What comes before the show

Hey, Nikki here.

The path from recording artist to touring artist used to be pretty linear. Make the music. Get the deal. Build the identity. Then go on tour. That path is largely gone.

Ryan Maag saw that change happening and built TSP Creative around it. He started as a backup dancer, moved into choreography, and has since worked his way through NFL halftime shows with 700 dancers, the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, and two D-Day ceremonies in Normandy. 

Now he’s working with artists at every stage — from the ones who haven't released a song yet all the way to stadium-level production.

What I love about this conversation is how Ryan talks about the work that happens long before a production call ever gets scheduled.

Why this one matters:

The industry has inverted. You build the artist’s identity first, then the audience, then the music follows.

That shift is changing what artists show up with, how teams prepare, and the kind of shows this industry is being asked to build.

Ryan is at the front of that shift, and a lot of what he shares about creative direction applies far beyond artist development.

#1 Identity before everything else

Ryan was direct about it: the quality of the brand now matters more than the quality of the music. Many of us may have a strong reaction to that, but it doesn’t change what sells tickets today. 

Labels used to sign artists on the strength of a song, then built the image around it. Now artists need an audience before the deal. K-pop understood this early — building artist identity before a single track dropped. The rest of the industry is catching up. The artists who walk into a production meeting knowing who they are make every job downstream easier.

Takeaway: The show you build reflects the clarity, or lack of it, that the artist brought long before load-in.

Try this: The next time you take on a new project, look at the artist's social presence before their setlist. It will tell you more about what kind of show you're actually building.

#2 Harness the vulnerability, don't cover it up

Ryan sees every artist he works with at their most unfinished. The private rehearsal before the full room, the cracked vocals, wrong turns, messy choreography, the parts that are not ready yet.

His job is not to smooth it over. His job is to hold the space so the artist can work through it before the audience sees it, and before the full crew watches it happen in rehearsal.

The goal is to help the artist get ready to be seen. That is what a great support role actually does.

Takeaway: Honest, steady support moves things forward faster than empty reassurance does.

Try this: Before your next full production rehearsal, think about what the performer needs to work through privately first. If you have any influence over the schedule, protect that time.

#3 Be the yes in the room

Ryan says it to everyone: be the yes in a room full of no’s.

He has called shows he had never called, walked into rooms where he was figuring it out on the fly, and said yes to things he had no business agreeing to yet. The skill came after the yes.

That is how so many careers in this industry get built. You rarely know in advance which yes is going to change everything.

Takeaway: Nobody gets somewhere interesting by only doing what they already know how to do.

Try this: The next time you get asked to do something just outside your lane, say yes first. Then give yourself 48 hours to figure out how.

If you want the full conversation, listen to Episode #62 of The Giggs Podcast with Ryan Maag.
SPOTIFY | APPLE | YOUTUBE 

— Nikki

P.S. One line I loved: Ryan said that when a creative director can look at an artist and say, “I got you, that part does sound like shit right now, and we’re going to figure this out,” and the artist trusts it, that is when the real work starts.