DJ Jeff’s show offered tweens around the East Coast their first taste of nightlife.

Break Camp

For decades, DJ Jeff Yahney was the king of sleepaway summer camps. Then cost-cutting Wall Street types realized his venues could be investments

By Andrew Zucker

Sammi Kramer and her friends dressed to the nines and put on makeup for their big night out. After all, it wasn’t every day that The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s DJ Jazzy Jeff came to Hancock, New York.

The rumors of a star-studded concert proved untrue. Instead, a different D.J. named Jeff—Jeff Yahney—performed. With a Tom Selleck mustache and hair that can only be described as Brian Grazer meets ’NSync, Yahney brought the house down. He stuck to the Top 40, but incorporated some dance classics, like “Apache (Jump on It),” by the Sugarhill Gang, and “Cha Cha Slide,” by DJ Casper. The venue: French Woods, Sammi’s sleepaway camp. The audience: nine-year-old Sammi and her tween friends.