Monday, May 3, 6 - 7 PM Eastern Standard Time: “Costuming 101 with a Behind-the-Scenes Dresser on Broadway” Here’s the link.

Kathryn Rohe is a costume designer at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. A long-time dresser for Broadway’s Lion King and Mama Mia!, she knows how quality garments contribute to an actor’s character. Costumes can also lead to problems, like overheating and bunching up. Have a question about one of your problematic Santa pieces, from wigs to coats? Send a photo to nycsantas@gmail.com. During our interview and Q&A, Kathryn can come to the rescue.

Side note: She has also helped with costumes on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Ever heard of it?

Past meetings:

Read: Get on the Podcast Sleigh with Louise Cornetta

Read: Storytelling Gets Real with Ann Shapiro

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 2020—Santa George McTyre, secretary of the New York City Santas, has painstakingly numbered each line of “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” also known as “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

McTyre’s meticulous attention to detail is in preparation of the chapter’s Oct. 18 collaboration with dozens of Santas reciting the famous poem by Clement Clarke Moore. By the way, Moore was a New Yorker and the subject of one of our earlier talks in 2020. McTyre has organized similar dramatic table reads live on Zoom and Facebook, including All About Eve and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

So far, more than a dozen distinguished Santas from around the country are participating, from coast to coast. A reporter from the Times of London.

To be part of this first-ever global event or cover it for media opportunities, please email us at nycsantas@gmail.com with “Night Before Christmas” in the subject line. McTyre will assign you a bit to practice and perform on the day of the event.

Nervous about performing live on Oct. 18? We present Santa Public Speaking: 101. Recently, McTyre and Santa Gary Dreifus, vice president of the New York City Santas, led a Zoom lecture about public speaking to promote the chapter’s commitment to education. In case you missed these two charismatic guys riffing off each other and other guests, click here. Below are highlights from the Sept. 13 lecture about safely and effectively using your voice to polish presentation skills:

Tips from Vice President Santa Gary Dreifus. Dreifus, professor of Magic at the Coney Island Sideshow School, is often amazed that some Santas appear grim when they speak in front of crowds. Santas with big moustaches may consider a trim for optimum visibility. “Take your time,” he said. “Stop. Look at your audience, smile, and then go into your reading. Establish rapport using your presence. Try to look at everyone in the audience and smile. You have all been working on your smile for years.”

And like a good performer who notices his audience, Dreifus looked at all the Santas grinning in gallery view and said: “I saw that Bob. I’m blinded.”

Dreifus’ other tips include making a list of what you want to say and print it out in a large font. Sip water in bottles not covered in labels or distracting branding or logos. If people in the audience want to speak and seem shy, try not to talk over them. Instead, acknowledge them. If possible, ask if you can get back to them at the end of the performance, so as not to interrupt flow.

Tips from Secretary George. McTyre has bachelors and masters degrees in vocal performance. He was also a professional opera singer for 15 years. Being a Claus, though, has its own challenges to the voice. Christmas characters are expected to speak to children and adults for hours at a time over loud soundtracks, he says, as he did when he first started out as an elf on the Essex Steam Train. 

This year, he anticipates long stretches talking into devices for remote visits.

Here’s what McTyre suggests:

• Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Use the singers’ mantra of “pee pale.” You can guess what that means, but we’ll spell it out. Drink enough H20 that your urine is clear instead of dark yellow.

• Warm up for 15 minutes before a gig. This means humming and these other exercises: 

  • Lip bubble blow bubble on a sound

  • Vocal slides, for example, “eeeeee” from high to low to high to strengthen the entire range of your voice.

  • Try tongue twisters two or three times emphasizing consonants to make your words clearly understood in noisy conditions.

• Sound like yourself. To protect your voice and to be authentic, use your own God-given voice.

• Buy the right equipment. A lavalier mic for $20 can amplify your voice, so you don’t have to push. Buy two or three in case you step on one

• Breathe. Try taking in breath to the waistband of your pants like an accordion. Breathe low and all around your body for supported, consistent air floor through the voice box. This will save you from getting vocal issues like polyps and from developing the “vocal fry,” a pet peeve of casting directors. For a reading, mark out good places to take a quick breath.

