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At the beginning of the 2022 season, Keith Campananello was sweating his labor situation. The show's H2B workers had not come yet, and it looked like they might not arrive until the beginning of summer. Campanello's Campy's Amusements usually has about 40 foreign workers on the crew, including some key employees who have been with the show for 7+ years and know how to move much of the show's equipment. “They know what's going on with the show”, said Capanello.
With the status of the visa workers in jeopardy, and season opening fast approaching, Capanello turned to a solution that has been the glue for the show throughout its history; his family. Camapnello and his sister Karen, who run the show together, recruited Karen's daughters to find some friends to pitch in and as usual, the nieces came through with flying colors. Alyssa and Elizabeth have become an increasingly large part of the show the last several years, and their connections and use of modern technology helped make a difficult situation a little easier.
With his nieces taking a greater interest in the show, Keith and Karen have tasked them with more and more responsibilities, including running the show's new digital ticketing system from Magic Money, and helping to run the show's game rental operation, where in NJ, you need to keep track of stock counts and operations for rentals to non-profits. Their understanding of technology has helped greatly in this regard, and Campanello said the professionalism of his show's interactions with his non-profit sponsors has really increased under the girls' leadership.
Family is the cornerstone to Campy's Amusements. The show started in 1969 with Keith and Karen's grandfather, who lived in Lyndhurst, doing roofing and siding. Lyndhurst, NJ and the surrounding areas have a strong carnival tradition that included the Vendolas for whom his grandfather worked, the Tolves and other carnival families.
The grandfather started with a ground mount Ferris Wheel and then started a whole carnival along with his son, Keith and Karens father, Bob. Bob passed away at an early age in 1976, but their mother kept the show going, raising Keith and Karen in the business. “I have a video of myself operating a pony ride when I was just 5”, remembers Capanello.
When their mother passed away in 1999, the kids, having worked in the business all of their lives, were ready to take over in full. The show back then consisted of 12 rides including a Skydiver and a Quasar. The brother and sister team expanded little by little, adding a one trailer Mulligan Wheel in 2019, and this year,
they will be taking delivery of a brand new KMG Freak Out. The show now puts up an average of 16 - 20 rides on one unit for most locations.
The addition of these new, large pieces, augmented by a recently purchased Zipper, make the show look bigger and better than ever.
Other rides on the unit include a Gravitron, Scooter, Yo-Yo, Ring of Fire, Dragon Wagon, Speedway and Frog Hopper.
The show, based in Woodland Park, NJ, travels from April until the end of October/beginning of November and stays almost exclusively in New Jersey. They do occasionally play a date or two in NY but only if the situation makes sense for the show.
Most of the “jobs” have been on the show's route for 20+ years and include church dates, Fire Departments, community events and recently, a couple of county fairs. Campy's picked up two high profile county fairs this year, the Monmouth County Fair and the Ocean County Fair. Campanello says he “likes playing fairs, but the hours are longer and there is more attention to detail and requirements of the show from the sponsors”. Some of the fairs have a team of volunteers to ensure dress codes are being enforced, employees are in position on rides on time etc, something the church and fire department dates typically do not do. Campanello is hoping to grow his success at the two new fairs and maybe add another fair or two in the coming years.
The show moves an average of 60 miles each jump so fuel prices have not had a large impact on Campy's this season so far.
The show works closely with their committees, helping them to grow each year. Karen and her crew help put out posters and signs to promote the events and Keith and his team put up the equipment and make sure things are running smoothly on the unit. Although on a smaller, family owned show, everyone has to learn to do everything, the work division is usually Karen running the office and working with the sponsors and Keith working with the rides and equipment.
Overall, the season has been very successful. While the crowds are not quite as large as they were in 2021, they are up from the pre-covid 2019 season. Asked about the impact of inflation, Campanello said he is not feeling a difference on the ride side, but he thinks the games are “not as strong as they were”, due to less disposable income being available.
In addition to the rides and game rental business, Campy's operates a Cotton Candy stand, Soft Ice Cream, and a Funnel Cake concession.
On the rental side, they have a water race, derby, balloon pop, wheels, basketball and other games for rent to the non-profit committees, and they also sell them the stock used for prizes in the games. New Jersey has laws where only non-profits can operate traditional games outside of fairs or “recognized amusement areas”, so the company founded a rental business to offer game opportunities for their clients.
Despite the growth of the show, Capanello says he and his sister plan to remain as one unit. “Our goal is to stay as one strong unit and be competitive within our market”.
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