Brian Forti's Creative Journey from Television to Live Theater

When Brian Forti visualized himself sitting in a theater surrounded by performers while meditating on a mountain in Sedona, he had no idea the universe was preparing him for the next chapter of his remarkable career. Two weeks later, a phone call led him to the Faena Hotel in Miami Beach, where he's spent the last decade designing immersive theatrical experiences that blend luxury, artistry, and innovation.

This journey from television producer to theatrical visionary didn't happen overnight. Brian's story begins with founding 40 Lane Entertainment in 1986, riding the wave of MTV's explosion and Miami's emergence as a creative hub. His collaborations with Gloria and Emilio Estefan opened doors to working with global superstars like Paul McCartney, Shakira, and Prince. Six Emmy Awards later, Brian had established himself as a creative force in the entertainment world.

What makes Brian's perspective so valuable is his understanding that everything in entertainment is fundamentally about design. "It goes from what are we going to do? Designing where you're going to shoot it, how you're going to shoot it, what they're going to wear, how you're going to film it, the lighting, everything—it's all design," he explains. This design-centric approach now informs his work at the intimate 160-seat Faena Theater, where audience members experience performances from just feet away, with dancers emerging from all directions in a space where every detail—from costumes to lighting—must reflect the luxury and artistic excellence of the Faena brand.

The conversation delves into the creative process behind shows like "Carmen" and "Retro," exploring how Brian and his team transform classic stories and musical eras into contemporary, sensory experiences. Unlike television, where creators must wait weeks or months for audience reaction, live theater provides immediate feedback, allowing constant refinement and evolution of the design.

Whether you're a designer, creator, or someone seeking inspiration to reimagine your own path, Brian's journey demonstrates the power of vision and the courage to reinvent oneself. As he puts it: "I learned that we can design our lives in any way... You can create anything you want. You have to feel it in your heart, you have to believe it and feel it. If you can do that, anything, anything is possible."

Transcript

Introduction to iDesign Lab Podcast

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.

Voice Over 0:50

Today, we're joined by an entertainment powerhouse, brian Forty. With over 35 years in television and streaming production, brian is a producer, writer and director who has worked with networks like MTV, disney, cbs and PBS. Director, who has worked with networks like MTV, disney, cbs and PBS. He's won six Emmy Awards and collaborated with icons like Paul McCartney, shakira and Prince. As the co-founder of 14 Lane Entertainment and the executive producer at Fianna Live, he continues to shape the entertainment world. Let's dive into his incredible journey.

Tiffany Woolley 1:22

Welcome to the iDesign Lab podcast. Today, our guest is Brian Forty, who we've known for a lot of years I've known him as long as I've known Scott and has a very colorful history in the entertainment world but has a very I feel like, a lot of influence with design in every aspect of what you do. So I'm excited to kind of.

Scott Woolley 1:48

So first thing, how long has it been Like 30 years we've known each other. Got to be Been working together.

Brian Forti 1:52

Got to be something like that, right. I mean, how long have you guys been married? 24?

Scott Woolley 1:57

24, okay, so it's got to be, but it's a lot longer than that. Oh, you're right, it is. It's a lot longer. Yes, you're right.

Brian Forti 2:03

Because I remember all the pre-stories before Tiffany.

Tiffany Woolley 2:06

Well, of course, those stories, but I remember when we were first dating too, like the whole Pepsi-Cola. I want to dive back into all that eventually, but so you guys can continue. How long it's really been.

Scott Woolley 2:18

No, it's got to be from the 90s. I mean hundreds of productions and shows and specials we'd done together yeah.

Brian Forti 2:25

I remember the days Corey James brought you down and I just saw him on television somewhere.

Scott Woolley 2:31

Thank God Doing something Good.

Brian Forti 2:32

Glad We've all missed Corey James.

Scott Woolley 2:34

How many of you will find him?

Brian Forti 2:36

I saw him somewhere. I think he's in Mexico.

Scott Woolley 2:38

Is he really? No, he did some. I saw some production of something with him.

Brian Forti 2:42

Corey James, I remember you came down. We were doing something for the Box. Do you remember the Box?

Scott Woolley 2:48

Yeah, sure, the first network where you would.

Brian Forti 2:51

It's pretty much the start of streaming almost where you would pay Right back in the. You would be able to pay to see a music video that you would want to see, and that was kind of like the beginning of that whole concept of paying for something.

Tiffany Woolley 3:04

Were you primarily focused in the entertainment industry through music, or was it television? No, luckily.

Brian Forti 3:11

But I'm happy we went down the music path, I mean when I started. We would do anything when we started. I mean, you know just to, can I go back a little bit? Well, let me go back.

Scott Woolley 3:23

Where I started with you was, and I call it, the iconic little company 40 Lane. And I say iconic because in South Florida I mean even more than South Florida it was an iconic, well-known brand.

Tiffany Woolley 3:37

Dynamic doing.

Scott Woolley 3:39

Yes with you and Kevin.

Brian Forti 3:40

Yeah, I think it was the timing. You know, before Kevin Lane and I met, before we created 40 Lane Entertainment was a company called Cable Marketing Systems and Cable Marketing Systems was the beginning of buying advertising, being able to buy commercial spots on things like MTV and CNN and USA, which sort of was which blew up, you know in the 80s, right had a good 20-year run, kind of right.

Brian Forty's Entertainment Background

Brian Forti 4:10

Yeah. And then Kevin and I just said, hey, you know, we're doing so well in this cable marketing, creating some pretty cool commercials for like $200, you know, basically, wow, no budgets at all. But we said, let's start a production company. Basically, no budgets at all. That we said let's start a production company. So we created 40 Lane Entertainment in 1986. And, of course, had to struggle to find work.

Tiffany Woolley 4:33

In Miami too In 1986. It was just kind of coming back again. There was a resurgence in Miami. I feel like back in that time too, exactly I probably met you guys, maybe in 93.

Scott Woolley 4:46

Somewhere, maybe earlier 90s in that, and the reason for me searching out and meeting you was I needed some additional assistance in a team or person. But I came to a team to help design television programming. Yeah, exactly, and I think the first thing was Today's Health, a series that I had created, and you guys came in and pretty much designed the first few episodes, which basically became the timeline for that series.

Brian Forti 5:16

Sure, and the signature look, which is funny because, to go from what we were doing, kevin and I, we were doing music videos. Basically, that's really what took off for us because MTV launched in the 80s and when MTV launched, suddenly every artist needed music videos.

Voice Over 5:36

And.

Brian Forti 5:36

Miami became the area to come and shoot them. So, whether you're based in Miami or from New York or whatever, they would come to Miami and shoot these music videos. And that is really how we grew, grew, grew, until one day the Estefans Emilio called us and said come in and Gloria's been in this accident and she's going to make her big comeback and we need somebody to document this. We heard you guys the two of you were pretty good at what you do.

