Introduction to iDesign Lab with Kimberly Wick

Voice Over 0:00

This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design. Curator of interiors, furnishings and lifestyles. Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott, idesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends. Idesign Lab provides industry insight, discussing the latest trends, styles and everything in between to better help you style your life, through advice from trendsetters, designers, influencers, innovators, fabricators and manufacturers, as well as personal stories that inspire, motivate and excite. And join us on this elevated, informative and lively journey into the world of all things design. Today, on the iDesign Lab, we're joined by the extraordinary Kimberly Wick, co-owner of Costume World, the largest theatrical costume operation in the country. A visionary in set and costume design, kim also serves as artistic director of the Wick Theatre and has led every costume museum exhibition since 2010. From Broadway to Boca Raton, her work preserves theatrical history while inspiring audiences through immersive design and storytelling.

Tiffany Woolley 1:17

Welcome to the iDesign Lab podcast. Today we are having an amazing conversation. It's already kind of began, but we have Kimberly Wick here who has designed a really fascinating career around costume and theater.

Scott Woolley 1:36

Costume theater.

Tiffany Woolley 1:38

And a family business and a lot of other juxtaposition that happened to start at their kitchen table having to do with a Santa costume.

Scott Woolley 1:47

So let's kind of start there. Tell us how your family started a costume business at the kitchen table On the kitchen table. How old were you? You?

Costume World's Origins: The Santa Suit

Kim Wick 1:54

were kids. We lived in Boca Raton already and I was about nine years old.

Kim Wick 2:00

And you had a sister, kelly, and my sister, kelly, and my mother and I and it was a little bit school project, right, a little bit my mother's significant other companion needed something for this Christmas event, right? He used to kind of pass out his bonus checks every year dressed as some crazy costume. So he needed a Santa, and Kelly and I needed a project, and so Mom said, well, we're going to make one, make her a Santa costume. So he needed a Santa, and Kelly and I needed a project, and so mom said, well, we're going to make one.

Scott Woolley 2:28

I mean, I think, make a Santa costume, make a Santa costume.

Kim Wick 2:31

I mean, the best part is that my mother can't sew.

Kim Wick 2:33

Well, I was going to wonder where even any of the sewing background came, Nor did I but I liked to fiddle around with, you know, making little potholders and silly little stuff. You know, when you're nine years old, Right. And that Santa suit that he wore. When we laundered it and put it on our clothesline in Old Floresta, all the neighbors wanted to borrow it. And lo and behold. Back then the Boca newspaper came by, took a picture of the Santa suit on a clothesline out in the Like, santa lives in.

Tiffany Woolley 3:04

Boca Like he's retiring in Boca.

Kim Wick 3:10

And everybody wanted to borrow it. My mom's like, for 25 bucks you can rent it and Kelly and I really like kind of had fun with it. Like you know, we were really little but we knew.

Tiffany Woolley 3:25

You know what was up.

Kim Wick 3:25

Well, that entrepreneurial spirit was very yeah. My mother was involved and ran a very successful construction cleaning business at the time which is you know, all guys you know beat the pavement every day, construction sites, you know, blah, blah, blah.

Kim Wick 3:39

So this was kind of like a fun little diversion slash hobby and we did have a housekeeper at the time and she was a pretty capable seamstress. She actually taught me to sew a little bit more than my grandmothers had, and so we kind of my mom dove in with two feet. Obviously we weren't making decisions at that age, but my mom loved it and it was unique and we took my mother's construction cleaning office in Pompano on Powerline Road, which back then was a gravel road.

Tiffany Woolley 4:11

Right.

Kim Wick 4:12

And she moved the little office where the girls were in the front, moved them to the back of the building and in this front room which was maybe 20 by 20, she set up a store and she called it Holiday Showcase and in it we had our Santa suits and then at Easter time we had Easter bunnies.

Kim Wick 4:29

And we had all little novelties and things and we would go to the New York show. I remember the first time my mother ever went to the New York show to buy stuff for our store. She went with a girlfriend and they drove in a big wagon Station wagon. Station wagon Right and filled up the car with all this stuff and brought it back.

Scott Woolley 4:49

But what kind of stuff? Costume stuff? No, no, trinkety things.

Kim Wick 4:52

Trinkety things Like gimmicky stores. Some costumey things like novelty nose for Rudolph and antlers and stuff.

Tiffany Woolley 5:00

There was no Target back then. There was no like and nobody sold costumes.

Kim Wick 5:04

There was no such thing as Party City and all of that insanity.

Kim Wick 5:08

Yeah. So, sure enough, we turned that little store, our 20 by 20 store, and people would line up. And then we had this thing called Halloween Uh-huh, which was until then. You bought your costume at the Five and Dime and it came in a box with that little thing with the mask on the top and you put the mask and the jumpsuit on and you tied it around your neck and you went out dressed as a robot or this or that. Well, my mother's idea and of course it was starting to happen was to have a real cape for Dracula and a pair of fangs and a medallion for your neck and all the little parts and pieces. And I mean, she's not the only person that was thinking of it at the time, but it was kind of transitioning then. So that's what we filled our store up with at Halloween, and I'm not exaggerating, I swear to you, people would line up on power line road.

Kim Wick 6:05

Oh, I believe it in the dirt with the trucks going by and all that white dusty nasty flying everywhere, and my mother would have entertainment outside, really god she bought.

Voice Over 6:17

So I mean, this is one of the things we missed.

Kim Wick 6:20

She literally would buy from a manufacturer somewhere little clear bottles with a lid and we would put water in the bottles and give them out for people waiting in line because it was hot.

Scott Woolley 6:34

The line was that long.

Kim Wick 6:36

Oh yeah, it would be 100 people deep all the time we had entertainment outside entertaining them. We usually would have a clown on Saturdays and a juggler or something. One time my mom rented this guy, came in like a Batmobile and did like a little Batmobile thing while people were waiting outside. They loved it. It was like a party.

Scott Woolley 6:56

Right.

Kim Wick 6:56

And eventually, you know, things just grew and grew. We ended up having a showroom and starting to make our own things. We started buying costume houses around the country and if they were in a decent location and had some potential, she would turn that store into one of our stores, A Halloween store.

Scott Woolley 7:14

Well, costume stores not just for Halloween. I got you, but did it start with Halloween first?

Kim Wick 7:19

Well, it started with Christmas first obviously Santa and then it grew to Halloween and then it just kept on growing and back then at one point we had nine stores open across the country and our store in Dallas, texas, just closed a year and a half ago. It was 10,000 square feet. Our Austin, texas store was 10,000 square feet. There's a lot of theater.

Scott Woolley 7:40

You had one in Philadelphia.

Kim Wick 7:42

Two in Pittsburgh, yeah.

Scott Woolley 7:42

I remember that.

Kim Wick 7:44

We had a store in Atlanta for a very short period of time, but we ended up selling it and somebody else, so it became like the biggest costume stores in the country.

Kim Wick 7:52

You'll love this. Sears didn't have Halloween. So Sears tried hiring my mother to set up Halloween stores and all the Sears stores around the country and she was like that sounds like too much work. So instead we opened nine of our own stores. It makes no sense, but remember, we were collecting all this wardrobe from around from different costume houses and we knew and my mother was had a lot of foresight always um that the, the rental business couldn't just be halloween, it couldn't just be christmas, it couldn't just be easter, it had to be theater, sustainable and sustainable throughout the year, or else she'd never be able to get out of the damn cleaning business. You know, the window cleaning business. Was she still doing that? She was. She did both of them for years. We used to have jokes she had like a painter's hat. My uncle was in the paint business. His office was there too. We were all under one roof and that was on Copens Road, and we eventually named the company Costume World.

Tiffany Woolley 8:49

I was going to ask you. So where did that begin and how far from the little Copens Road office to become Costume World?

