Beneath the colorful pop exterior is a multi-layered musical family of real-life mom (Lisa), dad (Billy), and daughter (Emily), whose combined talent makes up the nationally known, TV friendly family band called “Laughing Pizza”. Their music videos, or “Pizza Breaks”, are seen daily on PBS in millions of homes around the country.

BACKGROUND:

Before Laughing Pizza, Billy and Lisa both started performing in indie bands such as Strap d’etr0, Hot Boxes of Truth, Shade, and later advanced a #1 Dance single in 1992 (Rainfalls, produced by Frankie Knuckles on Virgin records). Four years of being songwriters with Warner/Chappell and songs for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the TV show “Big Bag”, plus a math CD that is used in schools in several states steered them toward writing for kids. In 1998 shortly after daughter Emily was born, Billy and Lisa quit the music business and moved from their native New York to Atlanta and Billy became an Executive at IBM and went on to manage global accounts at the tech consulting company, Sapient.

On Tuesday morning September 11, 2001, Billy was on a flight to Boston for one of his frequent business trips.  This experience changed their perspective as Billy was trapped in Boston for a week and finally was able to drive the 25 hours back to Atlanta to be with his family. Billy and Lisa decided they should find a way to be together as a family while doing what they enjoyed most –making music- and thus Laughing Pizza was created.

Laughing Pizza started as an indie band on a home grown label called “Little Bean Family Entertainment” and released two CDs and two DVDs (every one of which earned them Parents’ Choice Awards). In 2006, Sony entered into a joint venture to release and distribute Laughing Pizza on Epic Records and Sony Wonder, their kids label. Unfortunately, 6 months after the deal was signed, Sony Wonder folded and Laughing Pizza was left on a rock label. Both parties decided to end the joint-venture in 2008 so that Laughing Pizza could continue on their musical journey under their kids label, which was reincarnated as Little Bean.

The next year was spent performing, writing, and doing the leg-work to get their music videos onto many PBS stations nationwide including GPB (all of Georgia); Columbus, OH; New York, San Diego, CA; Idaho; Louisiana; and Philadelphia, PA.

2010 has brought the release of their new CD “Let’s Go Play!”, a DVD “It’s Pizza Time!” and a new tour, which is supported by Little Bean. This March, Laughing Pizza kicks off their “Let’s Go Play!” tour with dates nationwide including Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Jose, Raleigh, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Columbus, OH. Check www.laughingpizza.com for updated tour info!

Laughing Pizza created their foundation TogetherFund.org to provide free arts programs for schools including access to songs that would educate, inspire and teach kids to give back to their community.  They print all their CDs and DVDs on recycled board and paper – working toward a plastic and toxin free product line!

Now, if you’re ready…feel free to grab a cup of tea or coffee, pull up a chair, and settle in for the extended version of our family’s story. You’re joining us part way on this adventure, and this site is going to be our way of staying in touch with you. Here’s where we’ve been…

That began chapter one. Billy and Lisa worked as songwriters and performers and had several albums out; one on MCA and one that included a number 1 Billboard dance single called “Rainfalls” on Virgin records in 1992. They were fortunate enough to work closely with the Producer of all the Steely Dan records, recording legend Gary Katz (with whom Billy worked for about 10 years!) and managed to sign a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell which supported them for about 4 years.

Having both been teachers (as in “day-jobs”), the duo began writing music for kids – that’s a whole story in and of itself – which included songs for the Olsen Twins, the Cartoon Network show “Big Bag” and a 19 song CD of math, shape, and counting songs called “Make it Count!” which was included in the curriculum of schools in three states including Florida, and Texas. At the end of 1994, after being disillusioned with the music biz, Billy began to get into Internet development and joined a start-up in Soho in New York.

Simultaneously, Lisa and Billy decided to try to have a baby, and Emily was born. It was no easy entry! Emily was a preemie (born at 32 weeks!) and had some serious medical conditions which required immediate surgery, and kept her in the hospital ICU for three months. Billy and Lisa became the parents that never left the hospital and worked with the doctors every day trying to get her well enough to come home. “We basically gave up everything in our lives to be there for her” Billy remembers. “We lost friends, missed work, and really had to fight the system, which at the time was very unfriendly to the family of the patient. I think things have changed a lot in the last 10 years at hospitals. Now the medical world embraces the family as a consideration in the healing process. We didn’t find that to be true, and the stress was incredible!” When Emily finally got home, the worst wasn’t over…she had several dying spells where she stopped breathing completely and had to be rushed back to the hospital – it turns out that she had a misshapen and collapsing trachea. “We were faced with a new decision.” says Lisa. “We took the experimental (at the time) approach and opted for inserting a stent into the trachea. It kept the airway open, but presented a slew of additional problems; including resulting in nine bronchoscopies with general anesthesia and laser surgery to remove tissue in the trachea! Finally, after 18 months, the stent was removed (traumatically) – but we are so thankful that Emily has been healthy ever since.” Emily has her own story which she will tell when she’s ready about her history, her on-going challenges, and her successes.

Thus began chapter two. The family (now Billy, Lisa, and Emily too!) decided that moving out of New York was the best way to try to start again – to leave the painful memory of the hospitals and emergency rooms behind (and the music business, for that matter…) and build a new life together. Since Billy had gotten some very good experience as an Internet Entrepeneur, and had managed some large client projects for companies like Airwalk and PWC (formerly Coopers & Lybrand) and Lisa’s brother lived in Atlanta, they agreed that Billy would take a job at IBM Interactive Services and they would sell the apartment, throw caution to the wind, and move to Atlanta! The next 7 years were filled with work, Emily’s school, Lisa teaching at the school, and Billy doing more and more traveling. After a couple of years, Billy moved to a senior position at Sapient and managed large global Internet projects for clients like Nokia, and the travel became more frequent and more prolonged – Helsinki, London, Singapore, Boston, Chicago and New York. Things were good, although the biggest drawback was that the family wasn’t together nearly as often as they wanted to be.

Then – as for most of us – 9/11 changed it all. Billy was on a 6:00 a.m. plane heading to Boston and landed just as the first World Trade Center tower was struck. By the time he got out of the airport, Boston was locked down, and he was stuck there for 5 days. Finally renting a car, he drove all the way back to Atlanta, and Billy and Lisa decided to make a change once more.

Stay tuned for the next chapter!