Tiffany Woolley 6:04

Wow.

Brian Forti 6:04

Which started that whole amazing career with the Estefans, which we did, you know, for many, many, many years. And then you know you were coming down and we had gone to a couple events with Gloria stuff like that. Right, yep. And then you said, yeah, come up to Boca and start doing some of this, which was totally different than anything we had done before, but we were so into doing new things, you know, and being a series was kind of interesting to do.

Scott Woolley 6:32

Yeah, I remember the first show that you guys helped me design and it was really you guys putting a lot of the design to it. I don't know if you remember the first episode. There were over 300 episodes that we ended up doing in that series.

Brian Forti 6:46

It was on schizophrenia.

Scott Woolley 6:47

Oh jeez, I don't remember it was a full half hour episode on schizophrenia and we shot this scene at the offices of five star with smoke machines. You guys brought in and fog machines and you know how schizophrenia and illusion and wow, how it affects people you should play a clip of that.

Brian Forti 7:02

I'd love to see a clip of that.

Scott Woolley 7:06

Yeah, it was nominated for an Emmy that it was our first, I think, nomination. We didn't win for that one, but we had a lot more wins than nominations.

Brian Forti 7:14

After you know some great stuff Today's Health and then we did a promo for something where we used your art designer and he did this.

Scott Woolley 7:25

The Next Millennium, the Next Millennium With Alex, sevilla With Alex, and just which was amazing, amazing, it still is today. Yeah, it still is today, that demo.

Brian Forti 7:34

Yeah, that series was so cool, was so different, and that demo, that promo, we did.

Scott Woolley 7:39

Yeah.

Brian Forti 7:39

Just amazing. He was a great guy and he was part of your team for many years.

Scott Woolley 7:43

It was somewhat cutting edge. I just recently watched it and it still is.

Tiffany Woolley 7:51

It's been fun about the podcast is because Scott's background, as well as yours, has a very creative element to it, obviously, with design, which is my world, it's fun to bring them together. What made you, from the very beginning, decide that your path was the entertainment business?

Brian Forti 8:13

I would say I was in when I was in high school. It didn't start with entertainment, it started more like audio-visual. I used to love photography and stuff like this. When I was in high school. You know how there was always an AV team or something like that.

Voice Over 8:27

There was a guy that would go and set up the projectors or set up the cameras with the big video recorders like they used to be in the 70s.

Brian Forti 8:35

And I was the guy that kind of led the group that did that. I started a photography club, an AV club and I think that was kind of what started that.

Brian Forti 8:42

Your curiosity and I just loved the electronics and filming and that kind of stuff. And then when I graduated from high school, I decided I was going to go to the University of Florida, because the University of Florida had an amazing journalism and communications department and broadcasting was one of their big things and they had the largest PBS station on campus, wuft, which allowed students who were getting up and doing well in broadcasting to work at a station.

Tiffany Woolley 9:12

And that's where you got on the job training.

Brian Forti 9:13

That's where I started doing a lot of television. I was actually directing at WUFT while I was a junior in college.

Scott Woolley 9:20

Was there a pivotal point or moment or person that kind of helped springboard you to take that direction? No, not at that point.

Brian Forti 9:33

There were people later on that sort of pointed in a direction of the path that I would go on after that and I ask that because for many, many years it's been video, film, music, television.

Scott Woolley 9:48

Now, which we'll get into, it's live theater, which is like a I mean it's similar but it's a whole different gamut yeah, definitely.

Voice Over 9:58

Jumping into live theater.

Brian Forti 10:00

Yeah, no, you're right, we should talk about that Because television. Basically I didn't know if I was going to go into entertainment or news, Because when you're graduating- from college you're going.

Tiffany Woolley 10:10

I just need a job.

Brian Forti 10:12

So I'm trying to figure out if I could get a job in a TV station somewhere in the United States and just do news, because that's what I was doing at WUFT.

Tiffany Woolley 10:19

I was directing the news Right.

Brian Forti 10:21

And couldn't find anything. Couldn't find a job and then got a job with Cable Marketing Systems, which allowed at least some creativity.

Tiffany Woolley 10:31

Right.

Brian Forti 10:35

You know, I was able to run a production team and do cheap commercials for people who wanted to be on CNN or MTV, and then Kevin and I met together, created 40 Lane and took off, blew up from there basically, Especially when we met Gloria and Amelia.

Tiffany Woolley 10:47

I was just going to say so. You've worked with really incredible artists. Obviously, down here in South Florida, the Estefans are huge. What was the inspiration really there, beyond who they were in those collaborations?

Brian Forti 11:02

Knowing that our work, the design of our work, would be seen on a global level.

Brian Forti 11:08

And that's a whole different thing, when, suddenly, that door opens and the work that you're going to design and create as a team and there's only two or three of us at the time that it was going to be elevated to a platform that the world would watch. And then you'd have huge companies like Sony Entertainment and MTV and VH1 going. Hmm, those guys look like you know they're really good. They're not a big company, they're not as expensive as a lot of the other production companies with you know well-known directors. So let's give them the work.

The Birth of 40 Lane Entertainment

Scott Woolley 11:39

And then MTV starts hiring us, vh1 starts hiring us, shakira- I know Paul McCartney, paul McCartney I mean, we can go on and on with the list of people that we've worked with Amazing.

Brian Forti 11:50

Amazing stuff that we all did together. And then some cool things like I'm bleeping.

Tiffany Woolley 12:03

I always can't retreat.

Voice Over 12:06

Matt Damon and Sarah.

Scott Woolley 12:09

I'm effing Matt Damon, Sarah Silverman. Matt Damon and the joke kind of video we put together for Jimmy Kimmel exactly yeah, which came from your friend.

Brian Forti 12:19

Doug DeLuca what a blast that was yeah, that was funny and then it blew up as like the most viral video.

Scott Woolley 12:26

Do you know how many videos Before viral videos were?

Brian Forti 12:28

We're talking like 200 million views of that Before viral was viral. And then they had to follow it up with yeah, the rebuttal, the rebuttal, the rebuttal With Ben Affleck.

Tiffany Woolley 12:39

Those were good times I actually remember going down there too when you guys were doing that shoot at the Delano.

Brian Forti 12:45

Exactly.

Tiffany Woolley 12:52

I mean and that's what's so fun about what you have created together and done through the years is there is so much change. It's not like your locations change, your venues change, Like you get to experience and see so much creativity.

Brian Forti 13:00

It's the beauty, I think, of the entertainment business Right, which can be great, or not, I mean you never know, how, and it can suck you in. It can. You can be sucked into something you don't want to do and then you'd like, or you can go down this path of being allowed to design things with all these different artists and all these different production companies that you just you know, but all of it is design.

Scott Woolley 13:22

It's all creating something new.

Brian Forti 13:24

Exactly, it's all creating. It goes from what are we going to do? Designing where you're going to shoot it, how you're going to shoot it, what they're going to wear, how you're going to film it, the lighting, everything, it's all design. Yeah, it's all design, and that's the cool thing.