• Never use throat numbing sprays like Chloroseptic. These medicines kill the top layer of cells in your throat.

• Avoid alcohol and caffeine. These drinks dry out the vocal apparatus. Instead try this recipe recommended to McTyre by a soprano at the Metropolitan Opera:

  • One cup of warm water

  • Add a few drops of any kind of vinegar

  • Sprinkle in a bit of salt

  • ¼ of a teaspoon of olive oil

  • Gargle for 30 seconds. Hold the drink in your mouth for a full minute, and you will be able to sing for an hour, even if you have a cold.

Finally, both McTyre and Dreifus recommend this laptop stand from AmazonBasics. With free hands and proper posture, even during virtual performances, you will be able to access your best breath support. And, you will be less likely to have your laptop fall on the floor.

The NYC Santas is a new chapter of the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas. Founded in February 2020, this new group has been meeting virtually since March and has created important lectures to help Santas (all genders of Christmas characters) to improve performance skills.

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Related Article: NYC Santas Visit Clement Clarke Moore’s Desk Virtually

Related Article: NYC Soars With Its First Chapter of International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas

Related Article: What’s Your Background, Santa?

Reno Venturi is in the top left. Look at that beard! How is he not a Claus already?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, May 15, 2020—Reno Venturi, owner of Actors Gym, in Hamden, Conn., should consider being a Santa Claus. With a healthy beard and a middle name reminiscent of everyone’s favorite reindeer, he could certainly develop his own particular brand of Santa.

And branding is important. That’s why Reno commended unique traits in his New York City Santas lecture called “Getting Ahead with a Headshot.” Not only should you pay for a good headshot, in the range of $150 to $200 that shows the catch lights in your eyes, it should highlight personality, he says. A second headshot might depict Santa off-season, in golf wear or with a bird on his shoulder, as illustrated by one of the participants who attends these Zoom session with his feathered friend.

If you send thank you cards to a casting agency after an audition, print one of these pictures on the back to make you stand out and make yourself memorable.

The next NYC Santas talk, “Meet Me at Macy’s” is Sunday May 17 at 3 PM, which happens to be a popular Santa’s birthday. Stay tuned to learn which of us is one year older while in quarantine.

Our special guest is Lonnie Cooper, an entertainment professional, who has worked with the Big Apple Circus and the Moscow Ballet. Any job you can name in showbiz, he’s done it. He is also a Macy’s Santa who has witnessed the department store’s acceptance of real beards among Christmas performers.

Lonnie will talk for a few minutes about his audition, “the look,” and favorite moments in the famous chair. Another prominent Macy’s Santa may also join in the discussion. Keep your eyes peeled for a man whose name rhymes with “blarney.” We will then open the discussion to NYC Santas and our new friends from around the country.

Please register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEsd-ippzgvGdFp1Yiw6BfbCTihgKl3py8z

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Santas waiting to speak to Debra Schimdt Bach of the New-York Historical Society. Before the talk, a poll asked participants how many of them use “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in their role as Santa. Of the 10 who answered, 60% work with the poem and 40% do not.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, April 22, 2020—Debra Schimdt Bach, curator of decorative arts at the New-York Historical Society, said she wishes all of her Zoom conferences ended with a group ho-ho-ho with 20 Santas.

Entitled “Sit (Virtually) at the Desk of Clement Clarke Moore,” the talk was tailored to educate the New York City Santas, a new chapter of the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas (IBRBS). 

During the pandemic, the NYC Santas have organized other virtual meetings open to Clauses throughout the nation. This 30-minute program was the first dedicated to Moore, who is credited for writing “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” better known as “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.” 

To illustrate, Bach showed archival photographs of the “secretary/chest of drawers” that most likely belonged to Moore and most likely was the very piece of furniture on which he wrote his famous poem. 

“We believe it belonged to Moore and we believe that he wrote the poem,” Bach said.

The poem first appeared anonymously in the Troy Sentinel in 1823. Moore was not publicly attributed as the writer until 1837 when it was included in the New York Book of Poetry. He acknowledged authorship in 1838 and published it under his name in 1844.

So this time lag between when it first appeared and when he took credit has led to debate.

