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How the Cavaliers choose halftime acts

BY JOE SCALZO

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One of the drawbacks to being a leader of the 610 Stompers — aside from the female groupies, the high cost of mustache wax and the risk that you’ll get “Ice Ice Baby” permanently lodged in your brain — is that you occasionally nd yourself on the phone with Chase Bank, trying to convince someone in fraud protection that you really did make a large wire transfer for powder blue coaching shorts.

“I’m like, ‘Uh, it’s a thing,’” said Dan “Maude” Sullivan, who has been with the all-male dance group since 2015. “Finally I was like, ‘Can I get someone from New Orleans on the line please? Somebody who gets it?’”

Problem is, the 610 Stompers are better seen than described. Picture 30 public school gym teachers from 1982 — complete with Joe Biden-esque aviator sunglasses, striped tube socks, red satin jackets and waaaaay too much thigh showing — add in some dad dance moves like e Lawnmower, e Sprinkler and e Penguin and ... voilà!

You don’t just have an NBA halftime show. You’ve got a seduction production.

“ e rst time we do anything, it’s like, ‘What is that?’” said Sullivan, who works as an attorney when he’s not dressed as a professional dodgeball instructor. “ e second time, it’s like, ‘Oh, I kind of remember this.’ e third time, it’s like, ‘It’s those guys!’ at’s our magic number.” dreds of groups/performers/acts that appear at NBA halftimes each year. ese acts can feature just about anything, from a 5-foot woman balancing bowls on her head while riding a 7-foot unicycle (aka Red Panda) to a local gymnastics team to washed-up rappers (Ja Rule, Tag Team) to, yes, an all-male dance group that touts itself as “Ordinary Men with Extraordinary Moves.”

“We pride ourselves on being the premier fan experience in all of professional sports,” said Chris Kaiser, the Cavaliers’ chief marketing o cer. “ e on-court stu (winning) is awesome this year, but if we can deliver some added value and make sure people are still jacked up at halftime, that’s even better. It keeps people in their seats, it’s better on our concourse (tra c) and just delivers waves of impact.”

And if doesn’t?

“Here, there’s a lot of emphasis on nding good acts,” Kaiser said. “We’re going to hear about it if it’s not done at a high level, where fans are looking down and saying, ‘What the hell is this?’”

NBA input

Outside of the All-Star Game, NBA teams are free to program their 15-minute halftimes as they see t, provided they clear the court in time for the players to warm up for the second half, said Mike Chant, the NBA’s associate vice president for team programming and game presentation management.

“WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON BEING THE PREMIER FAN EXPERIENCE IN ALL OF PROFESSIONAL SPORTS.”

—Chris Kaiser, the Cavaliers’ chief marketing o cer e 610 Stompers hit that magic number on March 15, when 32 of the 100-plus-member group ew up from New Orleans and made their third halftime appearance at a Cleveland Cavaliers game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. e ve-minute show featured two songs — Vanilla Ice’s biggest (and only) hit and a remix of “Freedom” by New Orleans-based John Batiste and Big Freedia — and a bevy of coordinated dance moves that dominate any wedding reception held at e Villages.

“It’s de nitely a New Orleans-based style of music and dance,” said one of the group’s founders, Brett “Slab” Patron, whose regular job is as a real estate appraiser. “A lot of butt-shaking.”

“We wanted to bring that from New Orleans to the Midwest,” Sullivan added.

Are you saying we don’t shake our butts enough?

“You’re too bundled up,” Sullivan said. “I can’t tell.” e 610 Stompers, whose number refers to Interstate 610 that runs through New Orleans’ city limits, were formed in 2009 in Patron’s living room. ey’re among the hun- ose national acts don’t make big bucks — the Cavs typically pay between $3,000 and $6,000 per performance for regular-season games, which is good for ve minutes of work but pales in comparison to an NBA player’s nightly salary — but the best ones can make a good living by performing at every NBA arena each season, along with college basketball games and corporate events.

While some cities lean heavily on musical acts — Detroit and Memphis, to name two — Cleveland likes to mix things up. e Cavaliers tend to use local acts on their theme nights and heritage nights, then sprinkle in national acts on the other dates.

Red Panda is probably the NBA’s most famous halftime act, followed by performers such as e Amazing Sladek (who performs the “Tower of Chairs,” where he stacks six chairs on top of each other and does a handstand 25 feet in the air), Steve Max Simon Sez (a grown man who leads fans in a “Simon Says” competition) and Christian and Scooby (a gymnast who does a variety of handstands and acrobatic moves while a chihuahua climbs on him).

“It is hard to go wrong with any act that involves dogs,” Chant said.

In December, the Cavs brought in one of the most famous (hot) dog acts on the planet in professional eater Joey Chestnut, who competed against two Cavs fans to see who could eat the most pierogi in two minutes. e two fans combined for 33. Chestnut ate 47.