Scott Woolley 13:36

Is there one moment or one project that comes to mind that was complex, difficult, you know, that you think back about or you can remember about something that was really challenging um, there was a music video that we did for Gloria and Amelia called live for loving you and uh-huh, and I can't remember.

Brian Forti 13:59

I think it was back in the early, maybe 90 or 91 or something like that, but it was the first video that was all blue screen.

Tiffany Woolley 14:09

What's blue screen?

Brian Forti 14:10

Blue screen meaning Same as green screen, green screen, same thing as green. It was blue back then.

Scott Woolley 14:15

They found that too many people had blue eyes, so they changed it to green.

Tiffany Woolley 14:20

That's funny.

Scott Woolley 14:21

Because the eyes became the biggest problem.

Brian Forti 14:25

Yeah, but it's basically where you're shooting something and all the backgrounds are created, meaning in this case, she was on a train, in a car with her dog and sitting on the moon at the end. So it was. You know, we did it at Limelight Studios, which was a place where we had our offices, a big studio complex down in Miami and it was easily, you know, going to cost $600,000, $700,000 to do it, and I made a deal with the Limelight people to let us do it for super cheap and they'd get a lot of exposure and experience, right. And it was tough because, you know, we had to design all these scenes and not know what they looked like. We had no idea what they were going to look like.

Tiffany Woolley 15:11

Right. Technology was so different and it was way different back technology.

Brian Forti 15:16

Right and then we get in the edit room and you know, and piece by piece, we're putting this together and it was stressful, it was long hours to trying to figure out and then in the end it became one of the best videos we ever did. It was actually Sony used it on there when they started selling laptop computers. They actually used it as a promo that when you opened it there was that you get residuals from that we were always work for hire.

Scott Woolley 15:44

Is there a project you have been most proud of? I mean, I think a lot of the projects have been.

Brian Forti 15:52

I would say that's one of them. The stuff we did with Shakira we spent a week with her in the Bahamas and produced a documentary with her A lot of the documentaries for Gloria. Did you know we won Ace Awards back in the Bahamas and produced a documentary with her A lot of the documentaries for Gloria. Did you know we won Ace Awards back in the days when Ace was the cable award that you would win.

Scott Woolley 16:10

Doesn't exist anymore. Doesn't exist anymore. It's sad.

Brian Forti 16:12

Yeah, it is. And then we were lucky enough to somehow hook up with Brazilian Globo TV, which is a Brazilian, the largest Brazilian network.

Tiffany Woolley 16:23

Was that the 40 Lane Days?

Brian Forti 16:24

That was still 40 Lane. That was 40 Lane Days. We hooked up with them.

Tiffany Woolley 16:27

And what about was that when you did the Pepsi Cola?

Brian Forti 16:30

Pepsi was either before that or after that.

Scott Woolley 16:33

I don't remember. That was after the Pepsi show. That's when I met you.

Brian Forti 16:37

That would probably be the number one Doing the Brazilian telenovelas. We would get to travel to Texas and I spent three months in San Francisco, which is fun just going there and shooting. We shot this thing with people jumping out of the helicopters and flying with those wingsuits down to their wedding, which was on a mountain overlooking Los Angeles. Those were cool things. Those were not officially our productions Like Pepsi, the Pepsi chart, which probably, like you said, was the biggest thing we ever did.

Tiffany Woolley 17:11

That's when I met you.

Brian Forti 17:13

Yeah, pepsi chart came from London. Basically, the British were doing something called Pepsi chart. It was a huge show.

Scott Woolley 17:21

That's around the time of what's the network Barry Diller did Whammy yes.

Brian Forti 17:26

Yeah, it was actually right around the. Whammy studio. Yeah, Whammy studios in Miami.

Scott Woolley 17:29

Beach, yeah, on Lincoln, super cool.

Brian Forti 17:31

Yeah, on Lincoln Road.

Scott Woolley 17:32

Yeah, and that had a nice run.

Brian Forti 17:34

That had a very nice run. Yeah, and I think the plan was always the same. He had designed the plan to create a station because he had a low power tv license you remember low power tv license and nobody thought they were valuable, those licenses kind of like streaming.

Brian Forti 17:50

You said like it is today, and he had that license and he says I'm going to create something like they have in canada called city tv, which is about the public coming and going and you can walk by and see the studio. So you put it together on lincoln road and but he had it in a couple of cities but had it yet. Well, I only know about that one. I mean, you know, we sold a couple shows to them and that was tough, it was not easy because he had no money. He didn't put any money and then in the end, I believe it was his plan. I meant to ask him this because I ran into him a couple years ago but I didn't get a chance to ask. I think his plan was always to build something and then sell it. He sold it to Univision for a billion dollars, jeez, but it was a low-power TV station, wow.

Scott Woolley 18:31

Well, he did a deal with the Heat and was broadcasting the Heat games. Yeah, he was the first one.

Brian Forti 18:35

No, not the Heat. No, it was the Heat of Baseball. I think it was the Marlins. He was the first one. Oh, he did the Heat, yeah, but he knew how to build the value of something and then dump it.

Scott Woolley 18:43

Yeah, well, that's.

Brian Forti 18:44

Barry Diller. Yeah, that's Barry Diller, brilliant, brilliant guy.

Tiffany Woolley 18:47

Yeah, totally so. As someone who's worked from everything from large-scale music, as we've just discussed, to intimate theater performances, how is the approach to designing a story or telling that story vary Are?

Brian Forti 19:04

you talking about live entertainment now.

Tiffany Woolley 19:05

Yeah, Well, just in general, what? How does that audience engagement get translated in each of these different kind of genres?

Brian Forti 19:14

That's something I had to learn actually, because, being in television for as long as we were in television 30, 35 years, pretty much Right I got burnt out in television it's, yeah, it's a lot totally because you're, you're planning you're designing, you're shooting shooting, shooting, shooting, editing, editing, editing, editing, changes, changes changes and then it airs and it's gone.

Brian Forti 19:35

You know, and I'm not burning out, I got burnt out, so I took, I took. Basically I said I'm out of here. I went to sedona ari yeah, that's pretty mellow Sedona, arizona, which is a very spiritual place there's a lot of energy there, a lot of shaman and spiritual people. Because I wanted to Reconnect, kind of.

Tiffany Woolley 19:55

There was somebody there.

Brian Forti 19:57

James, which had worked for.

Tiffany Woolley 19:59

Oh, that's, right, Remember James, yes, yes.

Brian Forti 20:01

Okay, james was there working for a bio cybernauts Institute which was into alpha waves and creating, teaching people how to create creativity through their alpha ways to design better things. Went there, did a documentary there, ended up staying there for a year sitting on the mountains in Sedona under the stars, you know, doing all kinds of stuff, and everything changed in Sedona, under the stars, doing all kinds of stuff, and everything changed in my life, completely changed. All the things that I believed in before changed. I realized that we have the ability to create whatever it is we want in our life.

