Professor Jonathan Shalit OBE

Professor Jonathan Shalit OBE is one of the world’s leading entertainment talent managers. His company, InterTalent, is the largest independent talent agency in the UK, representing household names in music, broadcasting, film and entertainment.

Awarded the OBE in 2014 for his services to the entertainment industry, Jonathan chairs Variety, the Children’s Charity, the MOBO Charity Trust and co-chairs the Classical Brits. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Kent.

What is the most enjoyable part of your job?
Empowering people by listening to and helping them achieve – whether it’s my clients or my brilliant team. I enjoy giving them the tools to be the best version of themselves and then seeing them becoming just that. My staff’s ages range from 19 through to their early 40s: they are all young enough to be my children. The great thing about being surrounded by younger people is learning from them as well as teaching them the lessons that experience brings. Often, what keeps me relevant and still ahead of the game, is the people behind me; the people with me and those who will follow me. It’s intoxicating and invigorating.

I’ve been lucky that in my career, I’ve met presidents, international stars… I’m fairly certain that there’s no-one I’ll meet now who’s bigger than someone I’ve already met.

Of course, that never stops me from looking forward to meeting new and interesting people. Tomorrow, I’m in a breakfast meeting with Nigel Farage – I’m looking forward to that. I’m pretty certain that, if there were an election tomorrow, he’d be prime minister. There will be 30 guests, all from different industries. I’m there to say that the creative industries are the backbone of the country and the BBC is the greatest broadcaster in the world.

The creative industries are the greatest soft power we have – you can go to many countries in the world and you won’t find any British products there. But British creativity is everywhere – people are listening or watching or reading something that is at least partly British. That’s an incredible powerful cultural and influential export for this country. And the creative industries are not taken seriously enough by any of the political parties.

You are a big supporter of the BBC, aren’t you?

I think the discussion is bigger than just being about the BBC: it’s about what kind of country are we? You could argue that the way the BBC is funded is slightly archaic. But there again, the monarchy is slightly archaic and the way the National theatre and the RSC are funded by the Arts Council and museums in the north of England– maybe those are too. But what kind of country do we want to be? Do we want to keep core British values that make us distinct from the rest of the world? The BBC is so massive it will always be getting some things wrong. There are bound to be mistakes – but can it examine itself and correct mistakes? Absolutely. Is it worth keeping – 100 per cent.

The BBC does so many incredible things that matter to so many people in different ways. So many people love Traitors. So many people love Strictly Come Dancing. A small but important number of people rely on the Shipping Forecast or Farming Today every morning. For people like my late father, Remembrance weekend was an incredibly important thing. And, despite the questions, 99 per cent of the BBC News is spot on. Obviously it should be 100 per cent – but no other news network gets near. CNN, Fox… American networks are partisan. They don’t pretend to be objective. The truth, I think, is that impartiality all sounds fine – until anyone sits down and tries to put into words exactly what it means.

The Strictly presenters recently announced they were leaving – were you ready for that announcement? Are you already prepared for those watershed moments?

If there’s an important conversation to be had, the broadcasters will call InterTalentand say they are looking for a new host. For example, one of our clients, Grace Dent, now hosts Masterchef and we were privy to a lot of the confidential conversations going on before the previous presenters left. Broadcasters trust us to keep them just that – private, confidential. So we were well positioned for our talent to be in pole position long before the public knew anything about it.

With Strictly, it’s a little different because no-one expected them to leave. They decided to leave for their own reasons. It’s sad they’re going because they’re brilliant – but it’s exciting for two new people to have that opportunity. And the wonderful thing is that Strictly is such a big and strong brand that they could go for two presenters that no-one has ever heard of and overnight they’ll be stars and the brand will continue. I mean, clearly the new presenters will need to be known on some level because there are particular TV skills that those roles require. No-one should underestimate the skill of broadcasting live: every single element has to happen at exactly the right time.

Grace Dent was a print journalist and now presenting one of the biggest shows on TV. Do you have an idea as soon as you sign someone what their potential could be?

To be successful you need talent. You can have five minutes fame by luck, especially now. But you won’t sustain that moment unless you have talent. A lot of people come and go very quickly. In the time Adele or Taylor Swift or Dua Lipa have been making records, many singers have come and gone. But what I have a knack for doing is meeting people who I can see have the talent to sustain their moment – or rather now I have the talent here to spot people who can do that!

Grace Dent’s success is nothing to do with me personally and I would never claim it to be. But this company have been a huge part of her journey in terms of taking her talent to the world. Her work ethic is considerable. She’s completely committed to what she does. And the one consistent fact about successful people is that they are obsessive and deeply caring about what they do and who they do it for.

