Playing his first paying gigs as a teenager in North Carolina, Rick has made the music business a primary part of his life. While in college at Wake Forest University, Rick performed with an instrumental fusion group, jazz orchestra, folk band, bluegrass band, and as solo performer in the local coffeehouse.
After college Rick joined the group "Cullowhee", a very successful country-rock group that toured the US and recorded numerous records. Despite several brushes with the "big time" the group disbanded in 1984, and Rick began his solo career playing clubs around Atlanta, Athens, Louisville, Beech Mountain, and other locations throughout the southeast.
He also performed with a number of bands including "The Front" and "Darryl Rhoades and the Mighty Men From Glad." In 1987 Rick was presented with the opportunity to create a family-oriented music show on Hilton Head Island. From that summer on, Rick has performed his "Kazoobie Kazoo Show" across the USA from the Seattle Children's Festival to The Kennedy Center. The amazing 30-year run continues, although Rick is cutting back to only performing at his favorite places such as Kiawah Island Resort near Charleston, SC, where he has performed consecutively since 1989.
The highlight of Rick's "Kazoobie Kazoo Show" was always the grand finale in which every kid and audience member received a free kazoo. Rick has given away over one million kazoos during his career. In 1997 Rick created his first ecommerce website www.kazoos.com selling kazoos to the world. In 1999 his kazoo supplier offered Rick the opportunity to purchase the entire manufacturing business, and with some loans from some of his friends, Rick created Kazoobie Kazoos - the only plastic kazoo made in the USA. The company grew steadily and in 2013, Rick sold the company to his original employee and now continues as a consultant.
Rick decided to monetize his juggling skills soon after he started his "Kazoobie Kazoo Show." His plan was to teach others to juggle and let them be a part of his juggling team. "JuggleStuff" was born, and Rick has taught many young people to juggle and helped them develop their own juggling and entertainment businesses.
Since earning his US Coast Guard Captain's License in the early 1990's, Rick has always spent a part of every summer season working on boats around Hilton Head Island. From teaching sailing at Island Water Sports to captaining "Cheers" - a 47' Sailboat - to his current position as Operations Manager for Island Explorer Dolphin & Nature Tours, Rick always enjoys being on the water. During the winter seasons, Rick is often found in the Caribbean captaining private sailing charters in such exotic locations as Puerto Rico, British Virgin Island, St. Martin, and St. Vincent & the Grenadines. Read more about Rick's sailing adventures at www.SailRick.com
Rick has always enjoyed helping his friends develop the same success that he has enjoyed. He has mentored numerous young musicians and performing artists and eventually began arranging bookings for them. Rick developed an organization called "First Entertainment Management" to promote and book his entertainer friends. Several of these performers have developed successful careers.
In 2015 one those performers, David DiMuzio, asked Rick to consult and assist with a new opportunity in booking entertainers on cruise ships in Asia. Rick has moved into a nearly full time position handling artist bookings and logistics for the Asia division of Blackburn International (a London-based company with offices in Australia). Rick is now devoting all of his attention to this opportunity and no longer actively develops acts under "First Entertainment Management."
From his early exposure to the internet in the 1990s and his early work in building an ecommerce website in 1997, Rick has developed a broad set of skills in developing websites. Over the years, Rick has engaged with a number of clients to build websites and develop strategies for success in web marketing. Rick continues to support this core group of clients, but rarely takes on additional clients.
As someone who has "...made a million dollars playing the kazoo...", Rick has keen focus on marketing. His numerous website clients as wall as other friends and contacts have counted on Rick to develop creative marketing strategies. The successes of nearly all of these businesses is a tribute to Rick's understanding of marketing.
Between 1988 and 1993, Rick made a full-time living as a stand-up comedian. His clean, observational style of comedy has been compared to that of Jerry Seinfeld. Rick began as an opening act and eventually worked his way to headlining. He's performed at such prestigious comedy clubs as The Comedy Store in Los Angeles and Charlie Goodnight's in Raleigh, NC. His humorous approach to public speaking has brought requests from numerous festival organizations and even the National Association of Music Merchandisers (NAMM) to give keynote speechs at their conferences. Rick is always open to the challenge of bringing effective communication with a positive message to organizations everywhere.
