2NR: How hard was it to lock down a venue?
Ken: I had enough money for a deposit, and that got my foot in the door. But I had to give presentations to boards full of 50-year old guys in suits...and I had never given a presentation in my life! I was a kid, wearing regular clothes, and had no idea how to, you know... carry myself [laughs]. They probably thought I was just some punk.
2NR: How many venues did you try before you finally got one?
Ken: I approached the L.A. Convention center, which was charging a ridiculous amount of money, Long Beach didn't want anything to do with me... and finally Pomona, because they had the L.A. fair going on in '94 and I thought, "I could imagine a car show here." I had all the board members convinced it would work, except for the lead guy, who wasn't budging. When I asked him why he wasn't going for it, he told me about some lowrider show they had there three years before, where there was some stabbing and a few people died, which I didn't know about... did you know about it?
2NR: I heard about it...
Ken: [laughs] ...Because you're nodding your head! I guess it was big news, but I didn't know. Anyway, they were so paranoid that they screened all the cars; no Impalas were allowed [laughs]. I even had to buy metal detectors... The whole event cost me a lot more than I had planned, but I was really driven to make it happen.
2NR: So how did the first show go?
Ken: It was in April of 1995 at Pomona, and about 1,600 people and 175 cars came through the gates. We had GReddy and a few other big vendors - all the local heavy hitters. ...We couldn't get HKS, though [motioning to Frank].
Frank: [laughs] We barely got them!
Ken: [laughs] But you did! Anyway, the first show was big enough that I made my money back, so I was happy.
2NR: So how were you getting around? Did you buy another car after the successful first show?
Ken: [laughs] Yeah, well... I bought a really cheap '86 CRX, just to get around in, and work the clubs as a promoter. I wanted a fast car, but had all my money tied up in Showoff, so I eventually bought an '82 Supra shell and dropped a 7MGTE into it, and that's when I started doing a lot of racing.
2NR: At Battle, or on the streets?
Ken: Both, but mainly the streets: Sylmar, Railroad Street...Right when I was doing Showoff, to try to make some extra bucks. I raced it at Battle in Palmdale, but only got a 13.8 or something shitty. I thought it was faster [laughs].
Frank: Yeah, there was a big misconception about how fast street racers thought their cars were, versus how fast they really were [laughs]. We'd be like, "Oh shit, so-and-so's nine-second whatever is really only running 15.70!" [laughs]. Made us wonder what a real nine-second car felt like.
2NR: So what were the next few years of Showoff like?
Ken: I did Del Mar the second year... I think; I'm getting old.
2NR: [laughs] Memory's starting to fade there, Ken?
Ken: [laughs] It is! I'll get back to you on when Del Mar was, but I promoted it in L.A. and San Diego, so it turned out to be really big. From there I went to NorCal, then Chicago, because Nitto came in and wanted to see us expand.