The World’s Greatest Show: How Shaq’s Fun House Show Is Changing the Dance Music Landscape – EDM.com

Do you remember the design of your dream house when you were a child?

You would replace all the stairs with slides and create the ultimate entertainment room. And despite the improbability of having an indoor pool and a giant movie screen in the same space, the decisions seemed right. Looking back, one only has to smile again at the thought of what happens when there are seemingly no limits other than the imagination.

In many ways, Shaq’s fun housea relatively new staple of Super Bowl weekend, also seeks to subvert conventional expectations of what a dance music event is. should look and feel like by delivering on multiple experiential fronts at once.

At first glance, fans can certainly see that Fun House shows have no shortage of raw talent. This year’s edition in Los Angeles saw electronic music strongly represented with Diplo, Zedd, DJ Irie, Shaq’s own son, Myles O’Neal, and DJ Diesel himself, all on the decks. Lil Wayne also delivered a headliner full of rap classics, evoking a sense of late 2000s nostalgia.

Outside of a star-studded roster, however, there’s nothing “normal” about a Fun House experience. It is a carnival, a circus, a culinary festival and a concert all rolled into one.

The land outside the shrine has been transformed into a bustling theme park bathed in a spectrum of prismatic lights. Bumper car drivers vibrated with joy, attendees slid down a giant 80-foot toboggan, hulking performers on stilts navigated the venue with dexterity, and a towering FTX Ferris wheel gave passengers a view. overview of all the action.

Additionally, two perks virtually unheard of at almost any other concert venue were guaranteed to all ticket holders: an open bar and complimentary food. Diesel has been careful to select culinary delights that have become staples of the casual fast food scene in Los Angeles. Selections included full-size entrees from Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘N Waffles and hot dogs from Pink’s straight off the grill.

In most cases, the ideas that collectively shape the Fun House experience would be seen as too big a business to handle and seemingly too versatile to make sense. However, like the dream house you drew decades earlier, it works if for no other reason because the artist is dedicated to fostering a vision greater than the sum of the parts.

Shaq’s Fun House started with a simple idea: the idea that there must be more to celebrating the most important issues in sport than the same old handshake and the same small talk.

“Everyone else gone, you just come over, stand there and shake hands,” Shaq said. ABC7. “You go, ‘Hey Tom, hey Bob, hey Jamal.’ This party is a carnival with rides, favorite restaurants, the best restaurants in LA… The Ferris wheel. I paid a lot of money to have this thing here.”

But there’s definitely more than just buying power at play when it comes to dissecting what propelled Shaq to success in the dance music space. He is one of the few to have enjoyed professional success in two of the most competitive industries in the world: sports and entertainment. There is a phenomenon that many successful professional athletes want to become musicians and vice versa. Despite idealistic notions, successfully pivoting between the two worlds often proves more difficult than it first appears, especially for celebrities with an existing platform.

Diesel’s approach is different. Between the community he’s built around Fun House and his active dedication to spotlighting the next generation of music producers, he’s found a way to contribute to the community on multiple fronts, and fans can’t have one. enough. In a recent interview with EDM.com, Shaq suggested that in order to plant those seeds of success, he first had to become a student of the game.

“Athletes who want to be musicians don’t understand that you can’t just use your platform to be successful. If the art you put out is wacky, people will politely — or rudely — say, ‘No thanks,'” Shaq Told EDM.com. “For my part, I realized it from the jump. I got in the studio with Redman, Erik Ermon, Al Skratch, Def Jef and other legendary musicians and told them to teach me. It’s about positioning yourself with the right people.”

It’s a strategy that is paying off. During his Fun House appearance, DJ Diesel continued to show fans his genuine passion for space and how it’s part of the genre’s future. Just like the spirit of Fun House, in a Diesel set, “anything goes”. The set’s tracklist spans decades, stretching back as far as 1977 with a ceremonial rinse of Queen’s “We Are The Champions,” a mandatory anthem given the championship stakes in the air.

Diesel hasn’t been shy about taking his own projects for a test either, including his recently released bass house banger “Welcome to the Playhouse” (featuring Steve Aoki) as well as unreleased tracks in the works, which he created with some of electronic music‘s most promising young producers. No matter what song played, however, you couldn’t help but recognize that Shaq seemed like the happiest guy in the house throughout the night, frequently jumping and punching with unparalleled fervor.

All in all, Fun House 2022 leaves us excited for Shaq’s continuing saga in dance music. Wherever the traveling event lands next year, expect larger-than-life championship energy to follow.

FOLLOW DJ DIESEL:

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Spotify: spoti.fi/3zoP9WO