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An Interview with Arland’s Greg Bowers

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Photo by Bobby Te

Greg Bowers is the vocalist and composer for the Dayton project, Arland. I sat down to chat with him in his Belmont home about the band, ballads, Black Sabbath, and his upcoming single, “The Day My Dream Comes True” (out April 8, 2024).

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Arland is your middle name?

GREG BOWERS: Yep, exactly. Exactly.

So with this project being mostly you, why not call it “Greg Bowers?”

BOWERS: I don’t know if you’ve ever searched Greg Bowers online but there is a jazz pianist who will come up. That’s my uncle. He releases music under that moniker, so I had to do something else. But, [Arland is] a very interesting name. It’s the single-name thing.

With building a band in the studio — without exactly having one — what does playing music ideally look like for you?

BOWERS: At this current stage, it’s not so much about playing music as it is the composing and writing of it, and eventually releasing it. I do need that band so I can actually start to go out and play music more consistently.

I think the beauty of what is happening with music right now is that bands can just exist on record. The live music aspect, as a form of getting the music out there, expands reach, but bands can exist without performing.

BOWERS: Yeah.

I know from the way you just said yeah that you wouldn’t want it that way.

BOWERS: It’s not so much that I wouldn’t want it that way, but I haven’t experienced it [as a band yet]. 

If you were able to make it work solely in the studio, would you do that?

BOWERS: I think I might. I consider myself a writer — a musician. So from that perspective, being able to focus on writing songs, composing songs — that’s what really appeals to me. Playing music is cool. But for me, the focus is really on telling these stories and getting them out there.

What kind of music were you influenced by?

BOWERS: I grew up in this very religious environment. And so we had a lot of your more traditional [Contemporary Christian music]-type stuff. Eventually, I started to move toward the crossovers. There were a few metalcore bands. Have you heard of August Burns Red? They’re metalcore.

No, but you can throw “-core” after anything and I generally understand what you’re saying. 

BOWERS: So metalcore, from my understanding, tends to be very heavy: lots of uncleans, but also lots of cleans. High soaring vocals, and very melodic guitars, as well. I was, and still am, very focused on the vocal side of things. I used to listen to Josh Groban, as well. Very vocally-focused.

I know how [Reel Love Recording Company Producer] Pat [Himes] works in the studio; he likes to double a lot of things. And when I’m listening to your vocals, I believe that’s what’s going on. There are points when I think you sound a little like Ozzy [Osbourne].

BOWERS: Ozzy. Interesting.

Have you ever gotten that comparison?

BOWERS: I have never listened to Ozzy Osbourne or Black Sabbath.

Ever?

BOWERS: Ever. So that’s interesting.

That blows my mind.

BOWERS: I have a really weird musical background. 

We’ve gotta listen to some before I leave.

BOWERS: Sounds good.

So you released “Islands” in January 2022, which, for lack of a better word, is a ballad. There are movements, but…

BOWERS: One thing I have trouble with is music genres. What is a ballad? What is a ballad to you?

When I think of ballads, I think of hair metal that goes soft. Guns N’ Roses doing “Patience” or “November Rain.” Softer songs, but whoever’s pushing it has a heavier oeuvre. It doesn’t always have to be like that. There are just sweet people… are you confused by the ballad label?

BOWERS: I am, yeah. It’s not like I mind it at all. To my extremely limited and miniscule understanding, I’ve always kind of perceived a ballad as a “piano ballad,” or it’s a literal piano song. 

You say you have an extremely limited understanding, but it sounds like you have a firm grasp of music in general.

BOWERS: I guess my term is “rock opera.” Movements, stories you’re telling somewhat through the lyrics, through the sections of music, sometimes through the music itself, to introduce a different feel — those types of things. Structurally, I’m definitely doing things but I don’t have great terms for them.

It’s interesting that you say it like this because I thought your second release “Day Breaks” also felt like a ballad. Your new song, “The Day My Dream Comes True,” isn’t necessarily a ballad but it has elements of one. But when I first heard your music a couple of years ago [via a Google Drive link], I heard screamo. And maybe that’s another term you don’t agree with, but there was something on the verge of screaming happening. So with these three releases being so much softer than the other stuff, what’s the choice to frontload those softer sounds?

BOWERS: At this point, there’s no guarantee there’s actual metal coming out, but there might be. The idea of frontloading, I guess, is hinged upon that. 

You don’t disagree with the metal label?

BOWERS: No. I guess I don’t understand the metal side of things for the piano ballad. I’ve talked about a lot of this artsy-fartsy stuff, but I view “Islands” in a sort of quantum superposition, of being chronologically placed after my first two albums. But if you listen to the story or the message, it works well as a debut song.

So you’re saying that what you’re doing right now is George Lucas making the first Star Wars movie.

BOWERS: I don’t know if this will be anywhere near as successful, but I guess. 

But that’s the idea behind it: “Islands” could be a stand on its own, but to give context there is also a prequel series in the form of those first two albums.

BOWERS: So when I was thinking about my debut single, something that really gets out there, I was thinking about these first two albums and the story they tell and where it all leads. And so it does all tie together in that sense, narratively.

If you had to boil down that narrative thread, what is that narrative thread? 

BOWERS: It’s just a general person’s philosophy changing as they go through things, eventually sort of culminating in “Islands.” So that’s the trick: The answer is out there, but it’s not going to be obvious what it actually means until you’ve heard those first two albums.

When are we getting the first two albums?

BOWERS: The plan is [to release] “The Day My Dream Comes True” on April 8. Hopefully then, within the next few months or so, I’ll get the album out. It’s all written, basically all the music is recorded. We’re trying to get some strings in. And then do the final mix, mastering, that sort of stuff. Second album, obviously the lyrics are all written. [I’m] in the midst of writing the music. So, two or three years. Something like that.

To have it all.

BOWERS: Or at least this stage of it all. 

This new song [“The Day My Dream Comes True”] feels like a breakup — with someone or something. And that’s not definitive, of course; that’s just my interpretation. But do you think you’ll ever come out with the true meaning, or will you always keep things vague? Not just for this song, but for everything. 

BOWERS: It’s hard to say whether that’d be a good idea or fits where I want things to be in five years when this story is done. There are other songs that are more explicit. Other singles, other album ideas. This one in particular is much more open-ended.

In a world where everything is quick and constant, does it concern you that this long-term plan will be lost on people?

BOWERS: I don’t really worry about it, but I recognize that it’s absolutely a possibility. People are going to consume things at their own rate, to their own interests, and that’s fine. I still think in this perspective of telling a grander story across songs, across an album. Ultimately, all I can do is put out what I feel like I need to put out. And if people like it, they like it. 

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After the interview, I gave Greg Bowers a tour of Black Sabbath’s catalog — from “Paranoid” to “Iron Man” to “War Pigs” but nothing seemed to catch on. I think he might’ve been confused by the whole comparison, and I suppose I was a little confused, as well.

Arland’s third single, “The Day My Dream Comes True,” along with its music video, will be released on the day of the Solar Eclipse, April 8, 2024. The significance of that is up for interpretation.

International Best Selling Author visits Dayton to Discuss Power of Meditation

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We are living in a time of much discord, both within the society at large, and within our own hearts. It’s a time when many people are finding the stresses of everyday modern life are taking a toll on their health, careers and relationships. What can we do to find some balance in such an overwhelming, fast paced world?

One of the most important ways to maintain inner peace is through meditation. For most people, this advice is not new. They’ve heard it time and again, but with so much to do, who has time to do “nothing”? Ultra successful people like Steve Jobs, Oprah, Seinfeld, Madonna and many others credit meditation as a key factor in their success. If they have time to meditate, then surely we do too!

Taking time to meditate is not “doing nothing.” It’s giving your restless mind time to calm down, to slow your heart rate, and connect with your inner-self. Uma Mullapudi, a local meditation trainer, explained to me “You take a shower and brush your teeth. You don’t think about it, it’s just part of your daily routine. Meditation is a cleansing for the mind, and it needs it just as badly as your body.” I inquired why our minds need this cleansing so badly. “It’s because you take in stressors and negative impressions going through your day. Meditation, especially Heartfulness method, clears those away.”

The Heartfulness Way that Mullapudi describes is a century-old method of meditation with the power to facilitate an immediate, tangible spiritual experience, irrespective of a person’s faith. This non-denominational practice is taught all over the world, and most recently, the subject of a new best selling book The Heartfulness Way – Simple Tools for Spiritual Transformation. In this heart-centered book, a student, Joshua Pollock, is in conversation with his teacher, Kamlesh D. Patel—affectionately known as Daaji.

While many books describe refined states of being, The Heartfulness Way goes further, providing a pragmatic course to experience those states for oneself, which, per the book’s guiding principle, is “greater than knowledge.” Joshua Pollock is a Heartfulness trainer and practitioner from the United States. In fact, he visited Dayton in his early days of learning the Heartfulness meditation practice.  He returns to Dayton on June 24th and June 25th to discuss the journey of writing this book, and how Heartuflness has changed his life, and can help yours too!

The sessions include Q&A with the Joshua Pollock, along with a 30 min Heartfulness medtation session. Find out how you can earn about the Heartfulness Way at one of two local sessions listed below. Also a trailer for the book is at bottom of this article.

How to Go?

Sunday, June 24
10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Heartfulness Dayton Meditation Center
3153 Lantz Rd.,
Beavercreek, OH 45432

Monday, June 25
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Dayton International Peace Museum
208 W. Monument Ave,
Dayton, OH 45402

For more information:

Phone: 937-427-0886
Email: dayton.oh@heartfulness.org

Register Now

 

 

 

 

 

Demystifying the Harp

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harpLet’s face it: harps are quite hip.  Between the ethereal compositions of indie darling, Joanna Newsom, and the top-40 covers of folk harpist, Amy Farrah Fowler (Sheldon’s neurobiologist, not-a-girlfriend on the hit CBS comedy, The Big Bang Theory), the harp has been plucked from obscurity into the limelight.

Leaving the pop culture references aside, there are so many intriguing questions about this complex instrument: Where did it originate?  What compels one to play it?  And, most pressing, how the heck do you carry it?

