Buy a show!

I do shows! In person! My actual self!

Email me at mp@marvinpayne.com if you have an interest in any of these shows.

[This page is designed to address the needs of promoters, producers, and organizations. If you find the phrase "Buy a show!" intimidating, click here to explore a virtually painless alternative, 
a *home concert.]

THE CONCERT                                                                     

        A guitar, a banjo, maybe a piano, and the brightest, funniest, loveliest and most lasting from Marvin Payne's hundreds of songs. A sweet time together.

"There are no facades with Marvin Payne. He is a down-to-earth, powerful
performer, broadening his audience's sense of purpose and enjoyment."
--Tradewinds Magazine

"Warm as a quilt, colorful as a rainbow." --Olga Milius, Eagle Newspapers

"Creating onstage an emotional connection audiences long for and seldom find." --Nancy Melich, Salt Lake Tribune

"There is little doubt that Marvin's 'ship' is one that is steered by the rudder of Christ's truths and principles." -- Dale Van Atta, The New Era

THE PLANEMAKER

        "The Planemaker" is a magical musical story designed to re-awaken childhood's dreams, played live by gifted writer, actor, and storyteller Marvin Payne.
        Critically acclaimed in performances across the nation, "The Planemaker" is about a small boy, Lucas Lightbrow, who dreams that he can fly, maybe even out to the stars. Two joys consume his young life--courting lovely Amy Fletcher and building wild flying machines out of other people's junk--but his planes won't fly, and he loses Amy at the birth of their only child. Lucas sends his son to be raised by city relatives, tends his farm alone, and gets old and empty in an uncaring world. Then his mysterious grandson comes to visit, finds the forgotten planes, and brings the old man's dream to life again, sending him finally on a breathtaking celestial flight back to his beloved Amy. It's been called "the most unbelievable story you'll ever believe in." Story and songs were written by Payne and partner Guy Randle.
        Marvin Payne blends the skill acquired in the creation of twelve albums of original songs, writing for several internationally-known artists, and acting in a broad range of plays and films to make this one-man stage fantasy fly.

"Planemaker" soars with wit and sensitivity. Payne has an unusual ability to communicate feelings, whether it be with his expressive eyes, his excellent timing in delivering lines, or his vocals. The script requires Payne to bounce back and forth between the roles, but bounce he does not. The transitions are more like the smooth, quiet meshing of gears. He is on the stage for nearly 90 minutes non-stop, and the audience's attention is riveted to this master storyteller.
--Laurie Williams Sowby, Deseret News

J. GOLDEN!                                                                                          

        Spend an evening with legendary J. Golden Kimball, the most talked-about church authority since Jonah was regurgitated onto the beach. James Arrington crafted this hilarious and touching one-man show from the colorful words of J. Golden himself.

TRAILSONG

        The lights dim, the old muslin map unrolls, and the theatre seems to smell of sage, thunder, and gunpowder as the man in the tall boots steps forward across the years to tell his story. Marvin Payne, as pioneer scout John Brown, a role he played all through the pioneer sesquicentennial year in the play "The Trail Of Dreams," weaves together true and tender tales with a rackety banjo song that recalls the sounds that echoed along the pioneer trail in his one-man show "Trailsong." There were seventy-thousand Mormon pioneers, and seventy-thousand colors of heartbreak, joy, and laughter. John Brown remembers. Old and young, bring your imaginations!

   

NUTS & BOLTS (fine print, talking turkey)

The cost to mount any of these shows would vary with consideration to the venue, ticket prices, advertising budget, potential audience, and the nature of the show. "J. Golden!" would be the most expensive, involving a full set and a slug of rehearsal time (if the show isn't already in production nearby). "The Planemaker" would be next, requiring little set-up, but lots of re-memorization (again, if the show isn't already in production nearby). "Trailsong" would be next, because it's more a matter of improvisation around a set of historical facts. "The Concert" would be least expensive, because the songs are all at the tips of my fingers and would probably vary according to audience interplay, anyway. So it's all pretty variable and highly negotiable, with a low of a few hundred dollars and a high of several thousand. 

If I play a straight concert for a non-show-business organization, like a company or a stake or an Institute of Religion or Community Concert Series, or if I'm brought in as the "entertainment" for a function that's actually gathering for some other reason (like dinner, awards, family or class reunion, birthday or Christmas party, etc.), I typically charge between $300 and $800, plus whatever expenses might be incurred.

~

*The home concerts are different. Unless there are expenses involved (travel, meals, lodging, days away from the studio) they don't cost the hosts anything but the effort to get people there. The way I can justify that to my family and creditors is to say that the basis for income is CD sales. In the sample flyer on the "Home Concert" page here, I've tried to make it clear to anyone attending that the performance is a celebration of a particular CD or set of CDs, and that they'll be available for purchase at the home concert. Usually I'll come away a dozen or two CDs lighter. But after the first fifteen minutes together, we always forget that there was any financial object in mind at all.