Empire Delivers NBC's The Office Star Rainn Wilson to Host a Major Corporate Meeting

When a global corporation was planning a large-scale annual meeting for all of it's regional employees, they sought a humorous host who could handle their audience of over 12,000. Moreover, the external creative agency for the event, a cutting edge new firm with a Generation-Y attitude, needed a tongue-in-cheek, fresh comedian with a business affiliation to deliver on their creative. As the preferred entertainment supplier to the corporate client, Empire was asked to work with the creative agency to fulfill the specific talent needs of the project while simultaneously following the carefully-constructed contractual guidelines that have governed the relationship with the client for the past 10 years.

Working closely with the client and creative agency, Empire was able to deliver one of the stars of NBC's wildly successful series - "The Office" - Rainn Wilson, to host the meeting. Rainn's humor - as displayed in the Office series, but also in his film roles in "Juno," "My Super Ex-Girlfriend," "Galaxy Quest," "Almost Famous" and "The Rocker" - was perfect for this audience and the creative.Prior to coming onsite, Rainn participated in a remote recording of a video sketch depicting the creative agency trying to select the host. As the agency sifted through potential candidates ranging from Bob Hope and Jared from the Subway commercials to Gandhi, they moved on to suggest Rainn Wilson who they unanimously decided should not be the host as he is decidedly "not funny." Then they discovered that Rainn was on the conference call...

Onsite Rainn was a superb host and fulfilled perfectly the creative agency's vision. He opened the meeting in full costume as one of the client's entertainment properties and rapidly assumed the role of host in the center of the sports stadium. He began: "All my life I was told no. No you can't have a pony, no you can't eat that off the floor, no you can't shave your grandfather. No matter how famous I get nothing seems to change. Even today at the airport: "No you can't change your seat from 31B, middle, to 31A, window. No, you can't carry on your alpaca. No, you can't sync your iPhone to your iPod. No, the cable guy will not lock down a time to be at your house. No, no, no."Then today I got to [Client's Name] Company Meeting and they started saying "Yes." They said I could do whatever I wanted. That today was about ‘yes.' I asked, ‘Hmmm, Can I set a seating section on fire?' They said yes." Rainn then demonstrated the power of "Yes" by waving his hands which set off an explosion in a section of the bleachers and then threw out a pitch from the pitching mound.Rainn then hosted a series of humorous vignettes that introduced speakers and videos and tied together the various presentations throughout the day.

Each of Rainn's segments were met with roaring laughter and applause.The exciting finalé of Rainn's performance came as he instructed all attending employees to fold and construct over 12,000 paper airplanes, and then, at once, throw them in unison, achieving the Guiness Book of World Records record for the most paper airplanes thrown at one time.Rainn worked closely with the creative team and Empire on details such as scripting, costumes, special effects, etc.Empire negotiated the deal for Rainn, worked with his management in order to secure time off from his busy shooting schedule for The Office and the theatrical release of his new film The Rocker. Empire also served as onsite talent liaison for Rainn to help him deliver the best possible performance.

Empire is a leading source of celebrity and headline talent for meeting hosts, spokesperson roles and personal appearances and often collaborates with creative agencies and production companies to help fulfill their creative visions through the effective use of talent.