Scott Woolley 8:57

It was Powerline Because in Copens it was a big place, a big store, yeah, and my mother's office was upstairs and she oversaw everything.

Kim Wick 9:06

It was probably around 10 years in that we became Costume World and she basically told all the staff to come up with a name. And one of our employees, bonnie Catt, got arrested. She passed away during COVID. She was just full of energy. She's like Costume World should be the name, and of course that became the name. She was just full of energy. She's like Costume World should be the name and of course that became the name. She got $100 for naming the company.

Voice Over 9:29

But, and were you always along since you started?

Kim Wick 9:35

this at nine years old, like this, just became something as a hobby.

Tiffany Woolley 9:38

I mean, you spent your weekends probably doing this. We were the three musketeers.

Kim Wick 9:42

So after school our housekeeper or my aunt would pick us up from school and we would go to Costume World, you know, then, or before then even, and we each had our own little space where we would do our homework and all that stuff and then we would help price merchandise and we got to merchandise. You know the walls and you know the stuff that kids just you know we, I mean she was our mom, we didn't our father was. You know the stuff that kids just you know we I mean she was our mom, we didn't our father was. You know they had been divorced for many years. So she was our mom and our dad and we spent all of our time with her.

Growth Into Broadway Costume Collecting

Scott Woolley 10:12

And we really were the three musketeers. We grew up in it. You almost had two businesses. You had the costume for people who wanted costumes to go to parties and so forth, but then you grew it into a business of costumes for Broadway and performing arts and theater and that itself became a very huge aspect of the business and now has an enormous amount of value in terms of the collections that you've, you know.

Kim Wick 10:41

We bought our first. Well, first of all, just to clarify, because I don't want to mislead your listeners um, we don't do broadway shows. What? We do is buy the broadway wardrobe when the show closes, and we're one of several people that really you are. Bid on those wardrobes. Okay, sometimes we get it and sometimes we don't right um and often. Now we have such a relationship with many of these designers.

Tiffany Woolley 11:07

Are they auction houses, or how does that happen?

Kim Wick 11:10

Well, it's usually just kind of the producers.

Tiffany Woolley 11:12

Okay.

Kim Wick 11:13

They kind of put it out in the marketplace.

Voice Over 11:15

Okay.

Scott Woolley 11:16

You know the show is closing, so a Broadway show is closing. What's the reason why you're buying?

Kim Wick 11:24

Because once it closes now, the regional market gets a chance to do that show. Okay, all these professional equity theaters around the country, country, right. So now is an opportunity for us to jump in and grab that wardrobe and put it in our warehouse and then we facilitate renting it to theaters all over the country.

Kim Wick 11:44

We own Beautiful the Broadway wardrobe now. Of course we just did it at the WIC, but we have it rented several times already to other theaters around the country. So they all send us their measurements. By the way, we've been doing that since 1978. Other rental houses have never done that. We have seamstresses. The measurements come to us. We measure and alter the wardrobe, make sure that it will fit the cast member, take a little tuck here, tuck there, of course, repair, make sure that everything's in beautiful order and then ship it out to.

Kim Wick 12:14

Pressed, bagged, inventoried, and it goes to the theater. And when the costumer at the theater opens up that box, she says oh well, this is for Peggy Sawyer, it's got her name on it. What scene she wears it? Blah, blah. This is her second costume, this is her third costume, this is her finale, and it's like that with every character. So we really are a tool for a, a theater around the country, and that's also why it is such an effective tool for high schools, because we also do high school these days. Why would with?

Tiffany Woolley 12:43

oh, it's an effective tool for high schools, because we also do high school Well, I'm impressed these days with the costumes from these Some of the high schools. Their shows are like Are unbelievable oh my God, better than our show. I mean, it's crazy, it's crazy, and they have.

Kim Wick 12:55

There's so many talented kids, we're really lucky. We're in a fortunate market. We are With supporting family, family members that love their kids being in the arts. It's true, so it's contagious.

Scott Woolley 13:05

It is the kids just thrive. Last night we were at an awards ceremony for our kids that was coming into school and it was the Performing Arts Awards. So it was all the kids that best singer, best actor, best actress.

Tiffany Woolley 13:18

Best spins, all of that.

Kim Wick 13:19

And your girls won every award, not every award. They got a couple, they got a couple, but yeah. But you know we are really lucky. You know we are surrounded with a community that loves the arts many of them from former New York City natives True true when?

Kim Wick 13:37

they're surrounded by the best theater in the country maybe in the world and they come here. They demand the best, but when their children and grandchildren are excited about it, they nurture it, they support it. It's so important and it makes the arts really great here. Because of it, and even if they don't have children and grandchildren involved in the arts, they support the art that's in our town, and it's not just the Wick Theater, it's also Delray Beach Playhouse and Kravitz and the Maltz and Broward Performing Arts and of course.

Kim Wick 14:12

Slow Burn and all the way down into Miami. I mean, I have patrons that are patrons at the theater, have been subscribers for 10 years, but they also subscribe to the Art Center.

Tiffany Woolley 14:21

All of the other ones.

Kim Wick 14:22

I mean they drive all the way to Miami to see art, to see what they love. They also go, you know, to all these other theaters all around. I mean we're really lucky.

Tiffany Woolley 14:31

We're really lucky to have so many supportive members of our community. So how did this costume world bring you to like owning a theater?

Kim Wick 14:47

bring you to like owning a theater. Well, um, we have been purchasing broadway wardrobes starting in about 2000. Um, I think our first show was bells are ringing 2002 or something like that, and we put it in our wardrobe and we solicited the professional theaters and it got booked like five times, paid for itself, like very quickly. So my mom's a numbers girl, like you know most business people, you have to have some of that.

Voice Over 15:06

You can't just all be for fun.

Kim Wick 15:08

And she said well, the math here makes sense, so we got to just keep on buying. So we kept on buying. Our largest acquisition was in 2005, when we bought 28 wardrobes from Dodger Production and Holding Company in New York. They are the folks that had won, you know 50 Tony Awards.

Tiffany Woolley 15:22

How many items is that?

Kim Wick 15:24

I mean it's 15 semis. I was just going to say 15 tractor trailer semis Of wardrobe Of wardrobe 600 boxes on each semi. It's insane.

Scott Woolley 15:35

Wait. So you have to inventory catalog organize. Oh Scott, we don't do any of those inventory things.

Kim Wick 15:43

We just throw it in a box and get it here and then we kind of sorted it as we unpacked it. It was a mess, it really was a mess up there.

Tiffany Woolley 15:51

How long does something like that even take?

Kim Wick 15:53

It took us about a year and a half to unpack it properly, sort it. So we had a warehouse in Pompano, off of Powerline Road and right across the street we had another warehouse, the one warehouse we set up with the proper racking system and so on. And then we so we had two. For about six months or eight months we had two spaces and we, everything from the semis went into the one space and then we tried to take all of quote, you know, guys and dolls out and hang it on new hangers and fresh hangers and, you know, put it into the new space.

Tiffany Woolley 16:28

That's where design and proportion and branding and all that stuff comes in.

Kim Wick 16:32

So obviously, you know, I designed the space and we set it up like a big checkerboard so that we would have like one checker of racks and the next checker was blank so we could put a vignette and a display or something in that and then the whole building was like a big checkerboard, okay, and so the clients meandered through and it was really cool. We had little vignettes of each show and dracula, the broadway musical, was hanging there and passion was there and guys and dolls was there.

Kim Wick 17:02

All these amazing shows and the wardrobes are all just works of art Made by artisans in New York City that are just. There's just none like them Nothing like it.

Scott Woolley 17:14

So how many different plays do you think you have?

Kim Wick 17:18

We have about 110 original Broadway wardrobes. Some of those pardon me, some of those are revivals, but most of them are the originals 99%.

Scott Woolley 17:28

Is any one a favorite or it stands out in your mind my Fair Lady's favorite wardrobe.