Another imaginative career leap was your getting Tulisa from  N-Dubz to be a mainstream star, as a judge on X Factor…

I identify talent that people will want to enjoy. I met N-Dubz very early in their career and took them to the world. Tulisa is a truly exceptional individual among the many I have known. I’ve been described as having the best contact book in London. I would never say that but it’s fairly true! I knew Tulisa would be great on television. I knew she’d be great at mentoring people – and she mentored Little Mix, for example, brilliantly.

I introduced Tulisa to Simon Cowell. They are from two different worlds but I brought them together. My strength is connecting people and they hit it off. Tulisa went on the judging panel and was a complete success and did two very successful years and loved it.

Who is someone that you took from nowhere to being a genuine star?

I’m never going to say I made anyone a star. But with Charlotte Church, I can take the credit for taking her talent to the world. Of course, the talent was all hers and she applied herself and together we made her a truly wonderful global star at such a young age. One of the challenges I’ve had is that sometimes, with people I represent, I want their careers more than they do. There’s someone we represent now who will never achieve what they are capable of  because they simply don’t apply themselves rigorously  enough. There’s always an excuse, always a reason. I mean, their reasons for not taking opportunities are always valid but it has hindered their career.

My job is to give people the tools to be as successful as they can be. It’s a partnership. I will deliver the opportunities; they have to see them through.

I’ve seen you advise young people to find the thing they’re really good at. What is the thing you’re really good at?

I’m committed to my business, to my work. I’m obsessive. I’m the oldest person here but I’m still sometimes the first in and the last to leave. I’m thinking about it long after others have gone to sleep.

So, part of it is tenacity. Maybe if I was smarter than I am, I could work half as many hours… And I have an intuition and a sixth sense. My skillset is meeting someone and seeing what they can become.

I’m very fortunate not just in being obsessed with what I do, but also in having an incredible wife – Katrina – and Sofia and Jessica, my daughters. They give my life a backbone and stability. There are so many people in our industry whose job becomes all-consuming and you can end up lonely and unhappy. Part of being the best version of yourself is having someone at home who gives you the strength to be yourself.

What is the biggest talking-point in the entertainment industry right now?

AII in some industries, like medicine, it’s transforming the world, saving lives, making incredible things happen. In the creative industries, if used responsibly it can support creating a higher quality product – but then people can write complete songs or scripts in AI and before you know it, artists’ creativity is being pirated and creative people are effectively having their careers and their very livelihoods hijacked by it.

My attitude is that we should adapt to the times and see every new opportunity as exciting. But many creative people are justifiably scared that their talent, ambitions, dreams and careers will be damaged. The British government hasn’t protected the creative industries enough. So AI both excites and scares me.

Are you convinced the viewing and listening audiences will swallow content produced by AI the way its many promoters say?

I think most people just want to hear a song they love – they won’t care  and maybe not even know if it’s made by AI. Do people care if the strings on a record are a real orchestra or if they’re just samples on a computer? 99 per cent of listeners won’t be bothered as long as they like the song.

After leaving City, you worked in the City of London and then for Saatchi before coming into show business. Was entertainment always your goal or did it only come to you in your late 20s?

When I left school, I didn’t even know that the job I do now actually existed. But when I look back, maybe it was obvious where I would end up. I’m thinking of three things I did as a teenager in particular…

I started a school magazine reviewing music. Me and my friends would go to concerts and write them up and review vinyl. It was the late-70s, so we’re talking the Sex Pistols, Status Quo, The Who, Queen, Boomtown Rats, The Clash, The Cure. I was getting in the front row of the concerts because the press officers liked my reviews and I was very tenacious 17-year-old!

And then I started a theatrical society at the school and I got [the late] Tom Stoppard to come and talk to the school! One of the greatest living playwrights. I wrote to a lot of people and Tom Stoppard was one who replied and came down. Almost the whole school turned out to see me interviewing him.

And I also directed plays – I remember one, The Bespoke Overcoat, by a writer called Wolf Mankowitz. When I look back I can see that those things were what I loved most.

So why did you go to work as a Lloyds Broker when you left school?

That was because really my parents put pressure on me to do what they wanted me to do. I was wrong for it. It didn’t really work out. I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t think the firm I worked for really enjoyed me  – although I met a couple of my closest friends there. But my real start was when I went into advertising: I was selling things and making things look magical and special. I was on the cusp of show business

What was your first job in entertainment. Was it when you started your own agency?

