ShowBiz Pizza Place
Yogi Bear Comes to Life
An animatronic character conversion Paul worked on at ShowBiz Pizza Place with costume-support manager Jul Kamen, with test installations in Omaha, Colorado Springs, and Augusta.
Chapter Two
ShowBiz Pizza Place
As Director of Entertainment, Paul helped shape one of the most ambitious location-based entertainment experiences of its era — synchronising audio, video, lighting, and animatronics into a single show.
A ShowBiz showroom was a genuine feat of integration: multichannel audio, video, synchronized lighting, and animatronic performers, all cued together into one coordinated show. Paul's role reached across all of it — and beyond the equipment into national entertainment planning, seasonal content, and the guest experience itself.
One coordinated show
Everything cued together
Multichannel audio
Synchronised sound across the showroom.
Video & S-VHS
Video synced on screen with the animated characters.
Animatronic control
Characters performing in time with the program.
Lighting & show control
The cues that tied every element together.
National programming
Seasonal content and entertainment planning.
Guest experience
The whole thing built to feel effortless.
September 18, 1986
An Entertainment Committee record from this date lists Paul presenting the recommended entertainment theme schedule for 1987 — a small window onto how far his responsibilities reached beyond equipment and into the creative direction of the company.
More in the chapter →
Projects & stories
ShowBiz Pizza Place
Cyberstar & CyberVision
An early integrated multimedia show-control platform Paul developed at ShowBiz Pizza Place with Dave Philipsen — bringing audio, video, show programming, lighting, and animatronics under one synchronized system.
Worked with
Dave Philipsen
ShowBiz Pizza collaborator
A major ShowBiz Pizza collaborator who worked closely with Paul on show-control systems, including the Cyberstar and CyberVision work.
Jul Kamen
ShowBiz costume-support manager
ShowBiz Pizza's costume-support manager and Paul's collaborator on the early design and development of the Yogi Bear character conversion.