what but we fit in such an amazing experience we had our on sale recently and the presale and it was four days of record setting the record sales people was happy as you can be buying more tickets than i've ever seen them by before i was so fucking tells me it's because of great marketing i say it's because the shows you know well create marketing of good shows where you go to great market bad shows i mean you know i got an e mail from chuck saying well he could retire on you got it earlier which was a real push on chuck staff and then people were mad because they couldn't buy tickets right away because they got it early just pleasing the public i guess but you know but it was kind of testing we of course have a first day of sale for the subscribers and i think we did over two hundred fifty thousand that day then we had a resale for our members that was over three quarters of a mil yeah i thought it was like eight hundred thousand dollars and and then our on sale so when we got through the weekend we sold over two million dollars and twenty five thousand tickets more more than that and exhausted staff but a happy staff were so gratified and thank you so much audience because it was wonderful i was able to be out in the audience and talk to people i know you were their whole staff was there because we have about on on sale day twenty three people working the phones and then and then in the box office line but then there's another ten or fifteen of us that are running around whether it's social media  dealing with the radio stations or or any you know in steps a family groups of computers so the people could be taken to want to go there and what we do you know which is can be a challenge is tickets dot com which is our our programming company for a you know a foreign country and the folks we're in is correct in what they were saying to people which caused problems so you know you know if we could we do it all ourselves it's just such a great  know for me you know i guess the shows that i'm really looking forward to seeing some of the new shows like alan cumming and matthew marise in how about you well that certainly alan cumming i've only seen him once and he's just absolute tremendous at that point tell him i love him he's now we talk about favorite state cars christmas we're opening the tour again and again here right yes yes november twenty fifth thanksgiving weekend during friday right yeah it's friday after thanksgiving it's black friday right so put down the packages stop ordering things on right and come to the van ways because this show is spectacular and i always laugh because dave cause it's christmas show but he's jewish but he's you know he's an equal opportunity employer he knows how to play just as well my god and he has jonathan butler who is one of my favorite from from is a surprise show being announced we cannot announce it yet but saturday night after thanksgiving there's actually going to be two shows for mixes and then on the sunday night we have melissa etheridge wrestling a holiday to tell them a show i've never although she has a great she put out a christmas album that was spectacular last year and that is sunday november twenty seventh at seven pm and i tell you when melissa etheridge was here last night i haven't have tom are with the city manager sitting next to me and he and that's a little bit of our lineup chuck just a little bit of the christmas shows you book for me but when we come back i'm going to have our dear friend monica van buskirk who runs the van ways will foundation and we're going to talk about the gala of the big shows steve martin and martin all i am here with are really really special guests but most of all my dear friend monica van buskirk who runs our fenway zal foundation welcome thank you mary i'm thrilled to be here you know it's really great relationship the foundation and  the hall and i can't believe i've been here ten years how many years have you been i have been actually involved with the van ways for eleven years close to yours and been president c e o believe it or not six years wow we had time has flown and if you're wondering yes we do call each other and decide what we're going to wear a dress like we do love or any love red we love in red red but you know what it's been so special the foundation of course supports our education programs they support beautification of the hall and one of the best ways they have been able to do that and it's such a visual way is with our families will foundation gala which of course makes me insane trying to find an artist this year but we have a great one don't we oh we're so excited and even our save the da was what jay leno and sarah go off and it's the best fundraising gala so we feel particularly good we have to thank the staffs of both the hall and the fibers illusion because that money goes to the time they are really hollywood's a list if you really want to use the ad yes precious yeah because the excitement with the donors and patrons calling to be able to see them in this sarasota is very exciting now the gala you get not only the show but they have a fantastic cocktail party last year it's out on the bay front it was gorgeous the sun coming down and then they go to a fantastic dinner theater have you right where people dance to the wee hours last night they did and well they are party animals there's no question about it but mary one of the things we're very excited about is the v i p there's also the regular patrons and paid as i'm always startled and very proud of this community because many people buy patron tickets because they know the money is going to the children how do they get and you already have two ways to do this you either call us at three six six five five seven eight or better yet where we're go to our website which is v w foundation dot org so please come  to it it's a wonderful thing and it's one of the great things the foundation also is going to have special events this year with christian channel with and with jay leno and then you've been involved in the giving challenge you know what sorts of events so you're staff is really busy but there's another new program we could talk about obviously the president society and where the presidents aren't where yes we are at in fact i had a new donor who came from beverly hills and they're thrilled and they said when do we get to i'm joining the presidents club time to present the society augers those people who want to get to know the back side of our program behind the scenes everybody wants to know but when you have a major program the inspiration right and i'm really proud of that we started three years ago and i we have close to thirty nine inspirations who give twenty five thousand and above and we want to pass out of that we're having a special party to honor them and you know we talk about all these fun social events but i cannot stress enough thanks to the foundation all thirty thousand kids that come to our school time shows come on the bus for three the foundation provides tickets for title one schools they've done so much to update the hall every dollar is so important to us because it helps us make i think a lot of students lives more in rich and we have so many other programs to support and i can't thank you enough i thank you mary and remember we couldn't do this well if the hall to have the show is in the program so we have to ask you because you make our job easier so i guess you see why we are such great friends and why the hall of the foundation work so well together so we'll be back in a minute and monica want to have you back to talk a little bit more about some of the other programs i will and i'm happy to go to this gala it will be know which i find so it's hard to talk about the holidays in florida period you know but talking about them you know when it's september october is there's a little hard it's only up to ninety one yeah yeah you know it was a mere eighty three this morning when i and i didn't know who he was at the time you know he didn't have the fame he had today on the radio inside folks but but the thing is he plays the piano so beautifully and this show is called comfort and joy i have his album  whose show is on tuesday november twenty ninth and let's see  i am thinking of adding another performance on december eighth happy to work with me on these special yes no i will probably so as well because you were clamoring for that show we before before we even went on the weekend of sales the show already had like twelve hundred tickets sold at that point it's one of the hottest of your musicals you've chosen along with kid yeah yeah it we're having a great broadway it's a good series broadway since you mentioned i think you mentioned overage voice christmas celebration before and the thing with oak ridge boys it's the best value for your dollar i think i've seen this show before they do their whole concert of their hit you know fire and all those songs in the first act and then the second act maybe throw in the whole christmas show on me so i mean you get your e mail and i really am not like that so much fun to want to put on like hell that it's going to so that's like the only one so oak ridge boys and then there's the beach boys christmas chuck and everybody on the staff they know i'm a christmas maniac i am a maniac i have more christmas decorations than you would find in a store a big store so i love she isn't crackers t before and you know you look at these guys and all the songs they have written and the nice thing about the beach boys christmas show they like the oak ridge boys do some of their regular payments to us there we go i think they mix it up a little bit more but there's going to be a lot of their hits throughout it and so that that is on because we get to a point where we're seeing a show seven days a week and you need to go home and be that dog didn't do the laundry but he was so wonderful i stayed the whole night and then he started singing did he say that was and of course he's just retired from his beloved companion but that's why i think it's extra special because folks will be get to see him and that's tuesday december thirteenth and then christmas carol we have this every year and i love it every year  five three three three six eight or van ways old or new and i can tell you folks i am working on eleven shows right now that hopefully will be able to announce soon because and there are some big ones course the big ones they always want to date that i don't have and so i'm trying to move things around get rid of some of the little ones no i'm not and i'm just trying to move things around chuck is such a talent but anyway we so enjoy bringing us the band way as well because it's been it's really