Kim Wick 17:33

And I have to tell you, just having done the current exhibit running in the museum right now, which you know people can come and do a luncheon and a tour is dressing the Edwardians and the Edwardians highlights the wardrobe from Titanic, and that wardrobe is equally spectacular.

Tiffany Woolley 17:49

It is so cool that era the Edwardian era, the Gilded Age, they say.

From Warehouse to Theater Ownership

Kim Wick 17:54

Yes, it's just very unique in all the details. But back to what I was saying. Back to what I was saying, so that once we opened that, once our warehouse, we moved everything into the new space, into the better space, which was the plan all along. Then we started my mom's like okay, the rent here is $15,000 a month. Maybe if we had a tour every Monday you know people that are theater people would come on a Monday.

Voice Over 18:24

All the actors in town.

Scott Woolley 18:25

I would think even schools could find it.

Kim Wick 18:27

Maybe you know, we could do like a tour walk through the space, like a tour, so like an admission yeah, have a little admission and see what happens, so we did.

Scott Woolley 18:34

We had our first tour on October 10th of 2010.

Kim Wick 18:39

So it was 10, 10, 10 was our first tour and it was a group of ladies from Bellagio Country Club, and by the time they left, every single one of these 40 ladies had booked a date to bring their group of 50 people.

Tiffany Woolley 18:59

And within two weeks, our calendar was sold out. Well, there's so much history that goes along with not just the show, but the period pieces you just mentioned, like all of that, and there's a lot of really historic special individual pieces.

Kim Wick 19:10

I mean Yul Brynner's jacket.

Tiffany Woolley 19:12

I mean from the King, and I, yeah, I mean it's just crazy.

Kim Wick 19:16

So now we had a museum. I mean, who knew we were going to have a museum? So now we had a museum. I mean sometimes luck and good fortune just kind of happens and hard work and hard work, I mean there's hard work along the way. So now we have this museum and you know we had all these displays. We were featured on the Today Show. Vogue magazine sent Bruce Weber here to do a piece on us. That was like 12 pages in Vogue magazine. All these crazy things, pages in Vogue magazine, all these crazy things. We won the piece that he did actually won the fashion video award. I had to go to La Jolla and accept the thing on our behalf. The trophy it was. I mean it, just like all of a sudden this world just opened up and you know it was just so, so cool.

Tiffany Woolley 20:04

It is so cool, it really was so cool, it really is Such a wild story, such a crazy story.

Kim Wick 20:09

So we operated there for two years and the fire marshal was always on us because we were in a warehouse and we had a business license, of course, but we did not have an occupancy license to assemble. And you must have an assembly license.

Tiffany Woolley 20:27

Who knew I wouldn't know?

Kim Wick 20:28

that I mean at this point, we were having like 75 ladies every day.

Tiffany Woolley 20:33

How did they know?

Scott Woolley 20:34

How did they find out what?

Voice Over 20:35

I mean Well 75 ladies.

Tiffany Woolley 20:36

Were they busing there no?

Kim Wick 20:38

they would park, were they? Meals and all that, Let me tell you how the only bad fortune that we had at the In our building, in our facade of our building, the corner unit was the fire department.

Scott Woolley 20:53

They saw everybody coming in and out all the time.

Kim Wick 20:54

I mean, we became very good friends, but they would walk down there like Lady here you are again.

Tiffany Woolley 20:57

You're not allowed to do this. I need to remind you that you are not allowed to do this.

Kim Wick 21:01

You're not allowed to have people sit down and assemble in this building. So we eventually just started looking for a new space. Of course, my sister Kelly is a commercial realtor and residential. But she looked around and we went to look at three spaces one afternoon, to move the museum one afternoon and to move the museum, and we looked at one in Pompano and another one in West Pompano or something. And then she said let's go up and look at the Caldwell Theatre, let's just see there must be a way.

Scott Woolley 21:39

It was empty at that time it was not empty, it was not.

Kim Wick 21:44

They had. The Caldwell folks had closed, basically, and the building was available. The bank is who we were dealing with. I mean just, I mean magic, really.

Voice Over 21:53

Yeah, so we go up there thinking my mom.

Kim Wick 21:57

We walk around the building. Oh well, we could do the dining room in here and we could this the auditorium, I mean it could be totally set up like a viewing thing to view all the the costume, um, history of costumes. And I mean we started going around and around and around and around. We were there for probably an hour and a half and we walk back into the auditorium for like the fourth time and it's my mother, my sister and I and the real, the other realtor, and she says girls, this is it, I've always wanted to own a theater. And my sister and I and the other realtor and she says girls, I've always wanted to own a theater. And my sister and I looked at each other and we said, well, there's no stopping her, she's a dynamo. I mean, there's no, she's the energizer.

Tiffany Woolley 22:33

When she wants something her mind's made up, there's no stopping it.

Kim Wick 22:37

And of course we were excited about it too. And I mean I've worked backstage at 100 theaters across the Northeast. I mean that's what I've done as a seamstress and a costume designer and all that. It seemed like a natural progression you know, of course. So they gave us a lease and it all happened very, very, very quickly. They gave us a lease and we signed it and about a week later this was with the bank Right Legacy Bank. We were going to call the theater the Legacy Theater.

Tiffany Woolley 23:12

The.

Kim Wick 23:12

WIC Theater to me is just.

Tiffany Woolley 23:14

Well, our ladies, Like your name actually seems magical to me.

Kim Wick 23:18

I don't know, but it's like a candle.

Tiffany Woolley 23:19

Yeah, that's what I mean, it's like you just want to like take it and you see this, well, the truth is the ladies, like the staff at Costume World named it Costume World.

Kim Wick 23:28

Yeah, we had a group of ladies for an event about like one of our last events at the old warehouse and my mom said, well, we bought this theater, so now what are we going to name it? And we sat down with like 70 ladies.

Scott Woolley 23:46

And between them myself, my mom.

Kim Wick 23:46

We talked about Legacy, because it was owned by Legacy Bank. We talked about all these different things and they all unanimously voted for the WIC. And we were not. We really didn't want to call it the WIC.

Tiffany Woolley 23:57

Oh, I think that's a legacy there.

Kim Wick 23:58

Yeah, it was just too. It was just too much too high profile, but I don't know, it just happened. But I have to share with you that like a week after we you know signed everything and now we had this lease, the guys from the bank came in like over to the building and they saw us like pulling carpet out and doing all this renovation. I mean it was dreadful. I was like okay, I said to our contractor guys, I said the first thing we have to do is get rid of this green carpet.

Kim Wick 24:25

Paint out just primer these yellow mustard walls and rust.

Voice Over 24:30

That was the color scheme.

Kim Wick 24:32

All of these images that are all over the walls and framed need to all be collected. We're going to donate those to the Historical Society and or the local cast members that were in these shows. So we put out a thing for them to all come and take these images, photos and the frames and, you know, take everything. And then we sat down to design the theater. But the guys from the bank came in and they're like so tell me some of the shows you've produced. Mom and I looked at each other. We were like we've never produced a show. He was like you've never produced a show.

Kim Wick 25:09

We're like no, he goes well, well, what makes you think you can do it? We're like well, you know, we've been at the table for all these production meetings over the last 20 years. We've worked backstage. We trust me, we got, we got it, we got it so we hired all the directors and we started having auditions, and and we produced our first show, which was the sound of music, and the rest is history and you know what year was that, how long ago that was 2013 september so you, the wick, has been.

Tiffany Woolley 25:36

When did you? When was the wick theater essentially created and purchased? What year? Uh, 2013, 2013 yeah, wow, yeah.

Kim Wick 25:45

so, um, it does go to show you and of course I often give a little bit of this little speech, quote unquote, to our patrons when they come to the theater and when we have these luncheons and stuff with the museum and I say I think one of the best takeaways that we all can take from my mother's story and she's very much alive and very much making more of her- life story every day every day vibrant and and going to town.