For starters, harps range in sizes, shapes, colors, and without question, prices.  They have also been in existence since ancient times, in numerous cultures, and are generally regarded as the oldest known stringed instrument.

To answer some burning questions about the harp and more, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Harpist, Leslie Stratton Norris, recently took some time out of her busy schedule, which also includes directing her own ensemble, Harps of Grace, to candidly discuss her multi-decade career and share her passion for this varied topic.

Dayton Most Metro: Thanks for talking with us today.  What inspired you to study the harp?

Leslie Stratton Norris: When I was a kid there was an orchestra show on CBS with Leonard Bernstein called Young People’s Concerts. When they showed the harp player, I was smitten.  My mom took me to see a harpist in person shortly thereafter, and the harpist let me try it.  Even though I was three years old, I was totally convinced that this would be my life. My mom thought that my interest was a fad, but I pestered her to learn the harp for six more years.

DMM: Did you finally convince her?

LSN: Yes, I was nine years old when I got my first harp, so I dove into playing it with gusto.

DMM: What were those early lessons like?  Were you surprised by much?

LSN: I don’t recall being surprised by much. At that age, you just follow along and do what your teacher tells you to do, and all is well.  However, I had some difficulty with memorizing.  I’m a sight reader, and I resist memorizing. It’s far more fun to play new pieces all the time.

DMM: The size of a concert grand harp, being about six feet tall and weighing 80 pounds, is quite daunting.  How do you transport it?

LSN: Thankfully, we now have two-wheeled dollies that are made especially for the harp. With the dolly, my harp rolls along easily, and when loading it into my car, we lean and push, rather than having to pick it up.  When I was a kid, harp dollies did not exist unless someone invented their own model. My dad used to throw my harp up on his shoulder and carry it that way.

DMM: There was a hilarious skit on the IFC series, Portlandia, featuring Joanna Newsom trying to fit her concert grand harp into a Ford Focus.  I’m assuming a harp doesn’t easily fit into a compact car!  What type of car do most harpists buy?

LSN: Harpists tend to own large wagons or vans, but a full-sized (concert grand) harp does fit in my Subaru wagon.

DMM: Usually there are only one or two harpists on stage in an orchestra setting.  That’s a lot of pressure, being in the spotlight.  How you do handle performance anxiety?

LSN: Most of the time, there is just one harpist on stage, so if the harp sounds bad, everyone knows it is me!  Performance anxiety can be disabling for some players.  They can be good musicians and know their music, but they are unable to play it well in front of others. Those folks might try some therapies or even medications to help their anxiety. I am fortunate that most of the time, I can keep it together without such an aid.

DMM: Are there any myths you’d like to dispel about the harp?

LSN: The harp can play almost any kind of music.  It is a versatile, full-range instrument and can function like a piano within a classical, pop or jazz group. The harp also has much more sound than many people imagine. It is thought to be a soft instrument, which it can be, but a good harpist can play it with a tremendous amount of sound.

DMM: It is easy to see why so many people hire harpists for major life events, such as weddings.  Is there a gig in particular that you’d like to share or one that is particularly amusing?

LSN: I have enough funny stories to fill a book!  In Los Angeles I was hired to play for an outdoor pool party. The host had decided he wanted some “beautiful music” wafting through the air along with the sound of his water fountain next to the pool.  I arrived before the guests, moved my harp into position, and began to play as his guests arrived. After five or six people had gathered, someone said, “Into the pool!” and they all hopped into the pool…in their birthday suits!  More folks arrived, and the same thing happened.  Soon, I was the only person clothed, and thankfully I remained that way for the length of the party. I learned a valuable lesson: it is very hard to ask a host for your check when he is sans clothes, so I said “Thanks,” packed up at the end of the party, and billed him later.

DMM: Harpists have become quite hip in recent years.  Are you surprised that it took this long?

LSN: Often it takes specific performers with charisma and a twist to their performances to open up an instrument to a wider audience. With a performer such as Ravi Shankar on the sitar, that instrument was brought before audiences who never would have thought to listen to a sitar. Harps have been popular in different cultures as folk instruments and as an accompaniment to vocals for a long time, so it is good to see harp music in the limelight.

DMM: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

LSN: When I am lugging my harp around, one of the most frequent questions that comes my way is, “Don’t you wish you played the flute?’” Here is the answer: “No!”  In my opinion, the harp is the most beautiful, versatile, calming, joyous, warm, lovely, charming, and challenging instrument out there. Yes, hauling it around is daunting. Paying for it is daunting. Changing strings and maintaining it is daunting.  But nothing sounds like a harp, and nothing looks like a harp. When you are in love with the harp, all the difficulties of the instrument are naught compared to the joys of playing it and hearing it.

For more information about the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and its upcoming performances, visit www.daytonperformingarts.org.  The next Harps of Grace concert will take place at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Centerville on May 6th at 7:00 p.m.  This concert is free and will feature 12 harpists playing all styles of music.

 

SummitUp – The Bowman Connection

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David Bowman head shot

David Bowman

Facebook had just 100 million members around August of 2008. That is just a little less than the population of Mexico at the time, which would have put it at fourteenth in the world. The number of Facebook users has recently eclipsed  1 billion people, putting it at third in the world in terms of world population, just behind India. That is a massive amount of eyeballs looking to connect to something: entertainment, information, conversation, the list is endless. Since that explosion, everyone from major companies to small businesses have been trying to harness the power of this ever expanding opportunity to connect. It has become a source of innovative campaigns and beautiful disasters. It is a new frontier, and everyone is still looking for how to make it work for them.

David Bowman was one of those people. He had just come back to Dayton from seeing a presentation from Chris Brogan, and was discussing the experience with Sara McCatherine over lunch. The idea was to bring the top speakers from all over, at the edges of the fledgling explosion of social media, and bring them here. Thus the seeds of SummitUp were born. Through plenty of work and hustle, the first SummitUp in Dayton (2009) was brought to life. Every year it has been growing as social media grows, and this year is no different. David took some of his precious time in the final weeks before the Tuesday, October 16th event to answer a few questions about social media for us.

DMM: Your first degree was in political science. What attracted you to marketing from there? Did you see it as a natural extension, or did your interests change?

David Bowman: In college I was drawn to political science, as it was something that was inherently interesting to me.  I did well in Political Science classes, so decided to major in it, as I really had no idea what I wanted to do professionally.  I had considered becoming an attorney for a while, but ultimately the law did not appeal to me.  Instead I went to work in the business world, where I migrated into sales.  From there I came to discover the field of marketing and have never looked back.  Eventually I got my MBA with a concentration in Marketing, where I began to get a deeper understanding of the field.  In the end, Marketing and Political Science are both based in understanding needs and influencing human behavior.  The principles I learned in Political Science are directly applicable to my job, and probably give me a bit of a different perspective on things.

SummitUp Logo

Another year, another batch of wisdom.

How have you liked your teaching experience so far at the School of Advertising Art (SAA) ? What are some of the things the students are teaching you?

Teaching at SAA has been amazing.  It is one thing to believe you understand something.  It is something else entirely to have to understand something well enough to explain it to others in a way that is clear and compelling.  I am so fortunate to have been given the opportunity to teach Marketing at SAA.  It is making me a better practitioner of my craft and the energy, creativity, and curiosity of my students is inspiring.

DMM: What is the biggest challenge to creating an event like this, where you will have a significant cross section of new users and seasoned veterans looking for something to take away?

DB: SummitUp is challenging in that we want the event to be appealing to early adopters of technology who demand complexity and bleeding edge information while at the same time delivering content that is accessible to newcomers too.  Compounding things is that fact that the event is a collaborative volunteer effort with a focus on keeping prices low so that we can attract and educate the largest number of people possible.  The goal of the event is not to maximize profits, but rather to maximize the potential of those who attend.  We do our best to attract exceptionally talented speakers and presenters to the event, often at a fraction of their typical speaking fee or for free.  We then pass these savings on to attendees in the form of very affordable ticket prices.  Ultimately, the event has an incredible team of volunteers who work very hard to make sure that those who invest the time and money to attend get value from coming to the event.

DMM: What do you think is the biggest hurdle people have to understanding the value and potential of social media?

DB: People get lost in the incredible amount noise and dizzying pace of change.  Author Clay Shirky describes media as the “connective tissue” that holds us all together, which is a great way to think of it.  Social media is simply about people communicating with one another, and all media is now social.  If people keep things in the perspective of finding ways to use communication to build real and lasting relationships, social media is fairly simple to understand.

DMM: What brands are the best story tellers in the social media realms?

DB: Starbucks, Zappos, Amazon, and Southwest Airlines are some great examples of national brands that are using social media successfully and in very different ways.  Locally, brands like Dorothy Lane Market, Olive, and Dayton Children’s are all great examples.

DMM: What do you see brands or people doing on social media that frustrates you?

DB: Not listening, participating, or considering the opportunity to use social media as more than just a push marketing tool.

DMM: How do you see social media platforms evolving over the next five years?

DB: More mobility, more video, more speed, more content, more noise, more people, more, more, more.  Hopefully, what brands choose is to more carefully integrate social media with marketing strategy.  A recent Duke University Study cites that over 16% of organizations describe their social media efforts as “not at all integrated” with their overall business strategy.  This is something that must and will change, as brands begin to understand the real value that strategic integration can deliver.

DMM: Will social media become more integrated into the media department, or is this a new entity?

DB: They will become one in the same.  Traditional media is still alive and well, but it is becoming ever more social.  As best practices are established and technology matures, social media will become the tradition.  Anytime you have disruptive technology changes it takes a while for people to make sense of it all.  Eventually people begin to figure it out and then shift their focus to execution.  This is currently happening right before our eyes.  It is an exciting time to be a marketing professional.

Books full of storiesDMM: Social media professionals are still wrestling with how to prove the value to CEO’s, CIO’s, and other C-suite people. Are there certain numbers that offer more proof of value than others? It is ROI, or something else out there?

