The Self Portrait Station - Phoenix Photo Booth

I'm happy to announce that we are starting a weekly feature on the blog that we're calling, wait for it... Vendor Mondays! Original, I know. We just wanted to be able to feature all our favorite vendors, so you know who to hire to make your event awesome! So be sure to check back each week to meet a new fantastic vendor!

This week we're featuring one of our favorite DJ's, Curtis Whipple. He's got years of experience rocking parties and events, and is the consummate professional. He would be the perfect addition to your event! Also, we're running a special promotion with him. Check it out on our website!

Curtis Whipple- DJ

Website: www.curtiswhipple.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/curtis.whipple
Email: curtiswhipple@cox.net

How/when did you get started? Started at age 14 in Winslow AZ. Had the privilege of introducing an appearance of Arizona TV legends Wallace and Ladmo at a retail promotion at my dad's department store. The experience sparked my passion and it's been 31 years since then.

Tell us about you business. I'm the anti-DJ... I don't wear an ill-fitting, out-of-date tux, I don't play the obvious, safe song choices, I don't make the guests do uncomfortable sight gags and bits. I use high quality sound, lighting and video projection to bring lots of value for the money and I create something energetic but not tiring, racy but not crude, interactive but not overbearing.

Tell us about one of your favorite events. Susan Marshall's wedding in 1987. She and I had dated shortly in college although it ultimately wasn't a romantic connection, we remained good friends. When she married, she wanted me to DJ for her wedding. Even though I had been at it for a few years, I was still approaching it from a hobbyist standpoint. I was in school and also working and hers was the first big budget event I had ever done. I used that pressure to really step up my game and I turned that event from a lovely wedding into the social event of the season. I booked other jobs from attendees to that event for several years and that golf club also became a regular customer for several years while I lived in that city. It was the first time I counted myself a professional DJ as I realized the power that music and a proper MC could have on a group of people.

If you could throw the ultimate party - no budget - tell us about the theme and some key things you'd just have to include. I go to parties so often that it's hard to answer that one. It's like being behind the scenes at a magic show- knowing how the tricks work... I hope this doesn't come off as arrogant or aloof but I don't need anything fancy- I've seen it. Good food, good friends and good music is all I need. Tommy Shaw from Styx and Jack Blades from Night Ranger would bring a couple of guitars and we'd all sit on the porch and sing every Beatles song we know.

What's your all-time favorite slow dance song? Toss-up between Van Morrison's Someone like you and Heatwave's Always and Forever.

Best get the party started song? Right now I use Taio Cruz' Dynamite because it has great energy and it has already kinda entered the collective consciousness. At a social occasion where you have 3 or even 4 generations of people, that first song needs to come out swinging. That one does the trick! Everybody knows it. That choice may change in a month though...

Anything new in store for your clients? I've always embraced new technology as it comes around but technology won't save an event if an entertainer stinks. My 'product' is a creative/artistic offering that is created and consumed in the same instant. I use the technology to free me to be the best entertainer I can be.