Tiffany Woolley 20:40

It's so true.

Brian Forti 20:40

You know, I think the universe has designed this place that we're in, this consciousness we're in, to allow you to create whatever you want. It's a matrix. This is what I truly believe and this is what I was taught there. And I was sitting on a mountain on a Tuesday afternoon one day in Sedona. It was a beautiful day, beautiful skies and I started to visualize myself sitting in a theater and I had no idea I'd never been to, you know and I started to see actors and people moving around and dancing around me and I focused on that and focused on that. And two weeks later, I get a random phone call.

Tiffany Woolley 21:21

Eye of the blue.

Collaborating with Global Artists

Brian Forti 21:22

From a production assistant who had worked on a reality show years before us and said there's a company called Faina that's opening a new hotel and they're going to have a theater. They need somebody to run it and to program it and to produce things. Are you interested? I said yeah, because I had that vision.

Tiffany Woolley 21:41

Right.

Brian Forti 21:42

Suddenly.

Tiffany Woolley 21:43

You had clarity.

Brian Forti 21:44

I had clarity on what that? Was all about.

Tiffany Woolley 21:48

And so I came back to.

Brian Forti 21:49

Miami. I got an interview, I was hired by Alan Fain and Len Blavatnik, who is huge in the business, and and I opened the theater that same year. It's been 10 years.

Tiffany Woolley 22:03

Has it been 10 years?

Brian Forti 22:05

Yeah, so I had no live entertainment, was not in my live theater, was not in any of my program, but the vision came to me, I grabbed it, I felt it in my heart and I designed my life to go down that path and it's just been amazing. And you haven't looked back. I haven't looked back. It's been amazing and to experience live thing, meaning the energy every night is different.

Scott Woolley 22:28

Well, I can tell you just going back a second before you went to Sedona and just saying getting burnt out. I kind of know why you got burnt out. A couple reasons Well one of the reasons was that you were doing stuff with me on all the races going all over the country every weekend to a, every weekend to a race.

Brian Forti 22:45

Yeah, but see I found that, yeah, 10 different videos. That was one of the most exciting things I had ever done. I don't believe it, or?

Scott Woolley 22:51

not really, because to me it was like watching paint dry.

Brian Forti 22:55

I couldn't go to those races anymore well, you had done it, but I had recently gotten divorced, because you know my unfortunately had gotten divorced, one of the biggest regrets and biggest mistakes of my life. But that was a distraction, going on the road with Patron and doing all those different races and it was a great escape. But it was also a blast because you know, you had created a great club.

Scott Woolley 23:18

I always thought you thought like, maybe I did that. It was like oh my God, he's sending me to my….

Brian Forti 23:23

I loved it. It was amazing. I'm glad to hear that and the rate and racing became part of my life too. I just you know, I thought it was amazing.

Tiffany Woolley 23:30

I mean it was a fun time it was a fun blip. But going back to the Faina, I mean you literally created a vision from somewhat nothing I mean, and and the whole experience experience when you do come to the Faina Theater is so design worthy on every sense.

Brian Forti 23:51

Yeah, I mean, I had no idea. I didn't know what Faina was. I had no idea what that was. And then when I came and I met and I saw the plans of what was being done, faina Alan Faina is a brilliant creative artist and he opened a hotel in Buenos Aires in an area that was totally desolate and it blew up into one of the most amazing areas and the value of all that land and everything around it blew up Because of this vision.

Brian Forti 24:24

Because of the hotel and the art event place that he created. And then he had the opportunity to build on Miami Beach, and when I saw what they did, because they had set up when I went to see it we were in a trailer on Miami Beach in this mid-beach area and I saw this design and go my God yeah it was next level.

Scott Woolley 24:46

When I think of Faina, I think of luxury gold leaf velvet Over the top Five star luxury over the top, but artistic, very artistic.

Brian Forti 24:56

Nothing cheesy in any way, obviously.

Scott Woolley 24:58

I mean for anyone who hasn't been to the Faina.

Brian Forti 25:01

I mean just a night of, just even if you're going out for a drink.

Scott Woolley 25:04

You need to go there just to experience it and see it.

Brian Forti 25:06

Yeah, I mean the experience from the moment you walk in the door with the art on the walls and the way the personnel. It's nothing like a normal hotel.

Scott Woolley 25:15

No.

Tiffany Woolley 25:19

And then the venues are well designed, the music and the culture, and they're warm and they're cozy and they're embracing.

Scott Woolley 25:22

So was the theater and the hotel built when you got involved.

Brian Forti 25:26

Yes, basically, the you know, the Faina Hotel is the Saxony Hotel. So the Saxony Hotel was the first hotel actually built in Miami Beach in 1947. Before the Fontainebleau, before the Eden Rock, before any of those hotels, the Saxony was built. It was the you know, and it became the icon of Collins Avenue, basically, and because of the success of that, the other hotel, font Bleu, was built, eden Rock was built, all those other hotels were built, but there was no theater.

Tiffany Woolley 25:56

Magic City.

Brian Forti 25:57

Back in those days, back in those days, everything they designed these hotels to have everything on the top.

Tiffany Woolley 26:02

Oh yeah, for the view.

Brian Forti 26:03

So that you for the view. They didn't realize that the top can be the most valuable penthouses. You know, back in those days it became the place to go. So when Saxony was emptied and they decided, and Alan Faina had the opportunity to create a whole new town, actually a whole district, five blocks in that area. He designed a very artistic space and he said let's put a theater. Let's create a theater on the bottom level.

Scott Woolley 26:29

So you're hired and the theater's already built and finished?

Brian Forti 26:31

No, I'm hired and the theater is just starting under construction yeah. And now all the equipment had been purchased already. They had put down a lot of money, so I had to go through that and supervise sort of all that stuff and the construction I was part of that. It took a whole year before it was completed and but yeah, I mean once it, once it opened, I realized what an amazing place. This is an intimate space that you don't find, you know we've all been to Broadway.

Voice Over 27:03

It takes you back, we've all been to shows in Broadway.

Brian Forti 27:05

We've all been to shows in Las Vegas, and those are huge venues.

Tiffany Woolley 27:08

Yeah, you feel like you're walking back in time.

Brian Forti 27:10

Where you're not close there's. No, the experience is totally different than the experience you have at Fina Theater, which is immersive. There's dancers that come up to you, behind you. They're coming from all sides of you, all sides of you. So I saw such an opportunity there and I got so excited about it.

Scott Woolley 27:30

So from there we started designing shows that were so. Faheen is a small venue 160 people.

Brian Forti 27:35

160 people Seated like cabaret style.

Scott Woolley 27:37

Right, so very small, extremely intimate. How do you go about designing and creating a show that's in such a small space?

