Zoom bombing meetings with custom songs — and a mask, of course
Kerry Prep has been a gorilla and a chicken, a rock star and a panda. He’s even been a nun.
And now, after 38 years in the singing telegram business, the Huntington resident and owner and operator of "PreppyGrams" has had to become one more thing: digital.
Prep, 63, who’s also a musical theater adjunct at Adelphi, had to revamp the business model at the outset of the pandemic. Masks are good —even if they are gorilla masks — but even more than that, he was getting more and more requests for digital deliveries. Clients would request special songs for birthdays or anniversaries or even office morale, and there was Prep, chicken head and all, ready to deliver in a Zoom conference room. Prices are lower for remote work — $69 for a custom song and delivery, compared to a range of $129 to $249, delivered in person throughout the entire New York metro area — but it’s working out, he said.
After all, if anyone can adapt to a strange new world, it’s a guy in a gorilla suit and a tutu.
Prep spoke with Newsday about his business’ evolution. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
How did you get into singing telegrams?
Well, I'm an actor. … I’d just graduated from college and I was looking for a way to just continue using my talents and getting paid for them instead of being like a waiter or something like that. Singing telegrams were really popular [in the 1980s] and, at the time, there were a lot of companies offering that. And I have a skill of being able to write custom lyrics — I'm a music composer — so I can custom write lyrics. A lot of the singing telegram companies weren’t personalizing [their songs]. They were generic and I thought, I can make them special … by writing original lyrics. I interviewed people about the person I was singing to.
Kerry Prep with his trunk filled with costumes. Credit: Morgan Campbell
What was business like before COVID-19?
I'll send questionnaires or interview [loved ones] over the phone, and they’ll go through a whole list of hobbies, likes, dislikes, funny stories and then I custom write the song to the tune of a popular musical theater song. I have all these different costumes that I wear [for the telegram]. Then we ask for a delivery window of maybe an hour and we’ll show up at offices, restaurants, homes…They usually know something's going on when you're coming dressed as a gorilla, or a chicken.
How have you adjusted during the pandemic?
As the quarantine happened, everything stopped, almost, but then you had people ... calling me saying, ‘Well, we have a Zoom conference. Can you do something online?’ I never really pushed online deliveries. And then, when this happened, it was like, Oh, well, we can Zoom-bomb your meeting … or send them a link. ... Most [of the ones I've been doing] have been digital.
Do you still do in-person telegrams?
People do want them in person, and they're careful to say make sure you stand far enough away, but we always did that anyway. I never felt as if we were right on top of people singing, we always just kept more of a distance. And then, when you're doing a gorilla or chicken, obviously we don't need the mask since the costume is a mask. But it’s outside most of the time, and I’ll sing from the doorstep or they’ll come out to the doorstep and we'll sing from the lawn.
It’s been a pretty tough time for a lot of people. How do they react when they see you?
They’ll email me and say that was unbelievable. I had a woman [ask for a telegram] for her daughter a couple of weeks ago, and she said, what can I do? I want to let people know. She said it was great to have something like this, given these horrible times that we’re in right now. It always brightens people’s day because it’s always a happy occasion.
Favorite characters?
I have three. One is a Tony Soprano — like a Tony Soprano, Goodfellas, wise guy singing telegram. … Then I do this 1980s over-the-top rocker – kind of like a cross between Ozzy Osbourne and Mick Jagger. I wear a long wig. …The other is a Rick Roll [role-playing as Rick Astley to sing "Never Going to Give You Up"].
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
'It's depressing, it's frustrating' A Newsday investigation revealed that Grumman Aerospace knew toxic chemicals were leaking into the ground in Bethpage. Newsday Associate Editor Paul LaRocco and Deputy Editor David Schwartz explain.
'It's depressing, it's frustrating' A Newsday investigation revealed that Grumman Aerospace knew toxic chemicals were leaking into the ground in Bethpage. Newsday Associate Editor Paul LaRocco and Deputy Editor David Schwartz explain.