Moore was an Episcopalian minister and professor at the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan. Moore donated some of his inherited estate, called Chelsea, to the seminary. Other pieces of his property eventually formed Chelsea, the West Side neighborhood that still bears its name. Could Moore really have authored this beloved piece of American literature? Or was it someone else? According to Bach, most scholars believe Moore wrote the poem based on the syntax of his other writings.

Legend has it that Moore first recited it at his Chelsea home on Christmas Eve 1822 to entertain his many children. A theory is that a young Harriet Butler from Troy, New York, was also at that reading and recorded it in her personal copy book. Her father and Moore were close friends and fellow ministers. One of Harriet Butler’s brothers was named Reverend Clement Moore Butler, making her a leading candidate as the one who submitted the poem to the Troy Sentinel the following year.

“She was very much enamored with the poem,” Bach said of Harriet Butler, adding that the desk was donated to the New-York Historical Society in 1956 through Butler’s family. She never married. The item was handed down the family line through a cousin.

Bach also showed a handwritten black and white copy of the manuscript signed and dated by Moore in 1937 as a gift to the New-York Historical Society. Also in the society’s collection is an 1837 painting by Robert Walter Weir, entitled St. Nicholas, that depicts a fireplace and an elfin figure with his finger alongside his nose. One of the Santas in the talk noticed a broken clay pipe at the figure’s feet, which Bach attributed to a Dutch tradition of breaking pipes on St. Nicholas Day (December 6).

The painting reveals a “merging of ideas and influence” that developed a “public legacy” of a jolly character rather than the dour religious image from Europe. It also reveals a cultural movement meant to preserve New York’s Dutch heritage. Weir may have been inspired by Moore. Moore was certainly friendly with writer Washington Irving. Irving’s Knickerbockers History of New York first depicted a comedic version of St. Nicholas. In 1835, Irving founded the St. Nicholas Society, a social club for male ancestors of Dutch colonists. 

“Despite the fact that St. Nicholas was a Catholic saint, it appears that early Dutch New Yorkers really stayed true to celebrating St. Nicholas and revering him as a patron of children, as a patron of New Amsterdam,” Bach said. “I’ve also read that he was the patron saint of the greater colony of New York, although I’ve only read that in one place.”

In her research for this talk, Bach discovered that St. Nicholas is also the patron saint of her place of employment, the New-York Historical Society. 

“I think certainly St. Nicholas as we know him was a New York invention,” Bach said during the Q & A. “So, yes, it does appear that the whole idea of celebrating St. Nicholas in a very whole-hearted cultural way may have originated in the United States in early colonial New York.”

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You may go to YouTube for a recording of the talk that took place April 22, 2020.

Related Article: NYC Soars With Its First Chapter of International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas

Related Article: Let’s Stay Together While Six Feet (Or More) Apart

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK, NY—As of February 2020, New York City is now host to one of the 49 affiliated chapters of the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas (IBRBS), the largest Christmas organization in the world. This chapter is the first ever IBRBS group in NYC.

First lines of business include finalizing a name and logo. Stay tuned for a Facebook and Instagram presence along with a list of quarterly events support neighboring chapters, including the Lower Hudson Valley Santas.

President Ann Votaw, Vice President Gary Dreifus, and Secretary George McTyre have thus far discussed field trips, educational events, and meet and greets. One short-term goal is to generate a contact sheet for area Santas (all genders) who may need substitutes during the holiday season. Each event will feature the lastest news from the national IBRBS crew.

All Santas love a good story. Here’s how this one started. A small group of seven Clauses met for coffee Jan. 3, 2020 at the Winter Village at Bryant Park shortly after Christmas. Exhausted, they just wanted to hang out and review the last two busy months. Two of the guys walked from their temporary apartment near Radio City, where they may or may not have still been working. Wink! Wink!

This gathering kick-started the idea of a formal chapter representing Santas in all five boroughs, neighboring areas, and visitors who work in NYC during the season.

An especially big thank you to brothers in red, Keith Carson and Howard Graham, who are on the board of IBRBS. And additional thanks to Nicholas Alan Gillotte and Bernard Prior of the Lower Hudson Valley Santas. Other St. Nicks representing Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Connecticut came to the January coffee meet-up that caused “a stir” among tourists and customers in Bryant Park’s “The Lodge.” The more the merrier.

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