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People On The Move - Tracey Dell
10/31/2011 - By Paul Williams
Tracey Dell: Smooth Sailing for Saturday Night Live alumnus
We’ve all heard the famous saying, “If you do what you love for a living, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” Most of us would consider ourselves fortunate if we ever claimed one career that statement applies to. But don’t tell that to Holmdel’s Tracey Dell - he’s now in his third profession that he can proudly say involves activities he’s passionate about.
Ever since Dell graduated from Holmdel high school in 1976, he has been working in various areas of the showbiz industry. “Not long after high school, I worked in audio reinforcement and started my own sound company, Audio Artists. I bought a sound system, started working for local bands, became the house guy in Clarence Clemons’s club and progressed from there,” Dell says. It didn’t take long for his love of the technical aspect of music and concerts to start paying off. Within a few years, Dell worked and travelled with legendary artists such as John Eddie and U2.
While he was in Europe with Lou Reed, who was opening for U2 on the Joshua Tree tour in 1987, Dell received a phone call that changed his life forever. “Someone who I had previously worked with was leaving an audio position on Saturday Night Live to work for Sting. I had the opportunity to fill the spot on the SNL set, and I took it. It was like a house gig, only on steroids,” Dell says. “They sought out guys from the rock and roll industry and I knew enough people, and had a good reputation in the business.”
For the next 17 years Tracey typically worked 60 hours a week as an independent stage monitor for the show’s musicians and in other areas of the show’s production departments. The hard work was always worth it for Dell, since he had a hand in the creative process of one of the most successful television shows of all time. “I know a lot of people would give an arm up to work there, and there’s nothing like standing on the set when the show’s coming on air. That’s one of the coolest places to be standing on the planet at that moment.”
As the years went on Dell realized that his rewarding career was also taking a physical toll on his hearing, and to continue it meant jeopardizing the one sense that made it possible for him to work in the music and audio industries in the first place. “I knew I had to make a change or else I’d become deaf. So now I’m only half deaf,” he jokes.
Dell left NBC in 2005 to cast off on a new career: sailing. “People love to go on vacation and sail in the Caribbean, but you can take advantage of the resources that are close to home, too. So I saw an opportunity to open up a charter business.” Tracey and his wife of 17 years, Kathleen, now run two charter businesses and a sailing school in New Jersey and Florida. Kathleen, who is a psychology professor at her alma mater Monmouth University, handles the charter reservations for their two catamarans: Kathleen D, and Idlywild. Tracey also offers sailing lessons under the ASA certified Tracey School of Sailing. “Once I learned how to sail, I got bit by the bug. I enjoy the clean environment you get out on a boat, and I enjoy teaching others how to do it. We’re facilitating people’s entertainment. At the end of the day I’m still in show business, but just as a host on a smaller stage. I ensure everyone is comfortable and having a good time.”
Tracey has repeatedly shown an ability to turn hobbies into careers, which is why he says the word “entrepreneur” best describes him. “My focus is to make my own life, to not have a job where I have to get up and go to work and do something I hate. You get to always be the boss more or less, and that’s what I strive for.”
Tracey designed his business website, traceyschool.com, and says he now works more hours in a week than he did for NBC, only he “gets to do it in fuzzy slippers,” and believes he’s finally anchored down in a permanent profession. “I miss the guys I worked with on the road and at NBC, but I’m a home body. Now I just like to travel at 7 or 8 knots in my own backyard, not on a train.”
FAVORITE RESTAURANT
Barnacle Bills
FAVORITE MUSIC
The Beatles
Allman Brothers
FAVORITE MOVIE
“Shawshank Redemption”
PET PEEVE
People who lie
THREE PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH
Barack Obama
Lorne Michaels
Paul McCartney
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