DB: It is ROI but that has to be framed in the context of customer equity.  Social media has the ability to strengthen relationships.  The ROI is less about the platforms and technologies and more about the actions and responses created through them.  Ideally, marketing professionals are moving toward an integrated approach to marketing.  This is more akin to systems thinking as opposed to trying to compartmentalize things.  The revolution in technology requires a paradigm shift.  It is no longer only about impressions or mass attention.  Now it is about connections, loyalty, and long term brand equity that can only come from focused, ongoing communication.

DMM: Are there any social media platforms out there that you can see emerging as a major player over the next few years?

DB: Certainly Pinterest has already shaken thing up in the last year.  Google+ will continue to evolve and grow, particularly as Google continues to integrate it with organic search.  There are countless other projects and platforms emerging to solve niche problems and connect niche audiences.  I will not pretend to have a crystal ball, but I can tell you that we will likely be talking about a whole new mix of tools by this time next year.

David has once again helped to organize an amazing event, bringing talents like Todd Henry, Rohit Bhargava, and Tim Schigel as keynote speakers, and a diverse group of other professionals to run a wide range of breakout sessions. SummitUp tickets are available by phone only, so call and make sure that you have yours. This is going to be a great opportunity to learn about the basics, meet and connect with new people, or refresh and recharge your batteries with new insights. We look forward to connecting with you this Tuesday!

 

The Dichotomy Of Comedy

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Mark Fradl Brings Clever Comedy To Wiley’s

            Throughout the history of mankind, smiling, laughter and humor have become noted as an integral part of our genetic makeup, as evidenced in the rudimentary, usually obscene, hieroglyphs of the Egyptians, the crudely drawn doggerel of the Greeks and Romans and on through to the laborious treatises written by philosophers, psychologists, psychiatrists and medical doctors over the ages. Although the impetus for laughter varies wildly from individual to individual, the reaction itself is one of the most universally accepted, yet least understood in the lexicon of human responses.

Plato examined the negative aspects of humor in his exposition entitled The Republic, and concluded that the inherent “psychopathic laughter” was indicative of one’s envy and malice against his fellow man or an egocentric method to secure one’s superiority through the brutal ridiculing of others shortcomings, circumstances or lower social status. Arthur Schopenhauer later developed his “theory of the absurd,” which, simply stated, says that laughter is the reaction to the realization that a person’s expectations have been been misdirected by an incongruous element that, in the final analysis, is absolutely ridiculous. Theorists and scholars have postulated wildly divergent theories as to the origin of laughter and humor, yet have been shown to be debatable at best.

The reason I am expounding on the theories of humor in this rather long winded intro is that it reminded me of a series of correspondences I began with comedian Mark Fradl sometime back in late 2007, a dialogue that has been maintained into the present. When I first corresponded with Fradle, a Dayton native who splits his time  between here and Austin, TX, he was just getting back into the comedy scene after taking a six year hiatus after becoming somewhat disillusioned with the world of comedy. Even after reemerging on stage around 2005, Fradl still remained somewhat nihilistic with regards to the direction mainstream comedy was heading in as well as the broad cross section of audiences who are less interested in clever comedy as they are in being entertained. One of the reoccurring themes of lie within the definition and decisive nature of a certain type of comedian.

“There’s the dark breed that want to connect with the audience…but only on their terms.  As I write that, I’m realizing that this is really where the difference lies between the good comics and the hacks; Are you trying to put yourself where they are or are you trying to bring them over to where you are?” Fradl went on, referencing some previous discussions that we had had on the topic. “So that goes back to something we ended on yesterday; The difference between trying to bring the crowd onto your way of thinking, or pandering down to meet their way of thinking. Are you making them say, ‘Yeah, that’s what I always say too!’ or are you making them say ‘Hey, I never looked at it that way – he’s right!’”

The universal appeal of comedy is almost as illusive as it is accepted. While on the one hand, almost everyone needs the release that laughter offers, while at the same time, what one person may find as patently offensive another may find absolutely hilarious.

            “Again it comes back to the unique nature of comedy. It has to have more universality than almost any other art form I can think of. Gore Vidal is a legend, yet most people have never read one of his books. Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits are never played on the radio and yet they’ve had immensely influential careers; but you really can’t be in a niche in comedy. The comic equivalent of Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen or Elvis Costello would die a miserable death in the average club. Even legends like Bill Hicks, Mitch Hedburg and Doug Stanhope were banned by more clubs than they worked, and only through years of persistence did they build their followings and move from clubs to theaters.”

At one point, Fradl was able to clarify, somewhat, was the nature of comedy for the masses with a rather apropos metaphor.

“Ranch dressing is bland, inoffensive (except to those who are offended by it’s inoffensiveness), and sells by the bucket load.  No one’s ever sold a bucket of Sesame Ginger Wasabi Vinaigrette.  You can’t get Roast Raspberry Chipotle dressing in a 64 ounce squeeze bottle.  Likewise, comedy has to appeal to the broadest possible market.  In most cities there are only one or two clubs, and those clubs survive only by attracting the largest cross section of the population – suburban couples, urban hipsters, a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, a bachelorette party, the trucker, the lawyer, the graphic artist, the cashier and the fry cook. Imagine coming up with anything that group can agree on.  Best to just put out the ranch dressing – a lot of people will love it, most will like it, and even those who hate it won’t be surprised to see it.  Welcome to comedy.”

As an example of the seemingly incongruous separation between brilliance and mass acceptance, Fradl related a personal experience he had.

“Bill Hicks is a legend of comedy, right up there with Lenny Bruce or young Woody Allen, but I don’t think most people know that when he was alive, his career was struggling. Even with numerous Letterman appearances and several HBO solo specials, he was having a hard time getting work because he wasn’t for everyone. I saw him live in 1992 in Cleveland and he ate it.” Fradl recollects that, “We were sitting in the second row in a room filled with 500 people just dying at his dark rantings, and I remember turning around at one point and seeing 495 faces staring at us, trying to figure out what the hell we thought was so funny.”

Comedy is the act of walking a thin tightrope in the dark, always at the mercy of the prevailing winds of public opinion and never really sure how far the fall might be, especially for a comedian who is just starting out or struggling to get ahead. Even road veterans are sometimes tripped up by the seemingly arbitrary change in social mores or the pressure of honing their material to appeal to the largest swath of the populace.

“But that argument misses an important point, one I’m only just now realizing as I think about this. Comedians are not weakened by this limitation, this need to create within a box. It is, in fact, our greatest asset, because it forces us to communicate our ideas with people who might not otherwise entertain such thoughts. This is our advantage over avant-garde performance artists, or fringe theater, or the protest singer touring the Unitarian Church basement circuit. The problem with deeply controversial art is that it never gets outside its own bubble.”

Fradl’s comedic appeal is one that is fast and intelligent while still being accessible to virtually every audience. It’s a hard course to chart, but one that Fradl has navigated through many times over. While Fradl has no problem with the the comedic form being used as simple, straightforward entertainment, it is just not the type of comedy that he is striving for. While mainstream comedy definitely has its place within the pantheon of comic legends, some of the clubs across the nation actually contribute to the dilution of the color of comedy, sometimes to the point where it becomes translucent. Clubs whose main audiences are drawn from a rather large, arbitrary swath of folks who may just be looking for some mild entertainment in between dinner and dancing at the club, people who may or may not even care about the actually artistic nature of comedy.

Over the course of years, I was easily able to discern a marked difference in the tone of Fradl’s recent emails and I wondered if current world events had changed people’s acceptance of comedy and, if so, were these changes good or bad.

“I’ll tell you one thing that has changed very much for me in the last five months is that my bit of cynicism about comedy has evaporated. In all the years of doing comedy, I’ve never seen people so appreciative and receptive to comedy.” Fradl went on to say, “Not to sound trite, but there’s this almost tangible need for relief. People have always come up after a show and told me they had a great time or they thought I was funny, but lately it’s been more about them expressing how much they needed to have this good time and how grateful they are to hear something that connects with them.”

On a parting note, Fradl imparted an insight into the misconception that plagues those of us that don’t live in one of the magical meccas of entertainment.

“A quick clarification of terms – when I’m talking about comedy here, I’m not talking about the stand up that happens at some experimental theater in Los Angeles or in a basement open mic in New York City.  I’m talking about the comedy that takes place in strip mall clubs and bar one-niters (Comedy Thursday Night!  Mechanical Bull Friday Night!) in the artistically unappreciated part of the country, which is to say most of it. A comic I worked with last week in Cleveland said ‘So, what do people do here in Cleveland?  I grew up in NYC and live in LA, I always figured everything in between was Kansas.’   Nice of him to bestow upon us his august insights.”

You can check out some of Fradl’s clips and commentaries on his website, www.markcomedy.com or follow his schedule to see when he will next be appearing at one of the many venues in around the country.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AycZYgE7v_Q’]

The Truth Behind The Eyes

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Into The Intuitive Mind Of Craig Karges

            Hallucinatory suggestions. A table floating through the air guided only by the merest touch. Blindfolded eyes that still can see. All of this and more will be witnessed when you go and see Craig Karges: Experience the Extraordinary. One of the things that I find incredibly compelling about Craig Karges is the subdued simplicity in which he creates his magic and the straightforward manner in which he makes his predictions. There are no massive props, pyrotechnics or bombastic music to distract the audience. There is only Karges peering into the shadows of the human psyche, seeing what most of us cannot.

During a recent phone interview from his West Virginian home, I asked Karges how he would describe his act. I was expecting to be riddled with a litany of mysterious allusions that would never really answer any of my questions. I was incredibly surprised by Karges’ succinct and honest responses.

“Well, part of what I do is magic or illusion; it’s a trick. There are things that you’re not seeing and what you see is not exactly what you’re getting.” Karges went on to say, “Then there is psychology; knowing people well. I bring people up on stage and I give them a free reign of choices, but yet I know that certain things factor into people’s behaviors. I recognize those patterns of behavior and I act on them. So a lot of it is just basic psychology. Then there is a portion that is true intuition. It’s similar to what some people may consider being psychic, but I just prefer the word ‘intuition.’”