Kim Wick 26:14

Um is that my mother said has said to my sister and I a couple of times we've thought of these ideas for businesses and stuff. And she'll say, girls, what's going on with that? And we're like, well, we were thinking about such and such, and she always says the same thing stop thinking, do it and just do it.

Kim Wick 26:30

I know that's how I feel, and that you know, and that the worst that can happen is you fail and you try something else. I mean as long as you don't sink your children's you know, uh, college education into it. You know I mean, as long as you do it with passion and vitality and don't, you know, destroy your life.

Tiffany Woolley 26:52

And she hasn't done that.

Scott Woolley 26:53

No, I mean, it's been nothing but growth and stepping stones, but you originally purchased the theater because you were looking for a place for a museum for all the costumes For people that come in and see.

Tiffany Woolley 27:03

It was going to be a store open to the public Timing being everything People that come in and see it was going to be a store open- to the public Timing being everything I mean when you realize that that magical place was ready for you guys.

Kim Wick 27:12

I mean it really. It was beautifully designed by a gentleman named Don McLeod, from Miami.

Voice Over 27:18

Yeah.

Kim Wick 27:18

Who does a lot of theaters and so forth. I believe he's retired now, but he designed an incredible building and the folks it is. But he designed an incredible building and the folks, michael Hall at the Caldwell Theater nurtured with passion and commitment to make that building happen. And then, sadly, he eventually retired after a couple of years and it just programming changed. The economy went bust in 08. It was just a little bad string of events and it ended up being closed. It sat empty for two years.

Tiffany Woolley 27:50

Which isn't great.

Kim Wick 27:51

Literally the coffee pots had dried coffee in it when we got there.

Tiffany Woolley 27:55

What an undertaking. So I have been to the Wick Theater and I know, like your mom and you have an office that you share for the most part. Kind of Kind of. Sometimes that's complicated what your family was able to achieve together. I mean, what was that like? And yeah, I mean you've given us a little glimpse of it, but how did you communicate what were like any you guys are?

Kim Wick 28:20

clearly we're Italian is the first part. I'm gonna I know you wouldn't know that by the last name, Wick.

Kim Wick 28:26

Right, but my mother is full-blooded Italian. We were raised like good Italian girls. We're not Catholic, but everything but with all the guilt and everything included, and we, just, we were always like a family unit and there's never I don't know, there's just never any doubt that we can do it. And my mom just is always go, go, go, go go. I don't know, I mean, it's not always perfect, right? You know we have screaming matches, trust me, she usually wins Always. But you know, I mean, I think she respects me, I certainly respect her, and you know it's not all peachy, I mean like anything, nothing ever is.

Scott Woolley 29:18

But you're designing four or five plays a year. You're creating.

Tiffany Woolley 29:24

But a lot of them is also an experience too, right, but then you're also doing.

Scott Woolley 29:29

You know you have the museum that's been going on for years and years.

Kim Wick 29:33

Yeah, every summer we reinvent it, so that's always a challenge.

Scott Woolley 29:36

A year or two ago, you really reinvented it with creating an immersive theater, which is an experience, and that came out of both you and your mom went to the van gogh yes, experience with, with many of our staff.

Kim Wick 29:50

We were this was, you know, eight months into covid and we were just so tell us about that you go to in miami. We loaded everybody up, you know masks and hazmat, suits, practically, and gloves and the whole bit.

Kim Wick 30:02

And we went down to miami, we went to the van gogh, we were like the, oh, we were our group was about seven people Maybe there were another 10 in the whole building and within five minutes of being in there, we all said the same thing we could turn this into, we could take the museum and reinvent that. I mean, we don't have the 20 foot ceilings that they have, but we have 15 foot ceilings. So it's, you know, pretty clear. It really will feel immersive.

The Immersive Museum Experience

Scott Woolley 30:29

So for people listening who don't understand immersive. That's basically walking into a room where all four walls you're completely surrounded by high-definition video footage of whatever the story.

Tiffany Woolley 30:42

Isn't it amazing. You created that there.

Kim Wick 30:44

I'm very proud of it. I really am.

Scott Woolley 30:46

I mean, I think my mother would be believing it, but you see it in the Van Gogh, which is LED walls, you go back to your theater with a very big room. It's a big risk, a big undertaking yeah, we did it with projections.

Kim Wick 31:00

Actually, the original one was not LED walls, it was fabric Projection and fabric Projection and fabric Projection and fabric yeah. Big Christie projectors and cloth and we bought all the same stuff.

Scott Woolley 31:12

But it's a huge risk at the same point.

Kim Wick 31:14

Oh yeah, it was a $700,000 risk and an educational aspect of it. Sure, and it took us a year to make it happen. The night before we opened our first exhibit, the grand opening gala which I think you guys were at for my Fair Lady, which was fabulous, it didn't work. No One more. We could not get it to not hiccup for lack of whatever layman's terms.

Tiffany Woolley 31:40

I remember you saying that, but I didn't experience that.

Kim Wick 31:43

No, it didn't do it by the time it happened. Oh, as coincidence and luck.

Tiffany Woolley 31:47

I remember that night, you telling us yeah.

Kim Wick 31:49

The software that we use is a German-based software company, and it allows you to meld all of these flat images and make them seamless.

Scott Woolley 32:01

Around a room 360 degrees.

Kim Wick 32:04

And the technology has now been around for a little while. They're not the only people that do it, but this is one of the better, you know, one of the best companies supposedly. And you know when we talked to them? We talked to some people in Washington State and then in Germany.

Tiffany Woolley 32:22

Did you bring a team in to like set it all up?

Voice Over 32:25

No, we learned, taught ourselves how to do it, because there wasn't anybody that knew it well enough to come in and teach us.

Kim Wick 32:33

Actually, that's not true. We did hire a professor from Gainesville, from University of Florida. He came down and gave us about three days and then, like a month later, he came down and gave us a week, and we did learn a lot from him as well, but we still couldn't work out some of the kinks and I finally we called um the company on one of our panics you know, and they said well, tell me where, tell me where you are, again with their german accent.

Kim Wick 33:02

I said, well, we're in a town called Boca Raton, florida, and he goes. Well, you know, you must be very lucky. I said why he goes. As it turns out, the developer of the software from Germany retired in Boca Raton.

Tiffany Woolley 33:17

That's insane. Like this is all heaven sent. This is kismet stuff.

Kim Wick 33:22

I know, and he like gives you goosebumps a little bit, it does.

Kim Wick 33:31

He literally drove over and assisted us and made it work. He goes oh no, you can't. It was our audio, the audio the way we had it recorded and developed it, because obviously it's multi-layers, it was like 32 channels or something he said the system won't support any more than eight. It was like 32 channels or something he said the system won't support any more than eight. So you have to manipulate that one and manipulate that, and manipulate both of them, right, and then marry them and then through this specific software, it will run and that's all it took it's all it took.

Kim Wick 34:00

I mean, it took us two hours to do it, but um yeah, I was a little frazzled when we my mom's like put some makeup on. I'm like, I'm just so glad that it's going to work. I mean, it was something.

Tiffany Woolley 34:13

So what does the immersive experience like? How do you develop that and create that each season, and who do you create it for? Obviously, you have your patrons.

Kim Wick 34:23

Yeah, but then anybody can also come. Anybody can come. I mean, we really do kind of develop it every summer, keeping our patrons, the ones that have come year after year after year.

Voice Over 34:33

I mean the same group of 70 that came to the first exhibit over in the warehouse and beat up Pompano are still coming annually.

Kim Wick 34:43

They come once a year. It's like an annual outing. A lot of our groups. I find that they you know, the PAP Corps, the fundraisers, orts, hadassahs, the churches, I mean all these different organizations that raise, you know, do fundraising. It's a perfect venue for them.

Tiffany Woolley 34:58

It really is.

Voice Over 34:58

And it's not just for ladies by the way, right.