Brian Forti 27:46

well, we knew we, we have a, we have a good size theater, I mean a good size stage right um, which, uh, you know, just like, basically 24 by 24, uh, with hydraulic lifts. So we had the opportunity to go, you know, change the look of the stage up and down, or have artists come down, walk off, come into the room, come back, go back up.

Tiffany Woolley 28:10

So is there choreographers in your collaboration?

Brian Forti 28:12

Choreographers of course I'm a producer.

Tiffany Woolley 28:16

Right.

Brian Forti 28:16

I understand as a producer, as we have always to put the best team together To have the best show you bring in the best people in each department, whether it's a choreographer, a costume designer, art director, lighting designer. That's how you create amazing things. Amazing designs come from the talents of everybody else coming into the mix. The curated group yeah, so, yeah, so that's what we do. So a lot of the people when I brought all these different people into the mix and they saw what we had to work with.

Brian Forti 28:44

The creative juices, probably the creative juices just came right out.

Tiffany Woolley 28:47

Yeah, it's a creative space, and then you understand who your audience is.

Brian Forti 28:52

It's the most important thing. Who's your audience? Back in the day it was who's your client. Now it's who's the audience.

Tiffany Woolley 28:57

Who's the audience?

Brian Forti 28:57

yeah, who's coming in? People are coming to Miami Beach to to have fun, to escape.

Scott Woolley 29:03

But how did you pick or how did you select the type of shows that you're doing that for the last 10 years we didn't know, until we were in it. We didn't know until we were in it.

Brian Forti 29:12

So the first year we just decided we hired a director from Paris who had done a lot of cabaret before. So she came in and did a standard cabaret show that you would see in Paris called C'est Rouge, basically, and we learned what worked and what didn't work. We could see what people really.

Tiffany Woolley 29:31

So how long would you keep, like when you're saying you learned what didn't work and worked? How long would you guys keep it going? A year, a year, okay.

Brian Forti 29:38

Yeah, but we would tweak along the way. Okay, we could see along the way if things were working or not and then make changes, and that's the beauty of live entertainment. You can't do that on a television show.

Tiffany Woolley 29:48

Right Really.

Scott Woolley 29:50

Every night. You can change a little bit from the night before Exactly.

Brian Forti 29:53

And perfect it and then you can see how it works. It's not like you edit, edit, edit, throw it on the air and you've got to wait a couple weeks and see how it works.

Tiffany Woolley 29:59

See how it sticks Right, right, so you get to.

Brian Forti 30:01

That's the beauty of live entertainment.

Tiffany Woolley 30:03

Okay.

Brian Forti 30:04

So as the years grew on, I mean we've done now 10 years of shows, so 12 shows, maybe over these 10 years and how has the cast evolved and that initial group of you know talented people that you put together? Has that the amount of people now that are banging on the door coming to? See me calling me constantly to be a part of the show. In the beginning it wasn't like that. It's like anything. You have to build something.

Scott Woolley 30:29

You mean to work on the shows.

Brian Forti 30:31

To work on the shows and to be a part of the shows. A lot of the talent now that we get the dancers, the singers. They didn't know if we were going to make it, so they didn't want to take a chance. They'd rather take a chance on a cruise ship, go out for six months or take a gig and what?

Tiffany Woolley 30:47

in new york or in vegas or something like that.

Brian Forti 30:48

They didn't know, uh, until as as the years went on and they could see now every cast and every team that has an approach is like a family right I mean they get paid very well. You know, we, we treat our talent very, very well. Uh, we treat our talent very, very well. We treat our crew members very, very well and that creates an environment of everybody really doing the best that they can and it shows in the production.

Tiffany Woolley 31:16

It really does.

Brian Forti 31:17

It shows in the production.

Scott Woolley 31:18

Yeah, and that's what I love, I got the opportunity a few years ago to do a deal with you and bring in a comedy show that I shot for Netflix. I had a great time in that facility doing that. Like you said, the equipment that was purchased before you started it was phenomenal equipment that was purchased, yeah.

Brian Forti 31:37

It was a fabulous comedy show, siri. It was a couple of shows we had done. I think right, yeah, we did a few shows yeah it was great and it was from that experience that I realized that. And then the Prime Video. After that, prime Video did a series called Marvelous Mrs Maisel.

Scott Woolley 31:57

Yep, oh, I love that.

Brian Forti 31:58

Yeah, we're familiar with that and they came and saw the theater and said, oh my God, this is great, Because Mrs Maisel was coming to Miami.

From TV Production to Spiritual Awakening

Brian Forti 32:05

She theater and said oh my god, this is great because she, she, mrs maze, was coming to miami. She's yeah, so she was going to come and do do some scenes. So we made a deal and, and you know, they made the theater look like it was the 60s, because that was the time period which was very cool, and I realized from from what we did with your production and mrs may, we could do comedy here. It's a great venue for comedy, upscale comedy, not like the venues you go improv or all those other places you go, which you know luxury so from there we

Scott Woolley 32:32

launched comedy. The shows that we shot did very well on Netflix and Netflix one of them still is highly still promoting and pushing it.

Brian Forti 32:41

Yeah because of the art direction and the theater. It looks amazing. You know Noting and pushing it. Yeah, because of the art direction in the theater. It looks amazing.

Tiffany Woolley 32:46

You know a lot of places you go, especially comedy shows, comedy venues.

Brian Forti 32:48

they're nothing, they're like small stages with no backdrops or something like that.

Tiffany Woolley 32:53

That was going to be one of my next questions was really when you do think of Fianna we mentioned, it's very luxurious, it's extremely a rich experience. How is that luxury intertwined with the production?

Brian Forti 33:09

Every production has to maintain the level. Alan Fine is very involved in every production we do, which means he is, he's hands-on. Hands-on yeah.

Scott Woolley 33:20

That's good Nice to hear.

Brian Forti 33:21

And because his brand, because it's his brand and he values his brand and his brand is all luxury, class, artistic, and so the productions have to reflect that. We can't be anything cheesy, or the costumes that we have have to be amazing looking. The backdrops, the visuals that you see around the theater have to be at a level that you would expect. And people, now that they've been coming to Faina, they expect a level because now they understand what it's all about and we could never drop the ball on that. We'll be called out on that immediately, both from Alan and from the public, the guests.

Tiffany Woolley 34:04

Right. So you have two new productions happening right now there. Is it difficult to have two different shows going simultaneously, as far as setting up and pulling down it is if you try and do them at?

Brian Forti 34:19

the same time, meaning launch them at the same time. Because, launching a show is all those rehearsals and all the technical designs and all those things that we have to do. You can't do it at the same time because it's way too much work, so we did these separately. Fortunately we had we opened. We're doing a show called carmen. Carmen is an opera from the from the 1800s. It's a love triangle, an opera, an opera. It's based on.