            From Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlocke Holmes to the recent television series, The Mentalist, people have been absolutely intrigued with those who seem to possess almost supernatural powers of observation. Very recently, there have been studies (as well as Karges’ own book, Ignite Your Intuition) suggesting that all of us possess this intuitive ability and utilize it to a small degree in our day to day interactions with others. Karges, however, has been able to tap into the underlying resonance that allows him to read people at will and in a more refined manner.

“There are quite a lot of things that you may think are very ‘unique,’ and everyone is unique, but there are also patterns that pretty much everyone falls into.” Karges went on to describe in detail that, “There are even patterns based on ages, males, females and all sorts of things. That is part of my job and to recognize those and when I pick people out of the audience, I read and interpret body language during the show. There’s a lot of conscious psychology going on, but there’s also the intuition part. I don’t really know how to define it because it could just be my own subconscious processing of what’s going on or it could be something that’s more akin to psychic (abilities) with no real explanation.”

Karges was awakened to his intuitive potential after meeting his great uncle, whom everyone called simply called ‘Doc,’ while in his early teens. ‘Doc’ was what Karges described as “the black sheep of the family” and earned his living as a counselor of sorts for a local clientèle.

“He was kind of a poor man’s psychologist and he helped a lot of people. He was very altruistic.” Karges said, describing his great uncle. “He wasn’t out for himself and he did impact a number of people, so much so that when he passed away, people would show up at the door not knowing he had died and my aunt and I would greet them and when you told them that Doc had passed away, the looks on their faces was frightening. I was fourteen at the time and to see that reaction and to start to realize how much faith people put into him was amazing.”

            Beyond bringing the young Karges’ intuitive abilities to the fore, Doc’s teachings became the bulk of what was to become Karges’ performances, which would pay his way through college as well as take him onto thousands of stages and television shows across the nation. Karges described to me what his performances usually consist of.

“Well, the show is done in two acts. The first act is like the mind reading section of the show. It’s different every night, so I can’t really tell you what will happen at theVictoria. I just invite the entire audience to start concentrating on things and I’ll start to tell people their names or facts about themselves or things that they’re concentrating on.” Karges went on to detail other acts to be performed. “There’s other segments where I’ll be blindfolded with tape all over my face and people will come up on stage and I’ll tell them what they’re holding in their hand or call off a serial number on a piece of paper currency or from a driver’s license.”

“We do all that stuff in the beginning and then we come back for the weird part of the show and that’s more of the physical side of what I do.” Karges went on. “I always tell the people right before I finish the last piece before the intermission that we’ll back with the weird part of the show and people laugh because the first half is weird enough as it is. When we come back, the first routine is a group suggestion thing with the entire theater, then we do a very specific hallucination on stage with two people. After that’s over, I say, ‘See? I told you this would be weird.’ Yeah, it is weird.”

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya4RUaZJsr8′]

Tangled Up In Blue

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Following The Bliss Of A Blue Man

The Blue Man Group’s How To Be A Megastar Tour 2.1 can be most easily described as Dr. Suess meets Sousa. What better way to articulate the primitive rhythms that course their way through contorted PVC pipes and other instruments with such eccentric names as the Tubulum, the Drumbone and the Piano Smasher, all the while being played by three earless, cobalt mutes.

The Blue Man Group began as an expressive idea that sprung from the minds of Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton (collectively known as CMP) while they were working as caterers at Glorious Foods in Manhattan, New York. They donned the now familiar blue grease paint, latex bald caps and black clothing in the late eighties, appearing on the streets in full regalia. Sometimes they meandered sporadically through the city, astoundingly innocent in their observations of their surrounding and the myriad masses of people that walked past, equally astounded by their appearance. Other times were spent mimicking dance moves across the street from hot nightspots sans music. They held a funeral for the Eighties, which prompted a modicum of media exposure.

Eventually, they began performing small routines in The CLUB at LaMama Experimental Theater Club, garnering them a review in the New York Times, by critic Stephen Holden hailing the show as a “deliriously antic blend of music, painting and clowning.” Their short  performances led to The CLUB’s owner, Meryl Vladimer, commissioning the group to create a full length show, which resulted in TUBES. The Blue Man Group’s popularity quickly soared and the show garnered them a Obie Award as well as a Lucille Lortel Award which led the show to be taken to the Astor Place Theater off Broadway in 1991.

Since those early days, the Blue Man Group has become and empire unto itself, breaking through in advertisements, the music industry, stage, theater and movies as well as toy development, a traveling museum exhibit and even a school for children with an emphasis on creative learning processes. Their shows are staples in New York, Chicago, Boston, Orlando and Las Vegas with tours across North America and an international tour that has stops in Stuttgart, Switzerland, Spain, France and Austria. These overlapping shows and venues have compelled the original group to hold massive auditions for talented individuals to become second generation Blue Men (which I will term The Blue Brood 2.0). I set out to speak with one or more of this new Blue Brood 2.0 to see what the whole BMG experience was like.

My first attempt at an interview with the Blue Man Group did not go well at all. The only sounds to be heard on the recording of our “conversation” was my own voice asking astoundingly interesting questions, only to be pelted with marshmallows. Halfway through the tape, one can hear my surprised cries as the trio experimented with the acoustics of my balding pate with a large mallet. They were very courteous hosts, however, as illustrated towards the end of the interview when many Twinkie wrappers can be heard crinkling as they offered me their sole source of sustenance in an act of mute hospitality.

            It was my mistake to attempt to speak with them while they were still in character, so I decided on a different course of action. I contacted BMG’s agent and he set up an interview with Marc Roberts, who was once a criminal justice major before quickly switching to theater performance after seeing the Blue Man Group live. Roberts spent over two years auditioning for the group, eventually being selected from an original open casting of over twenty-five hundred applicants.

J.T.: With a casting call of something like 2,500 other people auditioning, what set you apart from the others and what was the process of getting in there?

Oh my gosh! Well, you know, it was just one of those things where I just went in and I was myself and sometimes the stars align. You just happen to be more you than anyone else, I guess. It’s just one of those things. It’s such an indescribable process, the whole audition process. When people asked me what happened, I have to just tell them what specific events happened, like how it happened. I guess I just kept cool under pressure better than the next guy…I don’t know to tell you the truth. They could have just drawn a name out of a hat.  Either way, I’m happy I’m happy I’m here.

 

J.T.: In your opinion, what’s the biggest difference between the theater shows and the arena tours?

Roberts: The challenge is to try and keep the characters as natural as possible. You know, you want to get out here…I mean, I even had that problem going from off-Broadway, which is only about three hundred seats to Vegas, and then from Vegas to a big arena. There’s an intensity that you want to up just because you want to raise the stakes, but at the same time, you want to keep the integrity true. You don’t want to start “miming”. You don’t want to start indicating to people that, “Hmmm! I’m thinking!” as you’re grabbing your chin or holding your head, because, for the most part, if something’s done honestly, it’s read well. We have a huge advantage with the tour because we have a camera and we have three high def screens behind us, so the subtleties like the eyes and stuff that usually wouldn’t transfer, they will now. I would say the biggest challenge for me, to be completely honest with you, is endurance. It is a tiring show. I mean, I’m out of breath, crying by the end of the show, hawking up paint, grabbing for someone while I’m walking off stage because of cramps. It’s embarrassing. That’s my big challenge right now.

J.T.: How hard is it with the arena shows is it to break through “the fourth wall”: to connect with the audience and bring them into the performance?

Roberts: You know, I think with a rock show, it’s a bit easier because people tend to view a rock show with more involvement. There’s more give and take at a rock concert then there would be at a theater performance. When I was at the Astor in New York, it was pretty ridiculous, because you would get a lot of people that wouldn’t know what to expect and they’d be a bit more apprehensive. They wouldn’t want to be looked at. They wouldn’t want to be touched because they want to go to an evening at the theater. I think here, they’re just begging to be involved. I mean, people just run up to the edge of the stage when I break a stick or (when I drop) a stick into the audience, there’s a mad dash to grab it. There’s people running up, grabbing us, taking photos. If anything, it’s kind of scary! You know, there are still only three of us, no matter how big the audience gets, there’s still just the three of us.

J.T.: Well, I know in the beginning, when Chris, Matt and Phil would have meet and greets after the show, they would break character and actually talk, it kind of freaked people out and kind of blew the illusion.

Marc: Well, they’ve never said that we had to stay in character. They’re huge fans of talking about the show. It’s kind of something that we’ve all agreed upon to not talk because for selfish reasons because the instant you talk, you’re going to get people who just want to quiz you like, “How can I do what you do?” “Where does the paint come from?” tell them secrets about the show, you know, “What’s your real name? What’s your phone number?”…that kind of stuff. Then, it’s always like the one person, I feel the one person that I’m going to make really happy by talking is going to be totally counteracted by the fifty other people in line behind them who just want that magic to keep going. They want to believe, with all of their heart, that I’m a “Blue Man”. They know I’m a person, but for the last two hours, they’ve escaped and they just think that there’s this innocent creature out there who just looks at life differently and it just makes them happy and I just want to keep that going. I just want to say that I’m so happy that you’ve…you know, I get a lot of interviews where people just ask me, “Why blue?” or “How long does the make up take?” This is awesome! You know what you’re talking about and I have to say that I really appreciate this.

J.T.: No problem at all. Actually, I wanted to get into some topics, I guess for my own personal interests, that were a little bit deeper. I’ve always been amazed with the group because they are like the perfect outsiders and there’s a duality within the group that these perfect outsiders have somehow connected with the outsider within all of us and have become so popular, so now, the outsiders are popular.

Marc: Yeah, yeah! It’s kind of like the outsiders become the majority and they’ve now become this paradox of the inside. I totally see that. I was definitely drawn to the first show by the fact that there was absolutely no ego. There was the hero aspect of…I mean…I didn’t know what this was, but I was going to go straight towards this and there’s no fear of failure, no fear of looking like a fool and in that aspect, no matter how ridiculous they look, people will just love it, you know?

J.T.: The groups ability to be funny in such a minimalist way with just eye expressions and slight gestures is just amazing.

