Backstage with George Lopez
I was contacted recently to help raise money for Boys and Girls Country, a charity in the Houston Texas area that provides homes for children in need and raises them to be self sustaining adults.
They booked me to perform at their annual gala which is held at the Hilton of Americas in Houston. The venue has an enormous ballroom which seated over 1000 people on that night.
My performance was scheduled to start right before George Lopez was scheduled to do his set. I went up, performed two popular speed paintings, Albert Einstein and the Statue of Liberty, which were then auctioned in the live auction.
The live auction was a huge success!
The two performance pieces raised a total of $27,000, with Einstein raising $10,000 and Lady Liberty going for $17,000.
Another great charity event idea is to have the speed painting performance right before the live auction starts. This creates excitement and anticipation for the beginning of the auction and can often increase bidding for the other auction items as well.
After those were auctioned, I unveiled a custom painting of George Lopez, which I did in the studio prior to the event. They were on a tight time line that night so it worked well to have this painting already done. This is a great way to raise money for charity while saving time if needed. The performance creates excitement and the custom unveiled piece is always welcomed with a huge cheer from the crowd. A great idea for any charity event that has a celebrity or special guest.
That piece sold for an additional $10,000, bringing the grand total to $37,000 for a 10 minute speed painting performance! The Boys and Girls Country will be able to put that to great use! I hope many of the children they serve will benefit from it!
Tim Decker, Speed Painter provides charity event entertainment that will raise money and wow guests at the same time!After the performance I met with George Lopez backstage for a few minutes before he came on and did his set. He was a really nice guy and he was happy with the speed painting I created of him.
Turned out to be a great night! I was honored to be the gala entertainment and raise money for such a great cause!