Kim Wick 35:01

Men, come all the time and love it come all the time and love it.

Tiffany Woolley 35:08

I try to put enough history and enough.

Kim Wick 35:09

And you do. That's what always captivates me. I usually write it. I start writing it in my head as the season is winding down.

Tiffany Woolley 35:14

So that's your process.

Kim Wick 35:15

Yeah, In my head I have it already going now that the season just ended just a week ago. I will now sit down and write the script.

Tiffany Woolley 35:25

And do you incorporate the costumes that?

Kim Wick 35:27

you own within that. Yeah, Then I go pull what I need to tell the story that I'm trying to tell, and then sometimes I'll see a different costume and I'm like, oh, there's a way to tie that into the story if I rewrite this section. So I spend usually a couple of months playing that producer, director, writer, like playing all those parts and then I present it to my cohort, my sidekick, my mom, and then I present it to my other sidekick, Mark. Actually, sometimes I present it to Mark Bally first, because he and I usually are on the same page, and then we sell it to mom, Because you know she has her own opinion too and sometimes she doesn't always like everything I do, nor do I her. So we usually come to a nice common spot.

Kim Wick 36:21

For example, this year my mother really wanted the exhibit to be Titanic only Right. This year my mother really wanted the exhibit to be Titanic only Right. And you know I know from writing these now 14 times I think this is my 14th exhibit that you can't. It's hard to do it just on one topic, To keep people's attention and to make it full and feel like we've learned a little something, maybe giggled along the way, reminded us of something else. I mean, I want it to be thought-provoking as well as intriguing about the costumes and so on. So I took her Titanic idea, which we talked about, and I brought in some of the historic vintage clothes. Then we go into the costumes and then we kind of talk about this Edwardian era and what was going on, which is such a fascinating era, and you know.

Kim Wick 37:10

Victoria was dead and now Edward was king and now everybody was, you know, like let's have a party. He was the playboy king and that's kind of the wardrobe kind of went by way.

Tiffany Woolley 37:19

So do you have to do any of your own research along the way too, oh sure.

Kim Wick 37:23

And then Titanic is the highlight and the you know the highlight at the end and the back room is totally set up.

Tiffany Woolley 37:34

There's like a boat and the whole bit.

Kim Wick 37:36

The staircase, yeah, and it's really cool. But doing the research for that, because it's the entire, the Broadway show is based on real life people. The Broadway show is based on real-life people. When you're doing research of a historic piece, it's so easy to jump down the rabbit hole, totally. I mean, it took forever for me to write it, it took nine years for the writers to write the Broadway show.

Scott Woolley 37:58

Right.

Kim Wick 37:59

And every character is based on a real person. So the history, I mean, I could go on for days. Oh, I know.

Tiffany Woolley 38:06

Even when you go to the little.

Scott Woolley 38:08

But you started doing these museum exhibits and it was a walking talking, and here's some costumes. Now you've added video, You've added sound.

Kim Wick 38:19

Immersive yes, and there's still the walking talking element which. I think is cool, me too, and people like it, and you know I have a couple of people that give to it.

Scott Woolley 38:27

But some of these you add singing into it, you add music into it. We have entertainment for every event.

Kim Wick 38:31

So when they sit down at the tavern at the Wick down in our main dining room which is, you know, on the wall, is a photograph of the Crystal Room at Tavern on the Green.

Kim Wick 38:55

And the chandelier from Tavern on the Green is over your head that we bought at auction. So I mean that room feels really magical because so many of our guests have had a wedding, an anniversary, a bar mitzvah, something at that beautiful restaurant and now it's a little slice of it, a little piece of it. So, yeah, they go down and they have a beautiful luncheon in that space and entertainment on the little stage and we tell little stories and we answer questions.

Tiffany Woolley 39:10

So how many nights or days a week is that happening during season?

Kim Wick 39:11

Well, in main season in season, it's almost seven days a week. Now that we're out of season, it's like twice a week. Okay, Because you know, it's no fun to do it with ten people. They don't enjoy it either. Right, it's nice to have the interaction and energy of other people that are like-minded, it either right, it's nice to have the interaction and energy of other people that are like-minded that are people sharing the same.

Tiffany Woolley 39:29

So, now that it's the new season and you're ready to take on this next, which what is your new time?

Scott Woolley 39:35

I knew you were gonna ask when does the new season start?

Kim Wick 39:41

in september, october, and the museum follows the same calendar as season 12. It'll be our season 12. So the, I believe the next exhibit is going to be called Behind the Scenes Okay, and it's going to be video. The immersive experience will be like I think people don't get it Like we had to get the rights and pay for the rights for the shows that we're doing this next season In the theater.

Scott Woolley 40:13

Two years ago in the theater, talking about the theater, the Broadway type plays that you're putting on producing, creating so how we acquired the stuff.

Kim Wick 40:22

You know, hiring the directors, the choreography watching video. I mean it's going to be all about behind. That's what the museum exhibit is going to be like the behind the scenes, business, part too which really of theater and production I feel like none of us really take that part into account.

Kim Wick 40:40

I mean we are not for profit, but we have to run it as a business or we'd be an out-of-business not-for-profit Because I mean, we still have to make sure that we are making money. We can't spend more than we take in, and that's a fine little line because we have to spend it all. Too Usually in the summer we do some upgrades to lighting or sound equipment or something to make up that difference.

Tiffany Woolley 41:07

So do you go, like every day, monday through Friday, to the theater?

Kim Wick 41:12

I work seven days a week.

Tiffany Woolley 41:14

So you were literally there every day. I'm there every single day.

Voice Over 41:19

With very few exceptions and, by the way, so is my 81 year old mother.

Tiffany Woolley 41:25

And you know what? That's why she is got so much fire. But you have two big businesses.

Scott Woolley 41:29

You've got a theater, and then you've got Costume World. Costume World is still very much running and busy.

Tiffany Woolley 41:36

And so is Costume World still in its original location. Yes, okay, it's where the museum used to be.

Kim Wick 41:45

Now it's there. All of our retail stores around the country have all closed, they've all closed, and all that wardrobe is under one roof in Pompano where the old warehouse used to be, and I mean there's some conversation about moving Into the WIC. No, no no. Moving to a new location. It's 40,000 square feet. Right, it's a big space.

Kim Wick 42:08

The theater's only 32,000 square feet, so we need more space than that, just for the clothes. But that is the parent company. Okay, costume World owns the theater Mm-hmm and of course, the WIC theater company is performing there, and that's how we do it. How which?

Tiffany Woolley 42:25

production. Are you doing this year? Has that next year?

Kim Wick 42:28

we're doing the fantastics is our first show and then we're doing a musical christmas carol oh, which is the susan stroman version and it's got a lot of dancing and high energy. It will be a magical holiday thing to bring the family to. Yeah, and then, my Fair Lady, is the January show.

Tiffany Woolley 42:48

That'll be huge. So is that your first time doing my Fair Lady as the WIC company?

The Wick Theater's Programming and Future

Kim Wick 42:54

We've never done it, but we know it pretty much inside now. I think, we'll be okay. We also own the original Cecil Beaton patterns. So those patterns we've made costumes over the years from his original patterns. So those patterns we've made costumes over the years from his original patterns.

Tiffany Woolley 43:09

Which is such like I mean that's.

Kim Wick 43:13

We can't use the originals. They're so fragile. I mean we've displayed them. They can be on a mannequin. Most of them live on a mannequin. They never are taken off of the mannequin. Audrey, I mean not Audrey, pardon me. Julie Andrews' original ball gown is. Our insurance stipulates that it's always on display because it's a million-dollar dress. Yeah, it's always got to be in view. It can't go in storage. Our Lloyds of London policy, that's so fascinating.

Tiffany Woolley 43:44

Is that crazy? So when?

Kim Wick 43:45

we're not when it's not on display. It's in my office. It has a muslin over it.

