May 4, 2012
A birthday party that was
secretly a festival.
It was a 40th birthday. It had a name, Quainapalooza, because in our world a birthday party is not a dinner reservation. It's a festival that happens to have one guest of honor.
The venue was the Pharmacy Museum in the French Quarter, because of course a birthday should be held in a 19th-century apothecary. And the band was George Porter Jr. and the Runnin' Pardners. Yes, that George Porter Jr.
Still in the folder, fourteen years later
- Contract · George Porter, Jr. & Runnin' Pardners, dated 5.4.12
- Stage plot + input list · for a birthday party
- Artist rider · for a birthday party
- Hand-drawn guest map · the whole event on one page
- Venue paperwork · New Orleans Pharmacy Museum
The original map, drawn by hand, May 2012.
Ten days later, Google called. A referral. Our first corporate project, ten days after our first event.
We weren't even called Clandestine yet. The company was called Native.
I sat with that name for a while and stopped loving it. It felt too small for what an events agency could become. Clandestine fit the actual work better, because the best moments we build are the ones nobody sees coming.
How It Actually Works
The question everyone
is afraid to ask.
People ask me how. How does a brand-new company get a funk legend to play a birthday party? Years later: how did energy executives end up side stage at Billy Joel? How did a corporate group get pulled out of the eternal line at Terry Black's and seated in five minutes?
Here's the secret, and I'm almost embarrassed by how simple it is. I asked the question.
George Porter Jr. has a phone number like everybody else. Somebody at that stadium had the authority to say yes. The line at Terry Black's is not guarded by a wall. It's guarded by everyone in it deciding the question isn't askable. Most people assume the answer is no, so they never ask. They pre-reject themselves to avoid the awkwardness, and then they tell their guests "it wasn't possible." It was possible. Nobody asked.
And when the answer is no? I ask a different way. Or I ask someone else. If there is a way to a yes, I find it. (The version I say out loud has one more word in it. You can guess where it goes.)
"The ask is the visible ten percent. The invisible ninety is knowing which person, at which moment, for something specific, in a way that makes saying yes feel good."
and being someone worth saying yes to
Fourteen Years of the Same Playbook
Different budgets.
Same move.
Everything since has been that first party at scale. The hidden basement theater for a thousand NBA sponsors. The aerialist timed to "La Vie en Rose" for a room of international executives. The full float in a Mardi Gras parade for guests who thought they were getting balcony seats. Every one of them started with someone in our shop asking a question most planners wouldn't say out loud.
Where it started: Quainapalooza, 2012.
Where it went. Same playbook.
Steve · Maestro of Mayhem
Steve has been part of this almost as long as we've been part of each other. He's the unofficial Clandestine mascot: the man who can have a billionaire CEO shotgunning a beer on his direction by 9 p.m., and still makes sure every server and bartender in the building gets recognized and tipped like they matter. Because to him, they do.
Chrisy · Director of Merrymaking
Chrisy arrived with Gainbridge, carrying fifteen years of NASCAR. Exactly the experience you want running point when the event is moving at 200 miles an hour.
The clients went from a 40th birthday to Formula 1, the NBA, Aramco, and Fortune 500 boardrooms. The name changed. The question never did.
Est. 2012200+ Events100+ in New OrleansZero Reputational IncidentsOne Question
