Have you met Jeff Mach?

There are days when he feels like he’s 87 years old, rather than the 33 years that he really claims for having been on this planet. He has a special talent for finding ideas from many sources and melding them together to create an event that a wide array of personalities can attend and enjoy. It’s been a busy, hard, heart-wrenching, heart-warming year, all at the same time. Let me introduce you to Jeff Mach.

Background

Born and raised in New Jersey, Jeff credits much of the direction in his life to a gifted kids’ summer program, which he attended when he was 13. It was that program that got him involved in martial arts, influenced his writing, and helped him learn to relate to other people better. After graduating from high school, he attended Rutgers University where he founded the Rocky Horror Picture Show Club. His produced his first events while he was still in school. He wanted to do events his own way and, while following your own path sounds exciting and cool, it means that he ended up doing things the hard way while developing an event model that is both unusual and catches peoples’ attention.

Those first events, “Cult Movies Overnight,” also taught him a lot about marketing. He found that people looked at the name and decided, “I’m not in to cult movies so there won’t be anything for me, and I’m not going.” Learning to market the event in a way that helped people realize that there were many things to do was the difficult part. For the last “Overnight” in 2004, they changed some things and it was the most popular show of all. Jeff found that marketing and focus groups are great but to get the best ideas on what worked, sometimes you just have to get out there and try something.

In addition to producing shows, Jeff has a web design company and, when he can find time, performs with his band Running Waters Music. Though he’d like to make a living producing the shows, that’s not the reason he does it. The community is his focus when planning and offering an event, which he bases on what the community finds interesting and only survives as long as they are satisfied and want more. He loves to meet people and enjoys talking with them, learning about their interests and how they are similar and dissimilar to his own. Very often, he finds that enough ideas mesh that they end up working together for an event.

Faire History

His parents introduced Jeff to faire when he was 13 or 14, taking him to the New Your Renaissance Festival. He’d always enjoyed history and loved the Faire. He continued visiting NYRF each year, often visiting with a friend who sold shoulder puppets. Later, while in college, he and that same friend researched the idea of putting on a year-round faire in the basement of a local shopping mall. The idea didn’t pan out but the desire to include the Renaissance period in his events did not abate.

Though he still attends faire, these days it is more to get an over all feel of the event. As a producer, he sees the event in what he called a ridiculously analytical manner. He looks at everything the faire has to offer, not going because he’s excited by any particular thing but looking for an overview, what is done well, not so well, could be done differently, etc. He told me that he’s not likely to watch entertainment for long and that it’s very rare that he will sit through a complete set. He explained it with the following analogy, “It’s like wine tasting. I’d rather sip and savor a bit of each rather than drink a whole bottle and get drunk,” then he chuckled and said, “though that can be fun on occasion too.”

Jeff Mach at the 2008 WickedFaire event in Edison, New Jersey If you do spot him at faire, he’ll probably be in mundanes. He doesn’t typically garb up but may change that in the future. What you’ll usually see with him is a clipboard and some claim it’s surgically attached to his hand. Otherwise, he’s usually in a t-shirt or button down shirt, slacks, and dress shoes with sneaker bottoms … unless they lose his luggage like happened at the 2007 WickedFaire event. When we saw him that Saturday morning, he was too busy to care but knew that he’d need clean clothes before the event started at 5pm. The FaireNews crew provided the wolf shirt in the picture, and a couple of other items.

With the demise of the “Cult Movie Overnight” shows in 2004, Jeff moved on to other shows. The first “Wicked” event, held at the New Jersey Convention and Expo Center in February 2006, gave him the chance to bring the Renaissance in to his portfolio as he brought “Jeff Mach’s Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire” to life. He’s continued producing “WickedFaire” each year, adding new ideas in to the mix as the community comes together. Other shows have included “Wicked Good Time,” “Halloween in December,” “Labyrinth,” and most recently “The Totally Normal Event” (TNE).

Current

This is a re-building year for the Wicked Team as they recover from the financial devastation caused by an ownership change at the hotel used for 2007 WickedFaire. Jeff decided that focusing on a single event for the next year, giving full attention to WickedFaire scheduled for February 20-22, 2009, at the Marriott in Whippany, New Jersey, would be the best idea. He has a great team that works with him on Wicked events, 100 staffers and up to 300 people who support his endeavors. He’ll need every one of them as they prepare for the 2009 season. Things are progressing well and he’s confident that the Marriott, the site of TNE last June, is going to be great. The contract for the hotel is getting another review by his lawyer for any item that might need clarification. He’s being very careful with that contract after his experience last year.

He’s already had discussions with a number of vendors and performers on a variety of subjects not restricted to the talents they’ll bring to the faire. Jeff enjoys discussions with them about whatever is on their minds and getting their advice on many topics. With the larger site at the Marriott, he’ll be able to accommodate more vendors and is planning for approximately 100. He’s currently working on the props and prizes needed in order to turn the facility in to Willy Wonka’s Wicked Factory. His task after we finished talking was going to be finding small candy companies that would have unusual products and an equally unusual approach to the world. He felt like it take someone on the edge, a little offbeat themselves, to align themselves with the WickedTeam and help bring the Factory to life.

SPARC, a program for gifted kids, will benefit from the proceeds of the upcoming event, as it has from the last two. With Jeff’s prior experience in gifted programs, it was no wonder he and Gil Cnaan, vice-president of SPARC, clicked when introduced. Jeff believes in the program Gil has put together and is working to give other kids an opportunity to experience the kind of event that helped shape his future.

Final Thoughts

Jeff wanted everyone to know what amazingly talented people he works with. He told me the WickedTeam is awesome and deserves so much credit for what happens at his events. “For the events to be a success we need to have every one want to come back and they make that happen.”