Tiffany Woolley 43:51

I was going to ask you how do you protect it, like for lighting and all that good stuff I put muslin over it when it's in storage.

Kim Wick 43:59

I mean it's in the dark except for the hour that it's lit, but it seems like the collection of costumes that you have.

Scott Woolley 44:07

It's such an immense I mean assortment, and the value must be insane. Are there like?

Kim Wick 44:17

buyers for it. Who knows, I don't know, does somebody want to buy it? It's not for sale, but we'll take some offers.

Tiffany Woolley 44:27

So like when, say, the ruby red slippers go up for auction, are those things you guys are interested in and pay attention to?

Kim Wick 44:34

Well, debbie Reynolds and my mother did have at least a conversation on the phone years before her auction happened and we purchased about 40 items at the auction. So we have a lot of that film stuff and it's interesting to own that. It's a different type of historic vibe. When I go in they're in special dark gondolas so they're not affected by the light. All that kind of stuff we own. Madonna's, one of her costumes from Evita the film.

Tiffany Woolley 45:10

Oh, that's one of my favorite films too, and her underwear. That's so oh my gosh it's crazy.

Scott Woolley 45:16

Last summer we were in Paris. Yeah, and what was? We went to a couple different places. What was the one fashion house that we went?

Tiffany Woolley 45:22

to oh, the Dior Museum.

Scott Woolley 45:24

Dior. You know we went through the tour there of all of his and it was for me it was amazing going through five floors of just seeing all their iterations and all the things that he created and people who wore things and the eras, watching the era changes and all that. Correct, but with what you have, it's currently not. There's currently not. There's no real. You don't really have a museum where you permanent, where people could go and spend a three hour.

Kim Wick 45:54

I guess the store is that. But I mean there's a museum now in the Broadway Museum in New York that you can see some of that stuff, you know, and our museum still is trying to keep the integrity of the original way we did it, where you saw the rows of costumes with displays in front of them and stuff like that. But it's.

Tiffany Woolley 46:15

So do they let you hold the museum in the costume world? Are you allowed to assemble there?

Kim Wick 46:21

No, the old costume world. It's just a regular store.

Tiffany Woolley 46:25

Gotcha Regular business license.

Kim Wick 46:27

Nobody's sitting down there, gotcha, okay, besides at the desk.

Tiffany Woolley 46:31

And is that open seven days a week?

Kim Wick 46:34

In the summer it's open five days a week. Often they're working seven days because we do a lot of summer stock and that means we're shipping shows all over the country. I think 500 costumes left yesterday, so how many employees are there?

Tiffany Woolley 46:47

Oh?

Kim Wick 46:49

20.

Voice Over 46:49

That's a lot.

Kim Wick 46:51

Not that many. Ten, probably About ten, yeah 500 costumes. Yeah.

Tiffany Woolley 46:58

So who manages that? My mother.

Kim Wick 47:01

Unbelievable Every day, unbelievable.

Tiffany Woolley 47:04

What a force. Yeah, it's so. What do you see? Like? What's next? Like, clearly you didn't foresee the theater. You're continually evolving well, we have to all evolve.

Kim Wick 47:19

I mean, we all know that and it's important. I have this little thing over my in my kitchen that hangs over the sink. It says do it now or forever wish you had. Well, I feel like yes, and you just have to do it, do it.

Tiffany Woolley 47:33

I agree.

Kim Wick 47:34

That's why I bought a historic house in western. New York, which I'm restoring, which is so much fun, and that's why we did the museum when we did it. That's why it's like when are we going to do this immersive thing? If we don't do it now, we probably won't be able to afford the technology 10 years from now. And it's so amazing, so I mean if we, you know, my mother said several times if we don't buy these wardrobes somebody else will and then they're our competition. Yeah, keep on going.

Kim Wick 48:03

You know, all of us have to.

Tiffany Woolley 48:06

So, as like, because I feel for me I'm not a super, I don't understand. I mean, I'm kind of new to Broadway. I shouldn't say new but I, like you know you go to New York you see shows. I mean, I love Phantom of the Opera being like my favorite ever, oh sure sure, it's like, how do like. I feel like now too. There's so many new shows that come and go so frequently. Is that something that you can adapt into the theater too.

Kim Wick 48:33

Some of these Well, I mean as far as the WIC theater, the programming is complicated. First, of all we only have 300 seats, and most theaters around us and near us within 50 miles have thousands of seats or 600 or 700 seats.

Kim Wick 48:51

So what happens is you know, we want to do one of these new works. Let's say we want to do something new that's on Broadway right now and it's going to close. Well, we bid on it, we put our offer in to take the show and as soon as they see we have 300 seats, they say no, they want to go into a theater with 800 seats because the royalties are stronger.

Kim Wick 49:10

Obviously they get paid based on yeah you know those royalty checks are a lot of money. Yeah, 150 000 almost for every show, right off the top. You know you have to put a lot, of, a lot of folks in seats to make all that fly. So we tend to do because the limitations of how many seats we have and what we can afford to do with 300 seats. Also, people don't understand I can't have a cast of 28 on the stage and an eight-piece band. I mean we can't afford it with 300 seats.

Kim Wick 49:50

So we use the highest quality tracks that are available and, trust me, I've had people come up to me and say where was the orchestra? And I'm like, oh, they weren't here, they were in a box In New York and we put them in our you know, in the machine. So you know. But also those 300 seats are the reason why our theater thrives, why people compare us to Broadway. All the time there's an intimacy about the space, the way it was designed.

Kim Wick 50:24

I agree you just feel enveloped in the show. The stage is big, the auditorium there's not a bad seat, it's cozy, it's very intimate. Big 25-inch seats, not 18 like they are on Broadway. I mean you've got a full seat so an adult person, a full figured person, can sit down and not feel like they're a sausage in a can.

Scott Woolley 50:46

Every seat is an orchestra seat. Every seat in the theater is. If you go to Kravis or any of these others, you've got to be in the first 10 or 15 rows, or you may as well have just phoned it in True.

Kim Wick 51:01

So that really adds to the whole design, do you see?

Tiffany Woolley 51:05

adding to the theater Like buying another theater.

Kim Wick 51:08

No, this is your baby. Don't give my mother any ideas. I don't want to's going to be around, I know. But you know also that intimacy is one of the reasons why the sets are so important and the casting is so important and the costumes are so important. Because, they're not at the Kravitz up in the grand tier in the back Right. You can appreciate every detail.

Kim Wick 51:32

You can see all of those details and you know, over the years I've become a set painter and I mean I have more pairs of pants that have paint on them than I have pairs of pants that don't have paint on them.

Scott Woolley 51:45

You're a true designer in so many aspects.

Tiffany Woolley 51:47

You really are.

Scott Woolley 51:48

From a costume designer to a set designer, to a theater designer.

Kim Wick 51:53

And we do hire, I mean you're also an interior designer. You're working on restoring old homes. Yeah, it's multi-leveled. Like we said, everything we do in life is somehow associated with design, have you?

Scott Woolley 52:09

ever thought and sat there and said I wish I had done this in life, or have you always been really content with the theater?

Kim Wick 52:17

I have a great picture and, you know, nobody else would know that it's me except for me. But I have two fabulous pictures. I actually sent them to be printed. I'm going to put them in this house up north.

Kim Wick 52:30

One is a fabulous picture of my cousin when she was about six years old. We were in Paris and you can see the Eiffel Tower in the background on the Champs-Élysées or something, and she's got her arms out big as life and this child shows like in that picture you can tell so much about her emotion. So you can tell so much about her emotion. And now she's my incredibly talented artistic cousin who has a fabulous career and owns a restaurant with her husband and she's just this amazing creative person and she's an artist and this and that, and you know what that picture of her at seven years old says, all of those things. I have another and so I've got that's being blown up to go on the wall, neatly framed, and, um, I have one of myself, which I don't. Unless you knew my baby picture, probably wouldn't know it was me, nor would you know it was nicole, but, um, but I'm wrapped up in one of my mother's beautiful brown and black, beautiful creamy silk scarves.