Brian Forti 34:45

It's not a an opera, it's not burlesque, no, no but the story of Carmen was originally an opera an opera and it's been made into several, many movies. I've heard of it yeah, and we decided we were going to do a reimagined version of it for Miami Beach cabaret burlesque style.

Tiffany Woolley 35:03

Yeah, inject a little bit so we did.

Brian Forti 35:05

Basically, you know it has a lot of the Spanish, from Spain music Okay, the feel, the costumes are all part. Look like you'd be in Spain, in Madrid, except it all has very sexy edge to it and it's a combination of popular music that has been remixed in sort of Spanish ways. So very passionate, very sexy, a very artistic production. We had launched that last October and then in this past few months, at the beginning of the year, which was tough because it's our busy season everybody comes to Miami, miami Beach, in January, february, march. So we decided to launch another show and it's called Retro, and Retro is stars Rocky Lanes, which is the singer that was in the Allura show, which I believe you guys came to she was fabulous and one of our best shows, one of our biggest and best shows ever and Retro.

Brian Forti 36:05

We decided, because she's so good musically, that we were going to do this musical journey, build a show around her Musical journey from the days of Motown through the 60s, the 70s and 80s, so through disco, through funk, through pop and rock, and we launched it about a month ago and it's doing fantastic.

Tiffany Woolley 36:24

And is there dancers in the same room? Dancers, all of it.

Brian Forti 36:27

Dancers all around you. You know catwalk that comes out into the middle of the audience. So you're looking right up into the dancers and they're interacting with you Rocky's interacting with you and because it's the music that anybody who's come through the 70s and 80s you know I was born in the 60s I remember the music but you know, disco was my big days, right, of course.

Tiffany Woolley 36:51

I mean we're talking great disco, and that goes along with the vibe too of the faena and everybody's dancing because we're talking about Donna Summer. We're talking about Cher.

Brian Forti 36:59

We're talking about Diana Ross and the Supremes. It's just an amazing mix of music that Rocky performs and everybody is singing because it brings back all those feelings.

Voice Over 37:10

Right joyful, you know, music is timeless.

Tiffany Woolley 37:12

Yeah.

Brian Forti 37:16

And it takes you back to a time when you hear those songs of where you were back in those days.

Scott Woolley 37:19

What's the process that you go through to design a new show? Is it one person who comes up with it?

Brian Forti 37:25

No, it's great. Yeah, we take the top creative people who are very good at brainstorming and creativity. How about this, how about that? And we sit around the room, we toss around ideas.

Tiffany Woolley 37:37

How long does that process take? Weeks, really.

Brian Forti 37:40

Weeks, sometimes months, and then we design. Then we have to sit down and design the look, which takes a lot. What's it going to look like? How are we going to design the clothing?

Tiffany Woolley 37:52

So how far in advance are you working on the next one Months?

Brian Forti 37:57

usually so we will open a new show in October. Retro will actually go to the end of the year and then most likely go to our new theater in New York.

Voice Over 38:05

that's opening up in the spring of 2026.

Brian Forti 38:09

We'll open a new show on August or September of this year.

Scott Woolley 38:16

So you're probably working on that now, so we're starting to figure out.

Brian Forti 38:18

Right. We're getting ideas now to figure out what we're going to do.

Scott Woolley 38:20

Are there any elements that kind of stay within each production?

Brian Forti 38:25

Specialists that do aerials. I was just going to say Things that people do in the air, you know because we're one of the few theaters and one of the venues around that can do aerial. You know where people are swinging.

Tiffany Woolley 38:38

And I noticed when we were there, they're actually doing it like the people who are doing the aerial. It's all like real people doing it, it's not even mechanical.

Scott Woolley 38:47

No, no, no no, yeah, from me going up.

Brian Forti 38:49

Yeah, no, it's pullers, it's pullers. Yeah, it's motors that are doing that, correct, yes, we don't do that, we don't do that no, it's such a which adds sort of a more of a flow, believe it or not. It's not as mechanical looking, when you have somebody who's lowering and raising, and usually that puller is in the, he's dressed in costume, he's part of the production as well, yeah, I noticed that in the last show we went to.

Brian Forti 39:15

That's one of the things we design is to make sure that even those people who are coming into the room where we're doing a fire effect and we need people to be there just in case something happens they're all in costumes, they're all designed to be part of the cast Because they're three feet from you.

Tiffany Woolley 39:33

You're going to see them. Yes, exactly, are there any changes to? They're three feet from you, right, you're going to see them.

Scott Woolley 39:35

You can't Exactly, so that's you know it was all part of it. Are there any changes to like the venue itself for each of these different shows? Was it more of just the performance?

Brian Forti 39:42

Equipment. More we buy, more equipment. More cool, because every year something new comes out more lasers, more smoke machines, more bubble machines, you know stuff like that, and the screens too.

Brian Forti 39:52

So usually it's a lot of electronic. The sound consoles have that. We just replaced all our sound consoles because sound design is such a big thing in live entertainment, right? So when you have a board that can create effects within the room, right, because if you're trying, you know if you have lightning or you have whatever like thunder or some sort of sound, you want to be able to spread that around in some really cool way. So we bought a board recently to help elevate our design of the sound experience. Same thing with lighting Lighting, you know, electronics, constantly changing what you can do and can't do it's electronics, constantly changing what you can do and can't do.

Scott Woolley 40:43

So yeah, electronics are a big part, because it takes the design of what you're doing to a whole other level. So most of these shows have a decent-sized cast. You have a decent-sized crew, but one of the things that I recognized when I did the show there for that week for the comedy shows is behind stage, backstage, you don't have much space. No.

Tiffany Woolley 41:00

It's like the theater is small so there's not a lot of hanging out. Yes, it's a tight.

Scott Woolley 41:03

So you know, like the show that we went to and that was one of the things I was sitting there thinking about while I was watching the show was like, yeah, it's a struggle.

Tiffany Woolley 41:13

Where are they? Where's the dressing room? Is there?

Scott Woolley 41:15

They're right behind.

Brian Forti 41:16

But because? But it's tight. It's like two little dressing rooms and Because it's the Saxony.

Voice Over 41:21

Hotel. Right, it's an old.

Brian Forti 41:22

What's an old? The first hotel in Miami Beach. Those are historical hotels.

Tiffany Woolley 41:26

You can't Thank goodness, you can't touch them, knock them down.

Brian Forti 41:31

law that says you cannot do that. You have to use the structure and go inside and recreate or redesign inside. It doesn't make more space. There's not much space backstage.

Voice Over 41:42

What does the backstage look like in the midst of a show?

Brian Forti 41:45

You'll have to come backstage next time it's very small, except the green room, and the dressing rooms actually are very nice because it's right out the back of the stage and we're able to make them look really nice and comfortable in there Storage space, nothing. Nothing. No storage space Very tight, barely anything.

Tiffany Woolley 42:03

So where does all the set design stuff reside? It just stays.

