Robert and Stephanie Yonskie are professional entertainers
Robert and Stephanie Yonskie are Highland Falls residents who just want to entertain you.
And you. And you …. In fact, anyone and everyone.
It’s not an unreachable goal — they literally live to entertain others.
The Yonskies moved to the community in 2016, by way of meeting while studying musical theater at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. But they’re both originally from the Hudson Valley — Robert from Otisville/Mount Hope and Stephanie from Stony Point.
From college, they went on the road working internationally on cruise ships. But, they missed New York, missed their families, and didn’t really enjoy working 15 hours a day with no days off for months at a time.
So, they didn’t come back to New York permanently at that point, but did come back stateside, based in Miami for a couple of years. Robert worked in the cruise industry’s corporate world at that point — “I paid my student loans off, but hated it,” he says — and then decided to return to the northeast. They had a family-owned home waiting for them in Highland Falls, and the rest is history.
Although … the rest is not necessarily a simple story.
What did they do on cruise ships that they continue to do together? Sing, both together and individually.
This past weekend the two performed at the Hook & Reel Cajun Seafood restaurant and bar in Middletown. It was a bit of an unusual occurrence because they don’t perform in this area all that often, although performing locally is something they hope to do more of in the near future.
Where they do sing together often is on the stages of American Cruise Lines, a small ship company which operates 13 ships on America’s fresh waters.
Robert lives aboard the various ships for 200 days out of every year, mostly based in the East. Stephanie is aboard the ships a bit less, working shorter contracts all across the country. On occasion she joins him on whatever ship he’s on so they can sing together. As well as singing, Robert spends his days on board as a historian and ecologist, advising passengers of things to do, and telling them what they are seeing from the ship’s decks.
The young couple has been living this life since returning to New York in 2016, and they kind of love it. Making people happy makes them happy.
But, it needs to be said that singing isn’t all they do.
The two co-own YES (Yonskie Entertainment Services is their corporate name) Tours NYC, where they provide private, catered, customized tours in the city, “specializing in what you want to see and how you want to see it,” he says.
That was going exceptionally well until COVID hit, and the business, like every business in the tourism industry, took a hit. Robert says it’s starting to come back, as international travellers are making their way back to the U.S., and Americans are making their way to popular tourist destinations like NYC again.
During the pandemic, the cruise lines also shut down, so the two sustained themselves with other facets of their business — for instance, Stephanie’s arts and crafts company, YES Creative.
She’s an artist — exceptional with a paintbrush, behind a sewing machine (she handmade 6000 masks during COVID), and with wood and other crafts. In fact, she’s about to launch a pop-up kiosk at the West Point PX for her wares. She also shows her work at area craft fairs as they start to come back post-pandemic.
So, they’re busy — really busy — these days. They’re soon to fly to Oklahoma City to do a private party, and, in the middle of Robert’s month off from American Cruise Lines, the two are taking advantage of the beautiful U.S. — camping last weekend with their dog Itchy, and soon to visit Bar Harbor, a place Robert is very familiar with from his cruises, but Stephanie has never been.
Robert says they both prefer being busy to the year or so of the pandemic — “I was going nuts,” he said. On several occasions the need to do something sent the two outside with speakers and microphones to entertain whoever might be listening!
If you watch the two sing together you might see any of five themed shows — rock & roll, music theater (where they got their start), country (Tammy Wynette, Elvis and Johnny Cash, anyone?), Divas & Crooners (a little Frank Sinatra?), or an eclectic mix of songs most everyone knows.
What’s their favorite song to sing together?
Stephanie says its a duet they close most of their shows with — a medley of Happy Days are Here Again and Come ‘on Get Happy — first performed together by Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand.
“We love giving joy to others,” Stephanie says, “and when we perform together, so often people come up to us after the show to tell us how much they enjoyed it. And that brings us joy.”
The two admit that they’ve given up a lot with the life they live — for instance, Robert had to miss Christmas with his mom last year due to a combination of work and COVID, and this year he has made arrangements to be home. Soon, a good friend will get married and he’ll leave his ship for a day, driving four hours home and back to be able to balance his work/home life that particular day.
“We stay pretty busy,” Robert says.
You can learn more about all of their endeavors on social media and at www.yestoursnyc.com, or www.yescreativegifts.com
