Gene Flaharty, teaching a course on aging makeup
Editor’s Note: Gene Flaharty, the Education, Theatrical and Sales Specialist at Mehron, has been an important figure in the NCA since the late 1990s. He served on the board for 14 years, not consecutively. He left the board at the 2023 convention in Indianapolis. In this interview with NCA Executive Director Ed Avis, he talks about his experiences with Mehron and NCA.
Ed Avis: When did you first get involved with the NCA?
Gene Flaharty: In 1998, when I joined Mehron as their marketing person. Marty (Melik, Mehron’s president) said, "Okay, you need to get to meet all these people. These are our stores. These are our clients."
Avis: Let me interrupt – what were you doing before you joined Mehron?
Flaharty: I had a makeup store in my home in Parkville, Missouri, and I was teaching at Johnson County Community College. I had met Marty years before because I needed authorization to sell their products. He called one day and said, "You still teach, right?" I said, "Yeah, at the college." He goes, "Would you represent us at this USITT (U.S. Institute for Theater Technology) conference and talk to them about our products as a teacher?" I said, "Sure." He said, "I'll send our marketing person out, and you can teach him how to do this as well." After about three or four years of training his marketing people, because they kept rotating out, my wife says, "Why don't you just have him hire you directly?" He hired me and then said, "Let's send you to these conferences and get to meet the stores." And that's where NCA came in.
Avis: So what was your experience at that first NCA event in 1998?
Flaharty: The biggest thing I remember is that I walked into a meet-and-greet meeting, and everybody was gathering around with their drinks and just socializing and stuff. And I'd walk up to a table, and they'd walk away from me. I'm going, "Okay, have I got BO? What's going on?" I finally learned that they feared I was going to do the hard sell, so I said, "Well, that's not going to happen with me. This is social time. This is not business time. We will talk business at business time."
Avis: When did you first join the NCA board?
Flaharty: The second year. The first year Gary from Performance asked me, "Would you be a model? You're the only guy here with no facial hair." I said, "Model for what?" And they said, "Well, we have a workshop coming up that we've got on drag makeup, but we need someone to put makeup on." And I'm going, "Okay. If you guys want to see if I can party or not, I'll do this." So we did it, and they did a whole narrative while one of the guys was doing the makeup. And then everybody got their cameras and took pictures. I thought the paparazzi had walked in. It was flash, flash, flash, flash. And I'm going, "Well, okay. Nice. I'll pose, whatever."
So the next year, they were hosting the conference in Nashville. And I said, "Guys, I want to party, but I don't own a costume shop. I don't have all these costumes to pull from and stuff like that." And they said, "Well, why don't you bring back our little diva?" And I said, "To do what?" He goes, "I don't know. Just make a full character out of her." So I thought about it, thought about it, thought about it. So I said, "Well, I'm going to run for the board. I need to earn their respect and know that I can party with the best of them."
So I did it and they realized then that this boy can party. And so I got voted in as the director.
Avis: What early memories do you have of your time on the board?
Flaharty: When I came on board, we were having this legal battle because state funded colleges were renting out costumes, and then later there was the big battle over Barney costumes. It dawned on me then that this organization can make an impact. I was impressed with the way they were handling that and helping the stores handle it as well.
Avis: What do you think about the future of the industry?
Flaharty: I predicted several years ago that drag and cosplay would be important markets for stores, and that’s coming true.
Avis: How did you learn about those markets?
Flaharty: I learned about cosplay from my makeup class because I would go around and say, "Tell me about where you guys are coming from because if you're not theater kids, I need to know where you're coming from so I know how to teach this class." The last several years I taught it, I had several cosplayers in my class. So I learned about all that stuff. And regarding drag, I talked to costume shops that had their own little niche of drag queens. And when they announced that they were going to have their first drag con, I talked our company into going. I said, "This is our opportunity to be in the forefront of sales for drag queens."
Avis: How do you think the NCA can best serve the industry?
Flaharty: Listen to the young people. Because they have a new twist. They have a sense of where the markets are going.
I think I've always been impressed with what NCA stood for. When I was recruiting new members, they said, "Well, what's the benefit of it?" I said, "Well, the benefit is the fact that you have this huge pool of people with experience that you can call on anytime to help you." And they said, "Why would they do that?" I said, "Because you're all in this together. It's not you against the world.” That's the biggest thing, and I think that will always be the biggest thing, because everyone is willing to share.