Brian Forti 42:06

In hallways, in the loading dock and we have to bring them in and out and stuff like that. It's not easy.

Scott Woolley 42:12

I mean it's design and just how you handle all that Exactly.

Tiffany Woolley 42:17

And are you there every night? I mean, are you there conducting this effort?

The Faena Theater Experience

Brian Forti 42:20

I'm there if we launch a show and it's still, we need to get it to where it's totally in sync, whether it's the cast or the backstage crew. I'm always there for that. Once it's in sync, I don't have to be there all the time because I have to move on and think ahead. You know, my job is about what's next as well as make sure everything's what's happening now is going well.

Brian Forti 42:45

Are we? You know, the review is good? Is everything strong? Are we on budget? Are we making money, you know? But it's also what's coming up. I have to design what's coming in six months, right, what's in eight months? So that's a big part of my. So I can't be there all day and all night.

Tiffany Woolley 43:00

Right, you got to pick or choose, I mean for anyone who's listening to this podcast.

Scott Woolley 43:04

if they're in South Florida, it's a night that they should go experience, and if they are listening somewhere else and they plan on coming to.

Voice Over 43:11

South.

Scott Woolley 43:12

Florida. It's something they should put on their agenda to go do yeah.

Tiffany Woolley 43:18

Because it's like, no matter when you, it's definitely a special experience.

Brian Forti 43:20

Yes, it is, and I appreciate you saying that.

Scott Woolley 43:21

No, it's.

Brian Forti 43:22

It's. You know we get a lot of, obviously, the locals. Now, after 10 years, the locals that live in Miami are now coming for all their special occasions. The tourists have all heard about it. So anybody who's come to the hotel, or at least on Miami Beach, all the concierges up and down, are always recommending that they come and see the show.

Voice Over 43:44

But now basically, the amount of people we get from Boca and West Palm.

Brian Forti 43:49

Now that are driving down because, again, the experience is completely different and it's worth the drive.

Tiffany Woolley 43:57

It is.

Brian Forti 43:58

A lot of people will come down and spend the night. They'll just come down and spend the night.

Tiffany Woolley 44:01

It's a good excuse to get down there, Just to go down to Miami Beach, and you know staycation kind of thing Exactly.

Brian Forti 44:06

You're in town, but yeah, but people. Now it's amazing that people are planning their trips. They're planning their trips to come to Miami Beach, stay at Faina or somewhere close, go to the hotel I mean go to the theater or go to the Sobe Beat Wine and Food Festival go to the. International Boat Festival, all those other things. So they're planning these mega things. Always Faina Theaters coming included now, which is great because it's taken 10 years to get to that point.

Scott Woolley 44:34

The first time I saw it, the first thing I thought about was Moulin Rouge in Paris.

Brian Forti 44:39

Yeah, which I've never seen. Have you seen it? Oh yeah.

Scott Woolley 44:43

We've been to shows there.

Tiffany Woolley 44:47

But it is in that same genre. And it's not only in the same genre, but it's that same experience of when you know a destination. It kind of goes hand in hand.

Brian Forti 44:57

Like in Paris, Crazy Horse.

Tiffany Woolley 44:59

Crazy Horse, yeah, crazy.

Scott Woolley 45:00

Horse which you know, oh Crazy, the original Crazy Horse and Moulin Rouge are like.

Brian Forti 45:04

Next door yeah, next door to each other, exactly. And Crazy Horse, which I am a big fan of, because in the past they've made a lot of changes to the way they do the shows now and they have a very small venue. You know the new venue in Paris.

Brian Forti 45:20

It's not big, it's nice, but they use the stage and they have conveyor belts on the stage which means they can have talent sort of going by in three different levels and up and down and back and forth the original and they use the visuals on the screen as amazing and I'm a big fan of them and what they've done. And same thing All the Crazy Horse people come to find it and check out our show.

Scott Woolley 45:41

Well, there's the Crazy Horse in downtown, like in Paris.

Brian Forti 45:44

Right.

Scott Woolley 45:44

Then there's the one that's near the Moulin Rouge, which is a little out of Paris.

Brian Forti 45:47

It's in.

Voice Over 45:47

Paris, but a little bit out yeah.

Scott Woolley 45:50

They both have that moving stage, which is cool, but going to the original one and actually going to Moulin Rouge is.

Brian Forti 45:56

I bet yeah, and I hear Moulin Rouge in New York is really good. The show's in New York now. It's supposed to be really really good. I haven't seen it, but yeah, those are great shows. They are great shows.

Tiffany Woolley 46:07

They really are.

Brian Forti 46:08

The choreography, the costumes.

Tiffany Woolley 46:11

I know the whole design of the show, the whole design of the show, the whole design of it, and in New York you can go for five, ten years, those kinds of shows.

Brian Forti 46:17

We won't do that. So your goal is literally every year you're going to be pretty. We want things to completely change all the time. Well, you need to, we need to, you need to.

Voice Over 46:26

We're not New York.

Brian Forti 46:27

Miami Beach. We're not New York. New York can maybe have because so many people big, big population, a lot of you, but Miami Beach and the faena mentality, the whole culture of faena, is to experience something new every time you come.

Tiffany Woolley 46:43

Well, and it makes people want to come check out the new one, because you had such a great night when you were there for the last one, right?

Brian Forti 46:47

Yeah, and bring your friends.

Tiffany Woolley 46:49

Correct.

Brian Forti 46:49

That's the best part of it. People just come and bring their friends all the time, so they're seeing the show two, three, four times.

Scott Woolley 46:55

So what do you like? Better Television production or live theater.

Brian Forti 47:02

That's like asking you which kid do you like which? Child do you like better? There isn't. I loved the journey I had in the days of television production, from working my way up as a production assistant all the way to a producer and a director, the experiences that I had with your teams and my teams and all the clients we had. It's amazing.

Brian Forti 47:28

You learn so many things and you experience such great things that you'll never forget. But now that I'm into live theater, I love it. At this time in my life I call it the third chapter of my life in a sense. It's something that every day I can do something different and new and I can feel the reaction of the guests right then and there and not have to wait months for the show to air or whatever. And so there's a beauty in both things and I really respect and am happy about where I am now and where I was.

Tiffany Woolley 48:05

And what a special niche really. I mean, not everybody gets to curate something of that magnitude. Yeah, well, again I learned that we can design our lives in any way.

Brian Forti 48:17

I learned this in the mountaintop in Sedona, arizona, because the energy came to me. I realized you can create anything you want, anything you want. You have to feel it in your heart, you have to believe it and feel it. If you can do that, anything, anything is possible. It's true I believe that's the way the universe designed our consciousness in our life I know it's amazing that you got to that point right me too.

Scott Woolley 48:42

So if you're not like, that in the early days, if you could tell young producers or directors, people who want to you know, create a career like a career that you are still in. What piece?

