Las Vegas’ entertainment industry has two sides. There are flashy shows and concerts and events that line the Strip, And then there are private, corporate events, just as flashy, expensive and star-studded but out of reach to the general public.
Many artists and technicians who make a living in Vegas entertainment dabble in both, but Las Vegas-born singer Lisa Marie Smith is doing more than dipping a toe in the corporate entertainment world—she’s building a second career there.
After roles in shows like Pin Up at the Strat and Baz at Palazzo and some time recording her own music, she joined the cast at Mayfair Supper Club at Bellagio and was one of the first entertainers to return to the stage during the pandemic. But she had already begun a new journey by then, inspired to forge her own path after recovering from serious separate injuries to her back and vocal cords that threatened her career.
Smith and her husband and partner Isaac Tubb—an acclaimed trumpet player and musician who has also performed in countless Vegas shows and currently co-stars in Cirque du Soleil’s Mad Apple at New York-New York—created Live Music Society, a band that performed in casino lounges before graduating to big-time corporate gigs, like the private show headlined by Janet Jackson to ring in the new year at Wynn.
It was a bold move, and it’s been an interesting adventure so far, Smith says—and she’s only getting started.
Shifting from performer to producer probably seems like a natural progression to those outside the industry, but it’s pretty complicated, right? It presented a real challenge for me. There’s a lack of female representation in the industry in general, but usually females are the performers, not the people casting the performers. That space is generally a boys’ club—the creation, the booking, the negotiation, the production. Not to mention to cross over from entertainer to producer or booker or agent, people might not take you seriously. You’re stepping on toes. And the lines are very separated in Las Vegas—you’re behind the scenes or you’re in front. I had to develop a super-clear sense of intention, a super-thick skin and a game plan.
The core of that game plan is the band, Live Music Society, which is something of a rotating cast of some of the most talented musicians in Vegas. It started as a bunch of friends, and you always hear it’s a bad idea to hire your friends. But they had a vested interest in our company, and they’re some of the best musicians in Las Vegas—even our sound guys work on some of the best shows on the Strip—so we got really strong feedback in the lounges. That started us down the path of reaching out to the corporate event industry.
It takes a lot of different skills to run a corporate music event. A lot of people think they get a band together, play the music the client wants and call it a day. But that wouldn’t justify the investment the [company] is making. These events cost a lot of money, so it’s about what makes this band different from plucking any group in Las Vegas or any other place. The [performance] has to be catered individually to each brand. LMS came in as a liaison between big business and art.
Did the private New Year’s Eve party at Wynn with Janet Jackson mark a point where your business turned the corner? It was huge. Jaimee [Gallego] at JKay Choreography reached out about it and said, “It’s a 90-minute production, and we want to work with you to put it on. We do the performance structure and you guys do all the music.” It was two months of hyper-focused structure with a timecode; we had to do everything on a click, going from one song into another with a beat underneath. We had to figure out who do we incorporate that with live musicians.
It was really challenging in a good way, and we found out we were opening for Janet a couple weeks before. And Cher ended up being there, which was really cool, because she’s my idol. I’m Armenian, and she’s the only Armenian pop star ever.
It was a [turning point], but the major turning point was when I was asked to spearhead the entertainment for Caesars Means Business, their campaign tour for the year. We went to six cities over six months, and I was hired to create and supply the entertainment. It was in conjunction with Imprint Events Group, and their partnership was the launch of me doing this on a corporate scale … That connected me to the Wynn, so there was a domino effect.
What’s it like to be developing and growing this company with your husband, who just happens to be one of those great Vegas musicians? He’s an anomaly. He has that dual brain. A lot of musicians don’t necessarily have that frontperson mentality, and he can turn that on, although he doesn’t like to. I think that’s why he was hired for Mad Apple. Isaac and I decided to divide and conquer, so he starts developing the music structure and I was the one creating a legit technical rider and getting into the details.
It must be rewarding to collaborate with your partner like that, and to work with so many of your friends. One of the most fulfilling parts of this whole journey has been employing people I love and respect who deserve their time to shine. Giving somebody like [singer] Elise Victoria a platform to use that insane voice of hers … and now she runs the band in all the lounges, hires musicians, creates setlists.
People are getting inspired to create their own projects. When you give people that respect, they start believing in themselves more and it breeds excellence. That is the most rewarding part of it.
What does your future as a performer look like? I’m still doing Mayfair, and I’m still doing [cruise] ships on occasion. I want to perform because it brings me joy, not because I have to. We become artists because it brought us joy, and then it turns into our job, and sometimes the joy can be stripped from that. So the ultimate goal is to find the joy every time I perform.
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