“ at was a unique one,” Kaiser said. “We kind of take some swings with some of this stu to see how it’ll work out. We have a feedback report after every game. It’s very anecdotal, but we’ll have nine or 10 people submit a report. You can tell if one totally bombed. It’s pretty clear.”

Halftime acts can get discovered in a multitude of ways, from a TV competition show like “America’s Got Talent” (AGT) to YouTube to social media to good old-fashioned

Adding to the experience

e Cavaliers aren’t the only team in town that o ers halftime entertainment, of course. e G League Cleveland Charge hire performers at the Wolstein Center, as do the Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium. Like the Cavs, the Browns consider halftime to be an important part of the overall fan experience.

But NFL games are tricky, in part because the fans are so much farther from the eld, in part because the acoustics aren’t as good as an NBA arena and in part because, well, the Browns play a LOT of 1 p.m. Sunday games.

e Browns’ best act of 2022 was a “ riller”-inspired show on Halloween against the Cincinnati Bengals. Because it was a Monday Night Football game, the Browns were able to turn o the lights and feature more than a 100 local dancers wearing LED wristbands.

“It worked really well with all the lights ashing,” said Danielle Lewis, the Browns’ senior director of fan experience and special events. “ at was one of the most successful halftimes we’ve had. It wasn’t a huge act, but there was still a lot of entertainment value.”

The Super Bowl annually draws the biggest musical acts on the planet, but that’s partly because Super Bowl halftimes last between 25 and 30 minutes.

Regular-season NFL halftimes last 13 minutes, which eliminates teams’ ability to bring in a stage and a bevy of dancers, no matter how much Beyonce or Rihanna may be clamoring to perform outdoors on Lake Erie in late December.

Still, the Browns do the best they can, usually offering a mix of ceremonies (like a “Ring of Honor” induction) and competitions, such as pee wee football or girls flag football games. One of the best from 2022 featured youth football players against Ohio mascots such as Brutus Buckeye, Sir CC and Moondog (both Cavs) and Sully (Monsters).

“I would say we were worried about (safety) and needed to tell the mascots, ‘OK, they’re children, be careful,’ but it was more so the youth team where we had to say, ‘ ey’re mascots, be careful,’” Lewis said, laughing. “Our fans loved it. We were able to add some entertainment value for our fans beyond just seeing youth football.” word of mouth.

Ultimately, that’s the goal — to add something for fans who shell out their hard-earned cash and don’t want to leave their seats for a bathroom break or a burger.

“Teams are always checking out what other teams (in all sports) are doing from an entertainment perspective, so there is a good amount of discovery that way, too,” Chant said. “(And) internal productions featuring in-house entertainers have become more prevalent in recent years. Teams have done a great job making them into very high-level performances with production value that rivals what you might see at a concert or on Broadway.”

Breaking through

e 610 Stompers aren’t Broadway-level (obviously), but just because their act is hilarious doesn’t mean it’s a joke. e Stompers do all of their own choreography and members must survive a two-day tryout, complete with callbacks. Only about 15% of those tryouts make the team.

“We’ll come up with a new dance, teach it to them, and they spend a day learning it,” Sullivan said. “ en they got on the stage and there’s a panel of judges giving color commentary. It’s very AGT.”

Originally, the group had two goals: to perform in the Mardi Gras parade and at halftime of a New Orleans Saints game. ey crossed o both within their rst two years and now do about 30 events a year. Most members have day jobs — doctors, lawyers, teachers, laborers — and the Stompers even qualify as a 501(c)(3), with all of their proceeds going to charity.

Outside of the hometown Pelicans, the Cavaliers are the only NBA team to invite them to perform at halftime, but they’d love to do more, Patron said.

“Yeah, we’re thinking this time of year, maybe the Miami Heat should be calling,” Sullivan said.

Alas, they got stuck with the Cleveland cold, although they made sure to insulate themselves with plenty of Mabel’s BBQ and the type of drinks you might nd inside a wooden barrel on a Saint Bernard.

“ at’s dancer food,” Patron said.

“Dancers eat barbecue.”

“Yeah, we’re meat-loading,” Sullivan said.

“Our focus is on being fan-obsessed,” Lewis said. “For us, we want to have the most impactful show we can for all four quarters, including halftime.”

The Cavaliers feel the same way, which is why they spend so much time on things that go beyond basketball, whether that’s a dance team (with or without dad bods), a drum corps, or flames shooting out of a Goodyear blimp-sized video board.

“The environment here is way bigger than some other NBA teams,” Kaiser said. “There’s so much more emphasis on the game experience and the fan experience, so we’re always coming up with new ideas.

“There’s really nothing we can’t bring to the table.”

Joe Scalzo: joe.scalzo@crain.com, (216) 771-5256, @JoeScalzo0