time business and taking time to pursue an acting career was daunting. I would come home every night exhausted and frustrated and I could see Theresa was feeling my pain.
Being newly-weds and sharing in my suffering, Theresa asked, “What is the one thing you want to do the most?” I said, “I’ve always wanted to work in TV and film”. She said, “Ok! How do we make that happen?” A bottle of wine and a full notepad later, we had our plan to move to California.
To revitalize my focus on my acting training and career, I embarked upon a full-time Summer Musical Theater and Acting Program at Circle in the Square in 2011. I believe at 50 years of age I was the oldest student to ever attend this program.
In preparation, we took a brief trip to Los Angeles in late 2011 and stayed with my family who are also in the industry. We rented an apartment in Burbank.
We sold the engraving shop and most possessions and shipped only essentials to my family in LA. (“Closed the shop, sold the house, bought a ticket to the west coast…” ~ Billy Joel, “My Life”)
In January of 2012, with only two suitcases, the clothes on our backs, and our 8-year old min-pin, Molly, we arrived in Los Angeles.
And our new chapter had begun…
Joseph & Theresa, 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?
I started engraving as a young teenager as a means to support my acting “addiction”. I found it to be not only my first, but also my most successful means of financial support throughout my life as an actor.
Having had three generations of craftsmen in my family, I am a Master Glass Engraver using an old-world stone wheel technique and diamond bur. All work is hand-engraved without computers. I’ve also worked with sand-carving on glass.
In 1979, I started as the “in-house” engraver for Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, with shops in both stores for over 20 total years, in addition to having my own engraving and trophy shops in Manhattan.
Over 40 years ago, I developed the tools and technique for mobile hand-engraving and introduced the “on-site engraving event” concept to Federated Department Stores. Hand-engraving could now be brought into any department within the stores to personalize such items as fragrance bottles, glassware, housewares, gifts, ornaments, wine bottles and more. The entire set-up uses only a few square feet of floor space and could be repositioned within minutes.
Callari Engravers expanded and quickly became the premier engraving event services company in New York City. Engraving events have included stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Barney’s, and more.
Our team of engravers, personally trained by me in our proprietary hand-engraving technique, are now also available throughout Los Angeles and the NY/NJ areas. We have also traveled extensively through the US and beyond for events.
Clients come to us for brand activations, product launches, luxury events, weddings, private parties, corporate gifts, awards and personal mementos. We work on glass, crystal and metal. With custom engraving, products sell themselves. After 46 years of experience, we know that our services have significant and direct benefits to our clients’ bottom line.
My artistic glass engraving work has been presented to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sir Paul McCartney, Michael Bloomberg, Steve Forbes, Isaac Mizrahi, Ralph Lauren and many other celebrities.
Corporate clients have included: L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior, Waterford Crystal, Lalique Crystal, Stella Artois, Patron, Bacardi, and many, many more.
With my wife Theresa by my side, engraving events are now more holiday-focused to allow us more time to dedicate to our careers in acting, voiceover and book narration.
Please give us a call if you’re ever in need of a unique event! www.CallariEngravers.com
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Moving to Los Angeles, I now had to become bi-coastal. Before I was able to acquire event clients in LA, my steady holiday engraving events were still in NYC.
I found myself traveling to NYC at least 5 times per year. Sometimes for a month at a time.
This also meant having to master self-tape audition techniques from NY before the self-tape became the norm for first auditions, as it is today.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Covid was the true test of resilience for everyone. Events stopped. Studio production stopped. Theresa was furloughed from her job. My theatrical agent dropped me as he realigned his roster.
We used the “forced” downtime to the best of our advantage. It enabled us more time to focus on connecting with new event clients. Being life-long students, we took multiple online courses in acting and voiceover to help us stay connected to our craft. Unemployment insurance helped us to stay afloat.
Realizing most work was now shifting to home-based, we built a voiceover studio in our home where we now focus on commercial voiceover and audiobook narration.
TV commercials were still being produced with heavy on-set covid protocols. We created several promotional videos starring us as a “Quarantined Couple” and then as a “Vaccinated Couple”. My commercial agent promoted us and we booked three national commercials together within a year.
I signed with a new, higher-profile theatrical agent who was able to book me into several “offer-only” recurring roles in the first few months.
Turning lemons into lemonade!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.CallariEngravers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/callariengravers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CallariEngravers
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-callari-9391615b/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@baldguyenterprisesllc5432
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/callari-engravers-on-site-engraving-events-los-angeles-4