Roberts: Oh my gosh, yeah. That’s something they teach us. You let the audience write the funniest story. You know, the more you guide them, the more you tell them what’s funny, the less it will be. You try to set up the framework for the joke and they will write the funny punch line for themselves. When they taught me that, and it made my job so much better.

J.T.: What’s new on the How To Be A The Mega Star Tour 2.1 and what is the set list?

Roberts: The How To Be A Mega Star Tour is like an adapted set list from The Complex Tour. It has the music with the vocals. It has some new stuff and it has a few pieces from the original show that are adapted. I would say, compared to the Vegas show, like 85% to 90% of it’s all new. Don’t be expecting to see too much from the “sit down” shows. One of the great things about being on tour is that it’s an organic experience. With the “sit down” shows, we bring in new stuff every couple of months or every year or so, but the tour is one of those things that they just keep constantly fine-tuning. It’s such an amazing experience to get to be at the front end of all this. You know, you go in and they’re like, “No, no! We’re working on this! We re-wrote this style!”

J.T.: In the beginning, when Chris, Matt and Phil (the creators of BMG) would have meet and greets after the show, they would break character and actually talk, it kind of freaked people out and sort of blew the illusion.

Roberts: Well, they’ve never said that we had to stay in character. They’re huge fans of talking about the show. It’s kind of something that we’ve all agreed upon to not talk because for selfish reasons. I feel the one person that I’m going to make really happy by talking is going to be totally counteracted by the fifty other people in line behind them who just want that magic to keep going. They want to believe, with all of their heart, that I’m a “Blue Man”. They know I’m a person, but for the last two hours, they’ve escaped and they just think that there’s this innocent creature out there who just looks at life differently and it just makes them happy and I just want to keep that going.

J.T.: Is there a fun aspect to the anonymity to it?

Roberts: Oh my gosh! I absolutely love…one of my favorite things stories is, I did this show in Vegas and afterward, I was cleaned up and left, and usually it takes about thirty to forty-five minutes to take the make-up off and take a shower and we talk about the show every single night. So, I’m leaving, walking through the casino this time, and I see a girl that was in the show with me (who was) a featured guest. In the meet and greet, we sign (autographs) by giving kisses and she happened to ask for one on the cheek. I never say no and I’m always willing to go with it on genuine emotion, so I give her a peck on the cheek. Well, I saw her afterward with all her friends and I just wanted to hear what she would say, so I stop and was eavesdropping and she caught me! She gave me this look, like, “Get away from me you weirdo!” and I’m laughing to myself because part of me wanted to be like, “You do realize that I was with you.” but I didn’t want to ruin it. I didn’t want to make her experience become real, as much as it was a fantasy. As much as it was that experience, I didn’t want to then put my face with it and get her weirded out, you know. So, I absolutely love that aspect. I get to put the mask of a “super star” on. I get to put that mask on, but I’m not that…I’m still just Marc Roberts.

There is an idiosyncratic, paradoxical dualism to the Blue Man Group. These utilitarian homologues are the perfect outsiders that, through their naïve view of the world and their use of subtle gestures and bombastic rhythms, reveal to us the underlying complexities that make us truly human, thereby making the perfect outsiders one of the most wildly popular acts in the world. Even within their own small group of three, one of the members can, from time to time, become an outsider themselves by reacting differently then their abnormal norm.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-yLfm5HsHc’]

Turn By Turn

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The Life and Music, Thus Far, Of Art Garfunkel

“I sit here thinking of memories we knew
Life rushes by so fast
We all are blind, and we stumble through our days
As the future turns to past”

Private World

Artie Garr

The digits I had dialed traversed the six hundred miles or so from my home to Art Garfunkel’s New York. The call was answered quickly by the friendly, warm voice of Art saying, “Hi J.T. Just let me close the door of my office… hang on.” The candid and familiar tone set my nerves at ease, somewhat. The sound of silence was finally broken when he picked back up and said, “How do you feel today?” There was such an actual genuineness in his tone that all of my apprehensions faded quickly away.

Our conversation wended its way through politics, global warming, the environment, the disingenuousness within the recording business, apathy and the role of technology in making us even more apathetic. There were fascinating twists and turns, none of which were covered on my meticulously prepared list of questions. We did however get around to his current project, Some Enchanted Evening and the subsequent tour to support it. Some Enchanted Evening is an eclectic collection of Tin Pan Alley style songs by the likes of Johnny Mercer, Jimmy Dorsey and Rogers and Hammerstein, which is wholly engaging in its selection as well as its execution.

It was daunting to interview such an iconic figure, a man whose achievements ranged from a masters in mathematics to all of the songs, music, prose and poetry he has created. Were there other worlds that he has not able to conquer and things that he still wished to attain?

“I still haven’t gotten to sing as good as I can, so the first thing your question makes me think is right down the mainstream, the middle of what I do. I’m a singer first and foremost. I can sing better than the world knows me to sing.” he stated flatly, while in my mind, his soaring counter tenor rang through Bridge Over Troubled Water, and I found no flaws whatsoever. “I’m still in the process of getting my full act together, being maximally effective. I don’t look outside of music when you ask me a question. …I am a singer. Have I really done it all? No.”

I disagreed with him, tactfully of course, telling him that the sheer silkiness of Some Enchanted Evening was just astounding. The selections from America’s songbook, containing classics such as I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face, Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars (Corcovado) and the album’s namesake, Some Enchanted Evening, were all expertly arranged and the singing had such a melodious quality to it, you could feel the relaxed sense of release within him.

“I’m smiling because, you know, I’m quite pleased with it. I know you’re not supposed to say this, but after a bunch of albums, I’ve been convinced to put the vocals way up front finally, very palatably…don’t show off as a singer. Don’t make them go, ‘Look at the singing!’ Just tickle their ears. Serve the listener aurally. So I’m trying to be a servant of delight in this album with the vocals way up front and I thought the phrasing came out good.”

With his background in mathematics, I wondered if he ever saw the musical form as an elegant mathematical process.

“Well, I certainly see Bach and his fugues that way. I calibrate, very carefully with great precision…I am precise. When I’m singing, time and the exactness of rhythm and the solidity of the groove, something that Creedence Clearwater was so brilliant at, is just total, solid time. When you feel that solid time, the mathematician such as I, likes to play with it and surge just a little ahead, a little behind. The precision of the exactness, of feeling it, allows you to play games with it and you pull your listener into such a sensitivity when you play these games. Now you can grab the next word, and just a little ahead of the beat, and it has an effect, an urgency. Or, you slip back, the same thing you do with crescendos and de-crescendos you do volume-wise, you do with little pushes and surges in the rhythm when you’re just mathematically precise about what you do. But, maybe I’m just describing a musicians’ precision.”

Emerging onto the music scene, as well as becoming aware of the sheer breadth of the world, in a time of a convoluted evolution of political and social structure, Art Garfunkel has seen the seams of what holds America together. He has toured across the land, having walked across the country as well and has a keen sense of the changing landscape. How does he view the new technology and the inherent anonymity of the computer age, especially in deference to the changing face of the music industry?

“I very happy to say, I don’t quite get it.” he admitted without regret. “It’s a moving target, it’s shifting sands. I don’t have to get it. All I have to do is sing. Can I find a venue to sing? It may not be the record business, but maybe it’s only the stage.”

“I like this motto. It’s a very important guide to living, in my opinion. ‘Never underestimate the massive quantity of human shyness.'” he said, pausing slightly before expounding on the statement. “People’s ability to be shy is massive and it explains so much. The computer world feeds into people who don’t want to be face to face with anybody, and that shyness, that living through your terminal at a distance, more detached from everybody, getting your entertainment with an increased amount of detachment it’s about feeding into shyness. It’s exactly what the community of the human race does not need. How to superficially pretend we’re in touch with each other from a farther distance with more detachment.”

“W.H. Auden has this little short poem, which tries to preach accepting for whatever is…’Try and embrace whatever is going because these are our lives and we love being alive/ Bless what there is for being/Which has to be obeyed, for/What else am I made for?/Agree or disagree?’ Art finished with a flourish. “Short and sweet. That’s what there is for me. If it’s here, if it makes up our world, try and embrace the whole funny, contradictory, ridiculous picture.”

“It’s a tough age. I’m not partaking of it. I’m proud to be old fashioned in many ways…I don’t own a cell phone, I never got with computers. I don’t own one. I don’t know how they work. It’s costing me.” he stated, somewhat defiantly. “I have personnel to help me, but something tells me that I don’t want to learn to communicate in a zippier way. These are the elements that make quality of life so I don’t want to find shortcuts when it comes to the quality of life.”

With the record industry circling their wagons to try and contain their self-inflicted, short sighted losses, it was apparent that this was a whole new species than the artist friendly record companies of the sixties and seventies. To see the progression from the organic structure where art was appreciated to the mechanical behemoth that manufactured music for the masses must be quite a sad scene indeed.

“I’m on the inside of the record business and I’m an artist and I can tell you that royalty statements and everything have gone…disappeared in the last year. The structure of the whole business and getting paid has gone somehow into somebody’s sub-basement in some building and no one can find it. In other words, we lost our record business, we the artists have. The royalty payments, the structure, the whole way the business worked, it checked out in ’07. So we’re in a state of real vigilantism. Rules are gone…who is making up the new rules? What kind of grabbing is going on? These are the questions.”

One of the questions I so dearly wanted to ask, but was afraid to, suddenly came up in conversation so I ventured forth. Was his upcoming tour going to include selections from the Simon and Garfunkel repertoire in its set list?

“I’ll sing Kathy’s Song near the end of the show.” he said, much to my relief. “It’s a beautiful, nostalgic love song. I like say it’s Paul Simon’s number one love song. I’ll do some Simon and Garfunkel stuff because it’s coy to leave it out and I’m an entertainer and I want to give the audience Scarborough Fair and I love doing these things.” he proclaimed, quite animatedly. “I have orchestra charts that enhance them and it’s not like I’ve done them thousands of times and am bored. I’ve done them a hundred times. That’s enough to know how it goes and enough to enjoy it.”