Yes. When I left Saatchi I set up my own below the line marketing company – direct marketing, brochures. We had clients like L’oreal, Proctor & Gamble, Volvo, British Airways, Airbus. But my life was all about music. I was always getting myself into places, dreaming about getting into music and I propelled myself by imagination and determination into making that happen.

Who was your first client?

A musical genius called Larry Adler, born in 1914. One of the great talents in the history of music. I had a friend who was a singer and actress who was doing a Gershwin concert. She’s met this guy – he was 78 at the time – and she asked me to look after him for the evening. He told me the story of his life, how he’d performed with the Gershwins and Charlie Chaplin and had known Ingrid Bergman, before becoming a victim of the McCarthy anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1950s and then coming to London and disappearing from view. When I met him, he told me he’d just guested with Sting on a record and that Elton John had met him at a party. I suggested he do an album of Gershwin music and get superstars to duet with him.

At that point, I knew nobody, knew nothing. But I got hold of the late Sir George Martin, the Beatles producer, who was very gracious and agreed to meet me. And I took Larry Adler down and George agreed to do the record. Obviously, we had no singers at that point, but now we could say to people that the legendary George Martin was doing the record, so I contacted Cher, Elton John, Meat Loaf, Carly Simon, Jon Bon Jovi, Sting and they all came running for George Martin. And it worked! I was on the map. And soon I was at this dinner party in New York with all these guys – I told Whitney Houston exactly how I had come to be there and she thought it was hilarious.

Can you pick out a couple of teachers from CLS who you enjoyed?

My history teacher – he made me really interested in the subject, the way he communicated it. One teacher who inspired me was actually only filling-in: a guy called Rick Sopher (Ed-An Old Citizen, Class of 1977), who went to be CEO of Rothschilds; one of the most successful private equity bankers of his generation. Our economics teacher, Frank Gregory, had a heart attack in the first year of Sixth Form and they brought this guy Sopher back to teach – he’d been there a few years previously. He was, of course, so interested in economics and understanding finance. We didn’t know he was going to go on and be so successful outside teaching.

I only came to City for Sixth Form. I had been at Eastbourne College as a boarder until then and I really didn’t enjoy it. I had been bullied there and found it difficult to make friends. I’ve learned in later life that I’m autistic and have ADHD. But I see that as a superpower, not a negative. My school days weren’t the happiest.

But I fitted in better at City. My grandfather had been there. It was much freer and more relaxed. I mean, it was run properly by a very strong headmaster – but at the same time boys were free to show their characters and develop their own interests. It was better for me to be able to go home rather than spend 24 hours with my peers. My ADHD and autism was less on show. And maybe I was a more mature person by the time I got to City. I was becoming more myself.

What turned out to be ADHD helped me because it made me incredibly focused on whatever I turned my mind to. At City, I became the school cross-country champion. A great highlight of my life. And I did it because I completely focused on training in a way nobody else did. I ran at lunchtimes, in the evenings, weekends. Until I became the winner. The same thing when I got the Tom Stoppard to come and speak to the school: it was because I wrote to hundreds of people, obsessively devoted to the job in hand. And the way I work now – I get so focused on what I am doing that in the end I can make it happen.

What was your first experience of work?

I delivered newspapers on my bike. I worked in factories. I packed vinyl LPs into sleeves in a factory in East Croydon. Breaking chicken necks on a turkey farm in Sussex. I worked in the bar at Glorious Goodwood races…

What personal qualities would a teenager need to go into this industry?

The sooner you know what you want to do the sooner you can begin to apply yourself towards doing it. That’s not to say that you need to know at age 16 or 17. For some people it takes longer. But if you’re fortunate enough to know at that age – do it. Get work experience in that area. If you don’t know – just apply yourself to whatever you’re doing. Get involved with societies and clubs. Be part of things. Take advantage of everything you’re offered – you have time to do so much when you’re young. Sports facilities, arts facilities: you don’t understand how wonderful it is to have it all there for you. Have an enquiring mind. Explore. Try new things. Travel. Educate yourself. Read lots of books.

Be inquisitive: if I go to a restaurant now, I try and order last and see what other people have ordered and maybe I’ll try something I’ve never had before. Maybe there’s something new that I like. That’s a sign of who I am. I want to learn, even now.

Can you enjoy shows still or are you always on duty?

I enjoy people performing whatever it is. I might not enjoy the subject matter or the script but I will appreciate the acting or the dancing. I know how much hard work has gone into it. I’ll rarely criticise something totally. There’s always something good in everything..