Kim Wick 53:38

My mother always was a fine dresser and I'm doing like a pirouette and I've got the scarf wrapped around me and it's flowing away and my head is up and I look at that picture and I'm like I've really always been and I was. You know, I have another scarf tied around my arm.

Kim Wick 53:53

Yeah, I was designing at like six years old, right, you know. And both of those pictures, when I look at them I think I've grown into that girl. Oh, I love that Nicole has grown into that girl that embraces life. And you know, I think some of these things are just innate.

Tiffany Woolley 54:11

They really are? I'm sure they are. You're an incredible designer, I know, and I was like that as a kid too. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean always, was arranging everybody's stuff, yeah, always organizing and making it in some display fashion. That was beautiful. Yeah, what's your?

Kim Wick 54:27

excuse, Scott.

Tiffany Woolley 54:30

Now, that's easy. Well, you're the smart man to marry this beautiful woman, so she can design your life.

Kim Wick 54:38

Yes, so yeah, when I look at those pictures and I've had them, you know, all my life they've been right there and I was in Paris when that picture was taken. We were all together on a family thing. But I look at those things and I do see I us, I see my cousin and I see me and you're proud of you. Yeah, I'm proud of me.

Kim Wick 55:00

Yep, sure, sure, yeah I love that go, just not retire, but just run away. I just want to run away to my old house right, which you'll get to do yeah, yeah, oh that.

Scott Woolley 55:10

Oh, that's really so special, so I've known you forever.

Kim Wick 55:13

Yes. Forever Should we tell them the story about the road race.

Scott Woolley 55:16

Oh gosh, I was running my grocery stores and came up with this crazy idea, because I don't know if I ever told you this. Someone from the city of Boca Raton came to the Wally's Grocery Store and was telling us that they were doing the Boca Festival Days. It that they were doing the Boca Festival days? It was this new thing to promote the economy and getting people out in the summertime. Because back then, everyone left.

Kim Wick 55:41

Oh sure you could lay down on Palmetto Park Road, I know. It's different right. A car wouldn't even go by and I was like I'm a grocery store.

Scott Woolley 55:48

We want to do Boca Festival days and they were like well, come up with something. And I always loved cars and had a bunch of cars and was driving home one night and thought what about a road rally? Because and I had just recently, at that time I think it was, I don't know it was burt reynolds, one of those movies that came out.

Kim Wick 56:06

Yeah, about smoking.

Scott Woolley 56:07

The band one of those things came out cannonball run, yeah, and I had a friend and I said, hey, let's do a road rally. And he's like what? I said, you're running a grocery store. And I said, well, do it on the side. Yeah, and we put this whole thing together, which was a crazy.

Kim Wick 56:22

Brilliantly did it Like a scavenger hunt. I know how fun.

Scott Woolley 56:26

It was a full day.

Kim Wick 56:27

Those were.

Scott Woolley 56:27

Cars and like 1,200, 1,300, 1,400 people all paid to enter. Yep, we all paid and it was kind of a race on the streets, yep, it was like four hours long and that's how you met.

Tiffany Woolley 56:39

Well, no, listen, wait, wait, tell the punchline.

Scott Woolley 56:43

We were organizing Tim Fargo, who I haven't seen in years, great guy. We were organizing the thing and this woman gets out of this car, a slant-nosed Porsche, probably $160,000.

Kim Wick 56:57

At the time. At the time, this is like in the 80s. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Woolley 57:01

And we were like, wow, who's this woman, who is this? Because this beautiful woman gets out of the car and she walks over and says, and I'm looking at the car going, oh my God, I go, is this your boyfriend's car? She's like like my boyfriend, no, this is my car. I love it, don't you love that? And I was like every guy that I knew would have died to have that car and you're like do you guys need some costumes? I got some ideas to like really make this thing fun. Sounds like a cool idea.

Memories and Shared Stories

Scott Woolley 57:28

Yeah, you're like what you mean? Costumes, like you were such an entrepreneur too, really well, yeah, I guess, so she brought you brought all these costumes.

Tiffany Woolley 57:32

all these costumes a cool idea. Yeah, You're like, what do you mean?

Kim Wick 57:34

costumes Like you were such an entrepreneur too, really Well yeah, I guess yeah, so she brought you, brought all these costumes, all these costumes that are the people it was really fun.

Scott Woolley 57:45

I'm like what are we going to do? What are we going to do with costumes? We're driving, we got like and Kim, we were like people will have a blast, and they did. People went crazy for the costumes.

Kim Wick 57:56

And the costumes were so much fun and I mean we ended up entering the race and it was four of us girls and we all dressed as like aviators. We had aviator goggles and little helmets and of course our cute little you know, we were all 20, little figures and little bathing suits on under with our little jumpsuit thing. And who won the race? You did, we won. Can you believe it? The four of us girls won the race.

Tiffany Woolley 58:27

Yes, I can Believing, I would bet on a wick any day. There were like 600 cars.

Scott Woolley 58:32

I remember there were people like, there was people they rented a stretch limousine, oh yeah, all kinds of things. And I remember you had, like I don't know if it was like a polar bear or some kind of costume. That was a bear or something.

Kim Wick 58:45

Yeah, we brought lots of costumes. People were wearing all these.

Scott Woolley 58:47

Frankenstein costumes.

Kim Wick 58:49

Yeah.

Scott Woolley 58:49

And I was like this is really bizarre.

Kim Wick 58:52

Someone's going to get in an accident with these costumes on and people were like crazy over it and you guys brilliantly did the scavenger part of it because you know we had to go from point to point you brought some ideas in, because at the time Michael Keaton the Batman movie was really big and you were like because we had different places where you had to figure out the clues.

Scott Woolley 59:15

You know it was all sorts of fun clues. But then there were places like a clue was go ask batman where the next turn is yeah, you're like what's that?

Kim Wick 59:23

but you helped we had batman dressed yeah you would drive down like federal highway and there would be batman and you'd stop your car, go get the next clue and go to the next place. It was really brilliant. You guys did an amazing. And of course we had a little advantage because we'd lived here, all you know since 72. We really knew our way around and they had some clues that and Brian Yousum was helping too.

Scott Woolley 59:48

Well, brian, brian and Mark. They dressed up as banditos like. Mexican banditos and they were smart enough. They got dressed up with the Mexican costumes and the guns and stuff and then they went to Pompano, to the Frito-Lay plant.

Scott Woolley 1:00:06

There used to be a plant there. Oh yeah, the Frito-Lay distributor was like in Pompano or Deerfield and somehow they took Brian Newsome, talked them into the fact that they were going to promote Frito-Lay and give it out. They gave bags of Frito-Lay. Mark was driving a Porsche 911 and Frito-Lay completely filled the convertible 911 Porsche with Fritos, fritos and they would drive down the road during this race and the Fritos were flying around and they were giving. Fritos out and they were called the Frito Banditos. Yeah.

Kim Wick 1:00:37

Oh my gosh, what great times. It was so crazy and again the four of us girls won. There were some guys that were not happy about it.

Scott Woolley 1:00:46

Oh yeah, there were a lot. They were really ticked and there was a huge party at the Bounty Lounge. We gave out trophies. It was a big pool party oh my gosh.

Tiffany Woolley 1:00:57

Those are good memories.

Kim Wick 1:00:59

And I think we got like a $5,000 prize which we donated to something I can't. There was a benefactor to it, wasn't it Diabetes, I can't remember. It may have been the Tim Snow Foundation, like his first or second year oh, it might have been because Tim drove, I know we we were like we all looked at each other and we were like we can't accept it and we obviously donated. We had trophies and I still had the trophy until like not that many years ago.

