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Tom Cantone
“Everything that Tom tells you, if it wasn’t for me he wouldn’t be anywhere,” declared Eddie Micone, head of the personal appearance division at Paradigm, on his business dealings with Tom Cantone, senior VP of Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, Uncasville, Conn.
Micone has been working with Cantone since the 80s, and proudly starts listing the acts “I gave him,” from Eddie Murphy to James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt to Billy Crystal. It’s a long list.
And that’s what makes working with Cantone a kick; he knows talent. “He is a very nice guy, he knows the marketplace, we get along, he has a great crew and a beautiful room and he is always very good at marketing,” Micone said.
Jimmy Koplik, Live Nation Connecticut, met Cantone much later, when Cantone moved from Foxwoods to Mohegan Sun in 2007. Koplik remembers wondering why Mitchell Etess, Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority CEO, felt they needed to bring in a marketer/buyer. Then he met Cantone.
“He is truly one of the nicest people in the world,” Koplik said of Cantone. “And since he got to Mohegan Sun, the business has picked up so dramatically — the level of talent, the number of shows, treatment of the artists, has all improved dramatically since he’s been there.”
“Now I go to Mitchell and say, ‘I asked you why and now I know why.’ He’s really an expert in the field of talent buying.”
Koplik believes that is because Cantone knows talent, which is obvious from the list of acts he’s broken at Mohegan Sun’s small club, The Wolf Den, a list that includes the Avett Brothers, Keith Urban, Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Luke Bryan, Lady Antebellum – all before they were picked up by Live Nation for arena tours.
“We do 10 e-mails a day with each other and that doesn’t count the phone calls we have,” Koplik said.
Micone and Cantone were the young revolutionaries that first booked edgy acts into casinos in the 80s at the Sands in Atlantic City. “No disrespect, because I also represented Tom Jones and Shirley MacLaine, but things were turning back then. So I used the Sands because it was one of the few properties that actually understood the need to contemporize the attractions in Atlantic City. Since I had all these young comics and bands in those days, Tom [Cantone] and friends embraced it and he bought them and we both did great.”
What makes it click with a buyer? What makes it fun?
“When you get a buyer as honest as you are and you both have a passion for the business,” Micone said. He and Cantone went on to be personal friends and know each other’s families.
“The key to this business is relationships. In this day of iPhones and iPads, I literally have buyers who don’t talk to me, which is fine, because they’re younger and that’s their social way,” Micone said. “But I also have the buyers who say I can’t wait to meet you. Me, too. I think the bond is stronger when you’re sitting down to a plate of pasta and a glass of red wine together.”
He knows Cantone loves chocolate (from his days at Hersheypark, Hershey, Pa.) and insists his toast is buttered while hot, not brought to the table as toast with a side of butter.
“He’s a drummer. I’m a drummer,” Micone said. “I’ve known Tom for 30 years. There are a handful of buyers that I have that kind of relationship with.”
Contacts: Eddie Micone, (212) 897-6400; Jim Koplik, (203) 269-8721