For Denver salon owners Charlie Price and Matthew Morris, their participation in “Shear Genius,” the Bravo TV reality series about hairdressers, has catapulted their careers into the “tress-o-sphere”.
Price, who came in second more than 18 months ago on “Shear Genius 2,” has parlayed his reality- show exposure into international work as a Revlon Professional in Europe. He’s the only American in the crew of five style experts.
Morris, the bronze-medal winner in “Shear Genius 3,” which concluded earlier this month, said the TV gig “put an exclamation point” on his career.
And, ironically, the dynamic duo were a couple for five years but ended that relationship eight years ago.
“I thought he did a great job,” Price said about Morris. “I don’t have anything bad to say about his work; his work was great.”
Since the experience, Price and Morris said they increased their haircut price to $150, although Morris reserves the higher rate for new clients only. Both salon owners are working on signature product lines, and Price is poised to close Click salon in Cherry Creek North and open a new salon, Thompson and Price, with business partner Stanley Thompson on May 1 in Washington Park.
While Morris is still basking in his newfound fame — he says business has increased for all of his salon staff — Price estimates that his income has doubled.
“The recession started to hit us in February with a twinge of a slowdown,” Morris said. “I feel if I hadn’t done the show, we probably would be slower.”
Tebow tee.
Almost as soon as the draft of Gator and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow by the Denver Broncos was announced, a T-shirt hit the market.
Titletown T’s founder Lori Evans, who started her online company with Tebow tees while he was a University of Florida superstar, has revamped her line for Broncos fans.
Evans, a UF alum, has designed a ladies shirt with the symbols I heart T with a picture of a bow under the heart. Another style shows a large letter T and the bow figure. Check them out at .
Beery band.
Marty Jones, the self-described cheerleader/idea man for the Wynkoop Brewing Co., recently rocked Chicago with the musical group (and I use that term loosely) the Gourdians during the Craft Brewers Conference.
The “pumpkin-headed group of beer evangelists” — Jones, Stone Brewing’s Greg Koch and Elysian Brewing’s Dave Buhler — held a seminar on how to create brewery excitement with clever ideas.
The discussion included a reworked version of the rock classic “Surrender,” by Illinois favorite sons Cheap Trick. The ersatz band members rewrote the lyrics to fit with the subject matter.
For example, “Malty’s alright, hoppy’s alright, but if you want rocking beer, promote it, promote it…”
After combing the Chicago area for a Cheap Trick tribute act to join in on the song, their efforts failed. But they discovered that Rick Neilson, Cheap Trick’s guitarist, is an investor in Chicago’s Piece Brewing.
“We put together a longshot request for Rick to join us and sent it to the operators of the place,” Jones said. “Much to our delight, they passed it along to Rick and he accepted. Playing with him was an unforgettable thrill for us. We’re still questioning whether this really happened. We still have goosebumps.”
You can see a rough clip of the performance youtube .
Ducky.
Imperial Chinese Seafood restaurant at 431 S. Broadway has had such success selling its Peking duck for $25 in honor of the jazzy joint’s 25th anniversary that owner Johnny Hsu has extended the ducky deal through May 9, Mother’s Day.
Eavesdropping
on a man at the event Fish Tales and Cocktails: “Two tickets to Fish Tales and Cocktails: $60. Watching a guy trying to remove the sensor tag that is still attached to his sport coat with a dirty fork: priceless!”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.