Tiffany Woolley 1:01:31

I was like it's time, it's time to go.

Kim Wick 1:01:35

It was tall and it had a car on the top. Oh, my goodness.

Scott Woolley 1:01:38

We designed a poster, Tim and I, which we put all over. Boca to promote it, and then this woman who was a small little ad agency I can't remember her name in Delray. She helped us with doing some promotion. She submitted the poster and it was my first Addy for Design that I won an award for design before I ever got into the television business.

Tiffany Woolley 1:02:01

Oh, how cool.

Kim Wick 1:02:03

That's very cool. I wish I had one of those.

Tiffany Woolley 1:02:05

I know Well speaking of and.

Scott Woolley 1:02:08

Costume World was my place. I went to for years, I know.

Tiffany Woolley 1:02:12

Yeah, it is still a fun experience.

Scott Woolley 1:02:14

I used to throw the Halloween party for the Florida Panther hockey team and used to get all the stuff from Costume World. I know.

Kim Wick 1:02:21

And Mrs Huizenga used to come and get like she would call us and order like 8,000 rats.

Tiffany Woolley 1:02:28

Oh, that's so funny. I remember that time.

Scott Woolley 1:02:31

I can tell you the whole story behind that is the rats. I was tell you the whole story behind that is the rats. I was one of the myself and another guy, dave Fouillon, were the ones that Mrs Heisinger brought the rats which no one was ever supposed to know. We distributed them. Dave and I got a couple of friends and we distributed them throughout the arena, giving them to fans. Then I had had a conversation with Mr Heisinger after, like the second game of doing it. They should go get a sponsor, get one of the what do you call it?

Kim Wick 1:03:05

Tons of corporate sponsors no.

Scott Woolley 1:03:07

Concession? No, no, who's the companies you hire, like Orkin and Hewlett?

Kim Wick 1:03:12

Oh, that's right. Exterminators, exterminators, exterminators. I said to him.

Scott Woolley 1:03:15

I said you should get an exterminator and he ended up getting a deal with.

Tiffany Woolley 1:03:19

Orkin, I remember that.

Scott Woolley 1:03:20

And basically the guys who went and cleaned it up wore Orkin exterminating shirts and hats as a sponsorship, but then all the rats would get collected. They would be brought downstairs and put in a closet. And then Dave and I and a couple of friends would go to the closet and distribute them back into the arena.

Tiffany Woolley 1:03:42

Oh my gosh.

Scott Woolley 1:03:42

And then it got shut down because the NHL basically was going to fine the team if it continued.

Kim Wick 1:03:47

If they continued the rubber on the ice.

Scott Woolley 1:03:48

So now I know where they got the rats from.

Kim Wick 1:03:50

They got them from us, that's so funny the first time she called, she ordered, and Mom and I talked about that not that long ago. She personally called and ordered like 400. Well, you, know.

Scott Woolley 1:04:02

She didn't want anyone to know because she basically pulled Dave and I off to the side and said Listen, the rats are going to be put into this closet. You don't tell anyone about this. I don't know anything about this, no one else does, and don't get caught.

Tiffany Woolley 1:04:15

They have that fun energy too, yeah.

Scott Woolley 1:04:18

She really created that. I don't want to get her in trouble.

Tiffany Woolley 1:04:21

No that's so cute.

Kim Wick 1:04:23

Unfortunately both of them are gone. I know, I know they were very dear people. Yes, yes, well, and it's interesting, my fian fiance works at Panther Stadium now. Oh, that's so funny, he's in engineering and all that stuff responsible for the ice.

Voice Over 1:04:41

Oh, wow.

Kim Wick 1:04:44

With others, but you know.

Tiffany Woolley 1:04:45

Wow.

Kim Wick 1:04:46

But it's so funny, it's like, oh gosh, it's just come full circle.

Scott Woolley 1:04:49

It really is so season starts at the WIC In October, in October, and you've got four or five shows. Oh yeah, I didn't finish our show.

Kim Wick 1:04:58

I didn't finish the lineup, so Fantastics is first and it runs for about four weeks right.

Scott Woolley 1:05:02

Yeah, so for people who want to check it out and they can go to the WICorg and our lineup is there.

Upcoming Season Preview

Kim Wick 1:05:08

You can't buy single tickets, yet we're still in our subscription drive, but that usually ends by the 4th of July, so subscription drive is what. That's with folks that buy all five shows, so it's discounted, and they always sit in the same seats. We have a lot of loyal subscribers. They don't care what we do, but they want to see it. But next year is the Fantastics' first, which, by the way, ran for like 40 years off Broadway and Broadway. So it's a great show. And then A Musical Christmas Carol, and then my Fair Lady.

Kim Wick 1:05:39

Coming for that too, and then Camelot Ooh, which will be incredible, incredible. And then the last show is Cher.

Tiffany Woolley 1:05:47

And I tell people.

Kim Wick 1:05:48

I tell people on stage when I'm doing my curtain speech all the time. I know a lot of folks in the neighborhood have seen it at Kravitz, but I promise you it will be better at the WIC.

Scott Woolley 1:05:59

But I understand you own some of her.

Kim Wick 1:06:01

We own the original Broadway clothes which you did not see at the Kravitz, Trust me, and we're gonna the display next year in the museum. Hopefully will share wardrobe the Bob Macie wardrobe will be the highlight.

Tiffany Woolley 1:06:17

I mean all these designers that you can someday build one of your exhibits on.

Kim Wick 1:06:24

I mean, William Ivey Long is another big one. I mean, his stuff is everywhere.

Scott Woolley 1:06:28

Have you ever thought about putting a coffee book together of all these?

Kim Wick 1:06:30

Yeah, you got some time you can set it up I know, I know it really is so much to do and it's just the details the details, all the details, I mean I say all the time you know we really need to hire, you know five more really been photographed?

Scott Woolley 1:06:49

has everything been photographed?

Kim Wick 1:06:50

a lot of it was we used to have a professional little studio area set up and we would photograph all the time, because we do obviously have an online presence, Pardon me, so it's important to have those images. But yeah, I mean a coffee table book would be amazing. There will be one eventually.

Tiffany Woolley 1:07:13

My mother needs to write her life story too she does and, by the way, you need to produce the film. I love that. That's a great. I agree it's special.

Kim Wick 1:07:23

It is really great, really inspiring story and it is so multi leveled. When I started writing my bio, I have a bio that we use in the playbill for the stuff I do. It's so old I need to go redo it. I started trying to write my bio to send something over to you guys. I was like I didn't realize I'd done that.

Kim Wick 1:07:47

I forgot about that I have built 12, 14 spec homes. I did do that when life is zipping along. It's so true and I'm not really so ego-driven that I like think about that stuff all the time, I mean, I'm surrounded by a mother, that is which is okay. It's better that she is and I'm not. I love it, oh, I love it, and just wouldn't trade her for anything in the whole damn world.

Kim Wick 1:08:19

What a ride but yeah, I mean, you know, sometimes look back and reflect on wow, you know we're born, and then we die, and the middle is the dash this is the dash, our dash.

Tiffany Woolley 1:08:32

We're all working on our dash. Well, you is the dash.

Kim Wick 1:08:33

This is your dash, our dash.

Tiffany Woolley 1:08:34

We're all working on our dash. Well, you're doing a great job on your dash and thank you for sharing just the like. I feel like a smidgen. I could talk to you all day.

Kim Wick 1:08:43

Oh, we could keep on going. Oh my gosh. Okay, so part two and three will be filmed at a later time.

Tiffany Woolley 1:08:49

Stay tuned. Oh gosh, Well, thank you so much Thank you for having me.

Kim Wick 1:08:53

It was a lot of fun For joining us on iDesign. I mean. This has been great it really is special, thank you. Thank you.

Voice Over 1:09:01

Idesign Labs Podcast is an SW Group production in association with the Five Star and TW Interiors. To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit twinteriorscom.