Brian Forti 48:58

of advice would you throw out to someone Believe in yourself. Have the confidence that if you focus and you work hard, a lot of people that are in the business now or are coming into the business now think they can come out and, and and get huge salaries right out of the way and I don't understand how I don't know that comes from social media influence or whatever that comes from. But it's not how we came and and we worked hard, we worked our.

Brian Forti 49:25

You know, we worked really hard, every day long days and and it was those and those people in the positions above us recognized that and saw the talent, saw the hard work and that's what elevated you slowly up in the business. And your talent will always come out if you believe internally in your heart that that's what you're supposed to do and you can feel it will come out and as the opportunities, the doors open, that just keeps coming and coming.

Tiffany Woolley 49:55

It does, just keep coming, don't give up, never stop.

Brian Forti 49:58

Don't stop and work hard and don't think that you deserve something as you start. You have to work, you have to work for it, you have to believe in it, you have to work hard for it.

Tiffany Woolley 50:09

I think that's a great message.

Scott Woolley 50:12

So we like to wrap up this podcast by asking our guests a couple of simple little questions about design. Okay, so the first thing I'm going to ask you I really shouldn't ask you this question, because I know what the answer is going to be, but what would be your favorite hotel for design?

Brian Forti 50:33

Would be the Fianna.

Tiffany Woolley 50:34

Hotel would be the Fianna Hotel.

Voice Over 50:36

And actually the Fianna.

Brian Forti 50:37

Hotel in Tulum, which is going to be an amazing design. You guys will have to come and visit and see it.

Tiffany Woolley 50:45

I can't even imagine. Just the design.

Brian Forti 50:47

Remember, because the Fianna Miley Beach is an existing structure, but the other ones are all going to be built. The New York is also an existing structure that's being redesigned, but from there on out are all new. So that's going to open up. So find a hotel. Designs are just amazing.

Tiffany Woolley 51:02

They really are, and it does have an incredible design, yeah, in every aspect. And what's the background of the woolly mammoth?

Scott Woolley 51:10

It's an art piece.

Brian Forti 51:11

Which is a huge statue, yeah, on the property, on the property near the pool, which is a great Instagram.

Tiffany Woolley 51:17

It's a famous artist, it is.

Brian Forti 51:18

It's a famous Dante. I forget his name now.

Voice Over 51:24

But it was bought by the owner.

Brian Forti 51:28

I should know the name. I don't know the name, but it's one of the icons on the property and even if you're walking down the boardwalk on Miami Beach, you're not actually on the property. You can see it when you look inside and people stop. Groups of people stop. It's a gold. It's 18-garret gold. The entire mammoth is gold.

Tiffany Woolley 51:46

So do they have a design element like going like that in Tulum and in? New York yes yes, there you have.

Brian Forti 51:52

Yeah, yeah, I can't tell you what to tell you. I don't like it.

Tiffany Woolley 51:56

I want to see Okay, what about favorite restaurant? Design-wise, miami's got a lot of good ones.

Brian Forti 52:04

I like restaurants on the water.

Tiffany Woolley 52:06

I know.

Designing Live Shows for Intimate Spaces

Brian Forti 52:06

We don't have one. We don't have a restaurant. We have nice restaurants outside, two nice Los Fuegos and Pow Great food. But outside to Los Fuegos and Pow Great food. But I love being on the water. So there's actually a new place called the Palm Club. It's on 79th Street. It used to be called Shuckers. It's been redesigned as a club by a big New York developer. Music producer designed this new place called the Palm.

Tiffany Woolley 52:32

I love the name of it. It's beautiful.

Brian Forti 52:34

And it's the music at night. It's music, so I love sitting outside on the water. To me, that to be on the bay or on the ocean Live music.

Tiffany Woolley 52:41

We are like entering in the most gorgeous weather season for us here in Florida. Yeah, see, and during the winter.

Brian Forti 52:46

it's the best time to sit outside During the summer. Forget it. You know it's too hot, but that's awesome.

Scott Woolley 52:53

So I'm going to ask you a question. It really doesn't have to do with design, but you can look at it as design Is there?

Brian Forti 53:10

an event, a favorite event that you would love to attend or you've attended. I used to love going to the races, To me being in those races, you know, being in the middle of the race, being down in the pit zone Right when the action was.

Tiffany Woolley 53:23

That's that energy too that energy.

Brian Forti 53:25

It was such an amazing experience. And then going back to the hospitality areas, which were all these elaborate places.

Tiffany Woolley 53:30

They're all experiences Amazing food.

Brian Forti 53:33

Those are great experiences. Big food and those are great experiences. Big races like that are tremendous. Big golf tournaments I love going to the golf tournaments.

Tiffany Woolley 53:41

Really, have you become a golfer?

Brian Forti 53:44

I try to play golf. I don't have much time to do it, but I love when I'll go to a tournament. But it's always the best time is when you're invited into a suite.

Tiffany Woolley 53:52

Right, especially the golf, that where the parties are. That's the whole thing.

Brian Forti 53:57

Or a big game, or you know the Orange Bowl or some you know big event or something like that. I remember when we were in the Indianapolis 500.

Tiffany Woolley 54:06

Yeah, that was a fun.

Voice Over 54:06

Indianapolis 500.

Scott Woolley 54:09

In the pits during the race In the pits during the race walking on the brick.

Brian Forti 54:13

In the rain too. Walking on the race, in the pits during the race, walking on the brick In the rain too, walking on the bricks, yeah, which was the famous you know tell me that wasn't. Those are great times.

Scott Woolley 54:20

No, that's one of my highlights in racing. I've had a lot yeah, it was the Indianapolis 500. Absolutely standing and being in part of the team, the pit team right there, yeah, while the race is happening. And I'll tell you is that when I experienced that, I actually stood there looking around going. What the hell am I standing in this pit for? And as a kid growing up every Indianapolis I watched with my dad. And here I am.

Brian Forti 54:52

I was standing there. It's one of those things you just never forget.

Scott Woolley 54:55

Or being at a drag race when the car takes off and you're literally three feet from the car and your chest is caved in and your ears are blowing up.

Brian Forti 55:06

That's just another experience, that wow. Physically it's hard to handle that because you remember how loud. Oh yeah, 10,000 horsepower, oh my gosh. But great times, Great times.

Scott Woolley 55:19

Great times. We had a lot of fun. Well, we appreciate you coming in spending some time with us. It's always a pleasure.

Tiffany Woolley 55:26

You've had such an incredible career.

Scott Woolley 55:28

Thank you. Thank you, and we plan on coming back down to the Fianna Fáil very soon. Please do anytime. We'll be there to see another show Absolutely, you'll be my guest.

Tiffany Woolley 55:35

We have to see Carmen.

Brian Forti 55:37

Please come see. Or the other one, and thank you for bringing me today. I enjoyed this.

Voice Over 55:41

Me too, thank you, thank you iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW Group production in association with the Five Star and TW Interiors. To learn