Driving in hoop skirts, getting requests for Led Zeppelin and being in the center of Southern California’s social whirl for weeks are among the challenges professional Dickens carolers face during the holiday season.
“In December, it’s a full-time thing. Don’t sleep. Don’t eat. Luckily you get to lose 10 pounds,” said Lisa Stanley, who runs the Voices of Christmas in Los Angeles.
Like many carolers, Stanley is a professional actor, a member of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio. But in a phone interview, she said she doesn’t pursue other jobs during December and that maintaining the business takes six months of the year, beginning in July.
Her clients include Lawry’s Tam O’Shanter in Atwater Village for 26 years and Lawry’s Prime Rib on La Cienega Boulevard.
The Voices of Christmas is the subject of a 2017 documentary on Amazon, “”Tis The Season!” In it, she calls caroling big business.
In addition to restaurants, there are gigs at theme parks, shopping centers, wineries, resort hotels, tree lightings, parades, assisted living, corporate events and sometimes even movie and TV work.
Many businesses supply carolers during the holidays, and some like the Voices of Christmas have been around for decades.
Performers typically have to audition and learn a lot of music, including original arrangements. If they are independent contractors, they spring for costumes.
They go out in quartets — soprano, alto, tenor and bass — and frequently work in 19th century garb, although some performances call for matching contemporary outfits.
Rates often start at a few hundred dollars an hour, and bookings begin as early as January, according to Tisha Bellantuoni, founder of the Lil’ Dickens Carolers in Orange County.
Calling the tune
Bellantunoni has four quartets, plus four substitute singers. Each group has a different style, from traditional and sacred to jazzy and sophisticated or family and humorous….
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