I glanced in panic at the clock. I was only supposed to have interviewed him for fifteen minutes and thirty-five had elapsed. My page of prepared questions had almost been wholly forgotten as I had gotten lost in conversation with one of the most prolific originators in modern memory. Too soon, our conversation ended with a poetical phrase that Art had said earlier, summing up not only the last half-hour, but the essence of our existence as well…”Our lives are love and a continual goodbye.”

As a welcome addendum to the original story, Simon and Garfunkel have announced a singular date where they will be performing. The pair will take the stage at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on Saturday, April 24th, 2010. Simon, a veteran of the festival, said in a released statement that “Over the years I’ve always enjoyed performing at Jazz Fest. Everyone connected with the Festival, and in particular Quint Davis (director of Jazz Fest), has created an atmosphere that is both musical and enjoyable. I am looking forward to the opportunity to perform with my old friend Art Garfunkel at this year’s Festival.” This will be the first time since they performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in October of 2009.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2DglHU04rQ’]

Hilariously Hyper Hahn

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Greg Hahn On The Marines, One Eyed Women and The Bob & Tom Show

            Having heard Greg Hahn’s high-velocity rants on the radio and seen his blisteringly bombastic stage performances on video, I fully expected to find that, off stage, he was a quiet, laid back kind of guy. I was wrong. From the moment he answered the phone for our first interview, it was clear that he was just as manic and off stage as he was on. In all sincerity, I had to slow down the recorder to transcribe our interview as it was somewhat akin to listening to Alvin and the Chipmunks on a meth jag. I conversation meandered around, jumping from topic to topic, seemingly at random. I knew that it was going to be an interesting interview when I had mentioned that it took a special type of person to get up in front of an audience, under the glare of the spotlights. I told him that I was really only comfortable dealing with the world from the safety and comfort of my computer.

“Right…it’s a special thing…I mean, you write and I can’t even think about sitting still for that long. It would bore me instantly and I wouldn’t be able to come up with anything…hang on…I gotta plug my phone in…”

…and thus began the interview. One of several conversations that I have pieced together over the years, to give a clearer insight into Greg Hahn’s career and his creations. During our first conversation, I asked Greg if he had always been this way.

“Yeah! I’ve always been ridiculous, you know?  Always, ’cause that’s the fun part! Like when you’re in school…the more serious the situation is, the more you want to be a riot. Like in a quiet classroom, you know, or like a funeral or say like a church…I won’t go so far as to say a funeral …but like church. Wherever you’re supposed to be really quiet is like where I wanted to go completely bananas, you know.” Hahn quickly added, somewhat paradoxically, “But then I get put on the spot, like ‘Hey! It’s the funny guy!’ so, like you go to a party and that’s where you’re supposed to be completely over the top and that’s where I would clam up. It’s a weird combination of things.”

Having seen him on stage and spoken with him in person, it was somewhat difficult for me to imagine that he could ever be involved in such a regimented organization such as the Marines. I asked him if his apparent ADHD and penchant for spastic humor ever got him in trouble with the Corps.

“Uh, I don’t know…it was quite ridiculous in the Marine Corps. You know, I had my people shooting their weapons all over the place. I used to blow off stuff at my apartment complex that caused the S.W.A.T. team to come over. You know, that was like the closest I ever came to being in trouble…like I’d bring flash-bangs or artillery simulators home and blow them off. Other than that, things have been pretty smooth.”

Knowing that Hahn had achieved the rank of Captain, I was curious as to whether his antics ever got him bucked down in rank or caused him any other problems in the military.

“No, no. Officers…normally it’s hard to get yourself knocked down a rank. Those guys that are just working their way up, like from like Sergeant to Corpsoral (E-4) or something like that, but once your so high, it’s hard to get knocked down.” Hahn ended that thought by saying, “Either you rank or you get kicked out right away.”

With his military background, I was sure that Hahn had to have taken part in the many USO or other military comedy tours.

            “I didn’t do Iraq, but I went to Bosnia and Kosovo…all that stuff. That was a good time. The military stuff kills there…I try to expand on the military stuff and it does real well. But you know, my military career was a long time ago. There are other guys that have had real careers in the military. I was just like four years in…three active duty and one in the reserves. A lot of these guys have been in the military for like ten or twenty years…a whole big career. I touch on it in the act, but it’s not the whole act.” Hahn then jumped subject, detailing some of his pre-Marine life. “I went to college. I had a job. I was a moron in college, so I can like totally relate to people whose max education is high school and they go to college and they drink and I am totally in the same boat with those people.”

During another phone call, almost exactly a year later, I brought up the topic of the military once again as my eldest son had joined the Marines and was set to leave in a short time for boot camp.

“Good for him! Well, he’ll get in the Marine Corps and, I mean, at boot camp, it’ll be…the first week…what a hassle! No sleep! Oh my god! Everything is uncomfortable. He will have…it’s that old cliché, ‘You can’t take that away from him,’ you know?” Actually sounding nostalgic for a moment, Hahn went on to say that, “He’ll have the memory of things he did and what happened and things he saw for his whole life. It’s a good memory. It’s fun. Tell him he’ll tell every girlfriend he ever dates from here on out his Marine Corps experience, what he did in boot camp and what happened and what kid tried to drink his own piss and the rifle range…no, he’s got all kinds of great memories coming.”

I wondered whether much of Hahn’s stage act was comprised of actual experiences that, within the wide open confines of Greg’s imagination, he blew up to totally preposterous proportions, creating a comic character that everyone seems to find universally hilarious. Was it a conscious decision to create a rapid fire monologue out of exaggerated portions of his own life?

“Yeah, stuff I’ve experienced, stuff I’ve done, you know what I mean? I always say, like my whole point is ‘get to the funny part quick’. Like, me as an audience member, like whenever I watched comedy, I would get bored like instantaneously. I don’t like a long set up, myself so my jokes are almost like, a couple of words or a funny noise or a face or whatever. Like, whatever is funny I try to bring it in immediately.” Hahn reflects that, “So, since I started out, I’ve always…it takes a while, it takes a number of years to get people to understand what the hell you’re doing. Because I used to come out on stage and , you know, fall down or flop around and throw prunes and, you know, throw stuff around, and people didn’t know what the hell was going on.”

With the unending physical comedy that his body endures during every performance, I thought that he must have had some accidents and injuries over the course of years.

“No…” he said, quickly adding that, “I have flown onto a full table of beer, though. The table collapsed when I flew off stage and landed on a table…I didn’t get hurt, so it was alright. It was kind of funny, actually…a good way to close a show. ‘Hey, hey! My finale’!’”

As a regular guest not only on The Bob and Tom Show, but also on The Bob and Tom Comedy All-Stars Tours, Greg attributes much of his success to Tom Griswold and Bob Kevoian, the creators and hosts of the show.

            “Well, I think The Bob and Tom Show, for me, has made my career. It has totally given it a kick in the you-know-what. It’s really interesting because I was playing in a club in Indianapolis called One Liners, and they were like, ‘Hey, you’re going to do The Bob and Tom Show tomorrow!’ I had heard that Bob and Tom was big, but I’d done a lot of radio and you don’t get overly excited, like, it’s not a career changer. You know, after a while, you just kind of take one day at a time.” Hahn remembers the immediate results that the show had on his career, “So, you do The Bob and Tom Show once and the next thing you know, you show up at a place you’ve never been before, like Wichita, Kansas, and the place is packed! You go rolling up in the parking lot and there’s nowhere to park. That’s when I first learned the power of Bob and Tom, playing Wichita…that place was slammed and I’m like, ‘Holy Smokes!’ and it just got better and better. It’s really something!”

The Bob and Tom Comedy All Star Tour have really become an entity unto themselves, traversing the country, bringing the nation’s top comedians in one headliner laden show.

“Yeah, The Bob and Tom Tour is like a total party. You know, I can just come out and go completely nuts. I don’t have to pace myself or anything…just total nuts, you know? That’s the thing…I come out, explode, then go have a diet Coke backstage. It is truly the world of Jäger-bombs and body shots.” Hahn went on to explain the dynamics of the tours by reiterating that, “It’s just a Bob and Tom party, because you’ve got all these headliners who normally don’t see each other on the club circuit, because we all headline. Our egos are too big. We wouldn’t dare want to open for each other, you know what I mean? But, on The Bob and Tom Tour, it’s all headliners, so…man! The green room is a riot! It is fun, it is fun. You are truly seeing comedians that are having a fun time where, in a club, it might be minor torture because you could have to sit through the opening act and the middle act. Honestly, I’ve never had so much fun doing comedy in all my life!”

I always wondered if the constantly changing line ups would throw some of the comedians off of their groove.

“Not really. I mean, it’s different personnel. You’ve got someone new to goof off with in the green room. But, as far as the show itself, I don’t really sit out there and watch it. We sit in the green room totally goofing off talking about, again, because it’s a meeting of people who don’t normally see each other, so we can talk about challenges on the road, which comedy club has the most horrific condo, which guy tried to rip us off the most and compare notes.” Hanh explains. “Then, when they’re like, ‘Hey! You’re up next!’ I just go out there, sprinting onto the stage, freak out, then race back to the green room. So, I don’t know what’s going on out there. I just know that I go out there and give the audience their money’s worth and make sure that they’re happy that they showed up.”

Along with being one of the most manic and funny men on the comedy circuit, Hahn also has some other special talents. The first of which is his exceptional drumming skills. Had he originally wanted a career in music, perhaps hooking up with a band in high school or college?

“No, man…but I always had a drum set with me, even through college, like in my college dorm, because nothing wraps up a big party night when you’re hitting all the frats then a 3am dorm drum solo. I always had a drum kit and I took lessons in like fourth and fifth grade, and that was it. I did actually play in the jazz band in high school, but they’d only let me play like one song.” Contemplating the possibilites, Hahn said, “Now if I put together a big show, I would put together a band for sure. But the trouble is, I ruin every single song with a gigantic drum solo, so…”

Another of his non-comedic attributes is his wicked reputation as a Ping-Pong master. I was curious if this was something that he developed a skill for while he was in the military, much like Forrest Gump.

“No, I played as a kid. As a kid, I lived across the street from the guy that was like one of the top players in Florida and he taught me how to play. And it’s not like I’m a tournament player, but any punk that’s in the audience or like when I was in college…I mean, any street player I can beat, or normally I can beat. I’m sure that there’s some fat guy wearing a sweat band that’s got a Ping-Pong table in his garage and belongs to the Ping-Pong Club that could be trouble and could probably do me in, but I don’t run into that. I’m a comedian, so I think I’m unbeatable!” Then the gloves come off when Hahn starts trash talking. “That’s like Daniel Tosh and these other punks that think they’re good, and they show up and I have to talk smack like ‘Are you right handed? Are you sure you’re not playing with the weak hand?’”

We ended one of our conversations with what has to be one of the weirder road stories that I have heard. Not the weirdest…but definitely outside the norm.

“When I first started out, I used to throw stuff out into the audience and then there was this lady one night, who kept opening this umbrella in the front row while I’m doing the show, right?”

I suggested that perhaps the woman was confused and thought she was at a Gallagher show.

“No, I wasn’t even throwing anything. I guess she just thought it was funny. She was drunk and thought it was funny to, out of nowhere, just open her umbrella up in the front row. So all I’d see was this big umbrella open up. I happened to have had a large glass of ice water up on stage, and I thought, ‘Man, that would be great that the next time she opens that umbrella, I’ll spin around and grab this huge glass of ice water and chuck it against that umbrella. Oh it’ll be a riot! It’ll be a riot!!’ So I’m doing my show and BOOM, the umbrella opens up and I spin around and grab the ice water and fling it at her and as I’m throwing it, she closes the umbrella, the ice flies over her head and nails the woman behind her.” The story goes from bad to bizarre as Hahn recounts that, “All I could hear was the woman behind her scream, ‘My eye!’…and it’s not just her eye….it’s her good eye. She’s got a real eye and a glass eye and I nailed her in the real eye. Like, I mean, a nightmare was facing me that I couldn’t possibly imagine. So anyway, the show was over and I had to sit with her and buy her drinks…well, her and the people she was with….and luckily the eye cleared up and she was alright and the club invited me back. That was a rough one, man. It’s like one of the things you learn when you’re starting out. It’s like, ‘O.K. That’s it for chucking things into the crowd.’No, I wasn’t even throwing anything. I guess she just thought it was funny. She was drunk and thought it was funny to, out of nowhere, just open her umbrella up in the front row. So all I’d see was this big umbrella open up. I happened to have had a large glass of ice water up on stage, and I thought, ‘Man, that would be great that the next time she opens that umbrella, I’ll spin around and grab this huge glass of ice water and chuck it against that umbrella. Oh it’ll be a riot! It’ll be a riot!!’ So I’m doing my show and BOOM, the umbrella opens up and I spin around and grab the ice water and fling it at her and as I’m throwing it, she closes the umbrella, the ice flies over her head and nails the woman behind her. All I could hear was the woman behind her scream, ‘My eye!’…and it’s not just her eye….it’s her good eye. She’s got a real eye and a glass eye and I nailed her in the real eye. Like, I mean, a nightmare was facing me that I couldn’t possibly imagine. So anyway, the show was over and I had to sit with her and buy her drinks…well, her and the people she was with….and luckily the eye cleared up and she was alright and the club invited me back. That was a rough one, man. It’s like one of the things you learn when you’re starting out. It’s like, ‘O.K. That’s it for chucking things into the crowd.’”

At the conclusion of our last conversation, Hahn extended his thanks and best wishes to my son as he left for Marine Corps boot camp.

“Well, thanks a lot for the interview and tell your son he’ll love the Corps and tell him to bring his golf clubs. That’s what they always told me; ‘Bring your golf clubs!’” Hahn paused for the briefest of moments before adding, “I don’t know what that means.”

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD0WROU9D7Q’]

Shock Treatment

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Wiley’s Welcomes America’s Greatest Storyteller

I prepared for my upcoming interview with comedic storyteller Ron Shock in the same manner that I approached all of my subjects. I researched reviews of his performances from across the country. I listened to all of the stage material of his that I could find. I read all of  the somewhat vitriolic rants on his web blog. I collated and compressed all of my thoughts down into a series of poignant, thought provoking questions, took a deep breath and dialed his telephone number. As soon as I heard his raspy, whiskey soaked voice answer the phone and he launched unceremoniously into a review of his day, I did what any professional interviewer would do; I threw my notes right the fuck out. I realized instantly that there was absolutely no way in hell I was going to be able to force this interview to follow any semblance of order.

Ron immediately put me at ease with his laid back, conversational tone; the hallmark of a true storyteller. He makes you feel as if you were sitting on the back porch, listening to stories being spun by your favorite grandfather. Not the one who used to whack you with his cane and tell you that you’d never amount to anything, just like your father. No, not him. The other one; the nice one. Ron Shock would reminded you of that grandfather, spinning stories about his life, making them all seem so funny and fanciful. Well, maybe “grandfather” is not the right depiction to use. Maybe a grandfather after he’s smoked quite a bit of “medicinal marijuana” for his “glaucoma.” A cross between Garrison Keillor and Ken Kesey, really.

Our hour-long conversation ranged hither and yon, touching on topic after topic, such as politics, poker, religion and bowel movements, shifting between these subjects seamlessly. Now I realized why the man, one of the Original Texas Outlaws who sprang from the same scene as Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks and Brett Butler, was known as The Greatest American Storyteller.

J.T.: You’re performing at Wiley’s Comedy Club on June 21st through the 24th. You wrote to me saying that you really liked playing that club. Is it the area’s ambiance? The type of crowds?

Shock: You know what it is? The owner is a comic. The previous owner, Wiley himself, while not a comic, loved comedy and there is that love of comedy and Wiley’s isn’t like other clubs because they’re (the other clubs) are in it for the money. Wiley’s is actually in it for the comedy.

J.T.: Well, I’ll ask the most obvious question that you’ve probably been asked a billion times, ‘how did you get into comedy?’

Shock: I had a little consulting firm at the time, but it pretty much ran itself. The service I provided was done by computer and it was easy for me to have time off. I went to college. I’d take six hours a week out of my not-so-busy-fucking-schedule. Just to take courses that interested me and I didn’t know anything about the theater, so I took ‘Introduction to Theater.’ Well, Hayden Rorke, who played Col. Bellows on ‘I Dream of Jeannie’, was friend of my professor. He comes on a day when we had to do a skit that we had written ourselves. I performed my skit and afterwards, he said ‘That was pretty funny! Let’s go have lunch.’  We had lunch and he asked me what I was doing in college at my age. I told him that I had been a success in business and had made money and now I was bored beyond belief. He told me ‘You ought to do stand up comedy.’ The following Tuesday, I went to a local comedy club and  it was like a light shone on me, like ‘This is what you’re supposed to do.’ I went on stage that Sunday, amateur night…and I bombed. Horribly. A fight breaks out between the comics and spills into the room while I’m on stage. It can’t get any worse. Monday morning, I put my business up for sale and I’ve been a stand-up comic ever since.

J.T.: How would you describe your show to the uninitiated? Is it a political or controversial type of show?

Shock: No, I don’t do political stuff much. I will go after certain controversial figures, I don’t go after groups, I name names…individuals…like Oral Roberts or Pat Robertson. I’ll take something ludicrous that they’ve said and from there go into a rant from there. My show has no point. I make people laugh. That’s what I do. There are things that I feel very deeply about in life, but I can’t make them funny, and I don’t want to preach without making it funny. My calling seems to be as a stand-up comic, not as a comedic philosopher. So, no…I don’t have a point, other than there’s a lot of funny shot out there if you can start to look at it from a funny point of view. I do a lot of long stories, I mean, I’ve led a very interesting life.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayt2YNgKpBs’]

Tonight’s Memories

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Ed McMahon’s Memories of the Tonight Show

            Whether it was after an egg fight with Dom DeLuise or standing amidst the wreckage of a skit that had gone horribly awry, Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson remained true to themselves, and to each other. One would look to the other and say, “Two grown men”, while the other would complete the second part of their inside joke by replying, “Graduates of major universities.” A little phrase that displayed the depth of a friendship that sustained and carried them through forty-six years of varying levels of fame. Along the way, an intimate unspoken admiration was firmly cemented between these two men, making them the most recognizable, admired, emulated, parodied and well beloved duos in comedic history.

            Philadelphia already recognized Ed McMahon’s rising star as early as 1952, when he had thirteen shows on the air. Having served in the Marine Corp in World War Two, Ed was once again called into military service to serve in Korea, thus interrupting his burgeoning television career.  By the time he made it back stateside, all thirteen of his shows had been canceled and he was forced to start from scratch, scheduling audition after audition from a Penn station phone booth. Fate intervened one night when he was invited to a party at Dick Clark’s apartment and, after conversing with someone named Gordon, was foisted into the role of ‘entertainer’ for the evening. After telling a few jokes, Dick Clark’s producer took notice of him and when an announcer’s position suddenly opened up for the game show Who Do You Trust?, Ed was first in line. Ed’s did not think that his interview with the shows star went well at all.  Apparently the shows star, Johnny Carson, thought otherwise.

J.T.:  Now, I read your book Here’s Johnny (Rutledge Hill Press – 2005) and the first thing I’d like to say is it was really refreshing to read a memoir that didn’t turn into some nasty, tabloid style tell all book.

McMahon: I would never do that. I would never, ever do that…at gunpoint I wouldn’t do that.

 

J.T.: Now, my only critique of the book is that the anecdotes didn’t seem to go far enough. It was like ‘…and then what happened?’…and it was off to another story. Now, is your series, Ed McMahon’s Memories of The Tonight Show, an extension of the book?

McMahon: Yes. In other words, both things in my mind are tributes to Johnny. My idea with the book was, everybody wants to hear the ‘Heeeere’s…’, you know, J.T. …I get that all the time, all over the country. ‘Will you say hello to my mom?’ ‘Well, what’s your mom’s name?’ So anyway, I’ll do a ‘Heeeere’s Mary!’ or whatever it is…

 

J.T.: So you’re like the most recorded cell phone answering machine.

McMahon: (Laughs) Yeah, that’s right! I thought the book should be, not the ‘Heeeere’s Johnny’ but ‘Here’s Johnny’. Everybody wanted to know what he’s like, you know, what’s Johnny all about. So, that was my idea. So then, with Memories of the Tonight Show, it’s just another tribute. So, it’s some of the book, but it’s more like a night club show.

 

J.T.: Is it more of a conversational theater type show or is there a multi-media aspect to it?

McMahon: Oh sure, I have clips that people have never seen. Like an Aunt Blabby skit that fell apart one night. I have things like that and I have silly things that we did, like the thing I call ‘The Tie Fight’. One night, we got involved with something, and all of a sudden, we’re trying to pull each other’s ties off, you know. Reflecting, that’s reflecting the fact that we were pals, you know. People wonder are they really friends? A lot of the couplings in our business, they were not pals. Like Laurel and Hardy were not pals. The Marx brothers feuded all the time. You know, we were buddies. If we had met in the Marine Corp, we’d have gravitated towards each other because we liked the same things and we laughed at the same things. So there was a camaraderie that’s explained and shown in a clip where it’s just so silly, like two kids kicking a can down the street. There’s this humor and the feeling that you know what the other guy is going to do. That’s pretty good if you have a coupling like that.

 

J.T.: Your relationship with Johnny was definitely unique and has never come close to being duplicated, as far as mutual respect. It seems that many these comedic teams allow their egos to destroy what they have.

McMahon: Right!

 

J.T.: With your other projects, did any of them ever come close to interfering with your relationship with Johnny?

McMahon: No. You know what I did? I was very smart. What I did was, I always went in and took everything by him. When I got that film Fun With Dick and Jane, with Jane Fonda and George Segal, that was a big moment for me. Well, before that happened, I went to him. I would go to him and run everything by and say, ‘What do you think about this? What do you think about Star Search?’ You know, other people didn’t do that and got in a lot of trouble.

 

J.T.: Now, going way back, when you were paired with Johnny on the game show Who Do You Trust? in 1957, do you think that you both would have made it as big had The Tonight Show not been available as your vehicle?

McMahon: I think so, because I was doing other shows in Philadelphia. My attitude was, I just thought that Who Do You Trust? was fine. That was a big thing to me, a network show and so forth. If it hadn’t have worked, I would have gone back to Philadelphia or I’d keep plugging in New York, and do something else, you know. I don’t think there was any question…you know, we both had talent and it was unique that we found each other. When I say in my motivational speeches, ‘I ran into a guy named Johnny Carson.’ Well, that old phrase, ‘hitch your wagon to a star’…I hooked my wagon to a star.

 

J.T.: Later on, when you would do various tour across the country, performing at state fairs and such, would you ever arrive in some backwater dump and just look at each other and say, ‘Why are we doing this?’

McMahon: (Laughs) That’s a good question! You’ve done your homework! Anyway, we always had a great spot. We’d do like the Ohio State Fair, we’d play the New York State Fair. We always geared what we were doing right to the audience. In other words if we were in a town where there was a lot of oil drilling, Johnny would be an oil rigger and I would be interviewing him. He’d be Wildcat Sam, and I’d have the clipboard, and then we’d have to joke. But we would tailor it to the locale, so that helped us, you know. Even if we hit any…we never really hit any bad spots, but if you hit a bad spot, it was so right on that the audience was with us. Let’s say your in Houston, Texas or you’re in a smaller town like Milford, Texas where oil rigging is a big thing, you know, we were right on. Regardless of what else happened, we had that. We had preparation.

 

J.T.: When you toured did you ever do any of the USO shows or spots at the military bases?

McMahon: No, but I’m very military. I was in two wars. I was in the Marine Corp. for, between active duty and retired duty, twenty-three years and I came out of the Corp a Colonel, so I was very active in the Marine Corp, but we never…I did some USO shows, but we never did any together.

 

J.T.: How is your program Operation DVD doing? Is it garnering support from the movie distribution industry?

McMahon: This program accomplishes two things: the troops are entertained and they know that citizens at home care and support them. The program collects new and used DVDs and distributes them to the soldiers stationed overseas. They have collected approximately 250,000 DVDs in the year the program has been running. My attitude is that, no matter what you think about the war, it doesn’t make any difference; young men are fighting it, so you’ve got to support them.

 

 

J.T.: I was never in the military, but I have been in the quasi-law enforcement arena and a lot of people would look at this and say, ‘Are people just sitting around in Iraq watching DVDs all day?’ and they don’t understand that that type of life is ninety percent tedium and ten percent sheer terror.

McMahon: Yeah and the fact that you can’t play baseball, you can’t play soccer, you can’t play basketball because you’re a target. People just don’t understand that. My attitude is that, and I said this while I was doing publicity for this, no matter what you think about the war, it doesn’t make any difference; young men are fighting it, so you’ve got to support them. We’re in it no matter what and you’ve got to support them.

 

America was home and witness to the most enduring comedic coupling of our time, and for this, we are fortunate. The snippets of scenes showing Johnny with a marmoset on top of his head, the endless parade of guests who’s career were launched from that Burbank stage, the booming laughter of Ed falling under the spell of his friend; all of these memories are magical. Yet, that is what they are now; collective memories. Shortly after midnight on June 23rd, 2009, Ed McMahon passed away peacefully in his sleep. Although the ‘Tonight Show’ spanned decades and created it’s own culture of comedy, for all of us, the multi-colored curtain has closed too soon, but at least we can take comfort in knowing that two lifelong friends have been reunited.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOJL0EreRu8′]

The Rickey Medlocke Interview

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The Guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd Speaks Out

May 9th, 2007

During a recent telephone interview, I caught up with Rickey Medlocke, one of the three lead guitarists in the current Lynyrd Skynyrd line up. Rickey was one of the original drummers for Lynyrd Skynyrd back in the early seventies who eventually went on to form the southern rock band Blackfoot, so named due to his American Indian heritage.

J.T.: Now, if I remember right, years ago you were in Skynyrd, but you were playing drums.

Rickey: Yeah, I was one of the original drummers, yeah.

J.T.: Do you ever miss being a little more in the background?

Rickey: No! No! No! No! Ha ha! Well, of course not! I was the lead singer and lead guitarist for Blackfoot. I mean, I love to play guitar, I love to entertain people. I just wasn’t…I guess I was a good enough drummer, but I wasn’t a great drummer.

J.T.: How is the current tour holding up. Everything still going good?

Rickey: Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah! Everything is going real good, man. We’re just taking it one day at a time, and so far so good. The crowds have been great, it’s a good package. I mean, Hank (Williams Jr.) has a little bit older fans and our fans are a little bit older, but we also get Lynyrd Skynyrd girls from fifteen to fifty-five now, so I think it works out O.K.  The deal is, it’s going good, the crowds are great, they’re all pumped, you know. Hank is Hank and Lynyrd Skynyrd, you know…(Laughs)…what can you say, what can you say!

J.T.: Now, with the younger audiences, do you think your bringing something new to them as well as the presenting the extensive history of Lynyrd Skynyrd?

Rickey: Well, I think so. Last year, we had Three Doors Down out there with us and that was phenomenal. Like I said, the audiences range from fifteen to fifty-five, so, uh, what can you say?

J.T.: With some of the collaborative stuff you guys have been doing with younger artists as well as some of the tour billings with, like you mentioned, Three Doors Down, does that change Skynyrd’s direction at all?

Rickey: Well, that’s really interesting. We’ve been writing for a new CD right now and we’ve been writing with a lot of different writers. We’re involved with a guy that’s been writing and been involved with Velvet Revolver and people like that. We’re writing with a guy that is the guitar player right now for Rob Zombie. On the other side of it, we’re writing with people that’s been, you know, that’s had hits with…country (artists). We’re involved with a bunch of writers and what I think it does is, whatever we put our hands on, it comes out as Lynyrd Skynyrd. Because I think Skynyrd music has a broad spectrum anyway.

J.T.: Yeah, it definitely crosses boundaries. From rock to blues to country…

Rickey: Oh yeah! Sure does, man.

J.T: I know there was some controversy among Skynyrd fans when you introduced the Travelin’ Man duet, where Johnny VanZant sings along with the vocals from the deceased Ronnie VanZant. Is that still part of the performance?

Rickey: Well, this year…I’m not going to let any secrets out, but we’re doing some really different stuff. You know, that came about back on the Thyrty record, and we introduced that and we’ve used it every once in a while, but we’ve got some other surprises in store for everybody on this thing. You know, they’re going to have to come out and check it out.

J.T.: Along those lines, with the song Red, White and Blue, is there more of a patriotic reaction to that song now then when it was released?

Rickey: Well, I think that it’s about the same, maybe a little bit more.  I mean, the one thing that I do know that’s going on in this world today is everything is so polarized, you know? It’s a damn shame, you know? It seems like our country is being pulled completely apart, and for Lynyrd Skynyrd, we’ve been the American band for all these years…and it’s really sad for us to see how this country is being so polarized and pulled apart. When, in reality, a few short years ago, you couldn’t break this country apart… it’s interesting. Now, it’s like everybody’s losing their damn balls, man, and nobody wants to stand up and do anything. So, you know, that’s the whole thing about it; instead of getting stronger, instead of having some damn balls about ourselves, the country’s getting softer, being weaker. I, for myself don’t like to use the band as a platform to talk about politics, because I think that entertainers should definitely stay the hell out of politics, you know what I mean? Because, entertainers…we got our own kind of gig and a lot of Hollywood, those people don’t know what the hell they’re talking about when they get into politics. I mean, Ronald Reagan was a rare case, you know? Ha! That guy was a very rare case, you know? But the point of what I’m getting at is instead of pulling this nation apart, we should be pulling it together, you know? Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent or whatever, we’ve got one of the best countries in the damn world, and guess what? It seems like the damn thing’s being ripped in two.

J.T.: Yeah, it’s like everybody is in their own camps and you can’t say anything cause you don’t know if you’re going to end up in a fist fight.

Rickey: Yeah! Right! Also, its like, just think about it…guys have been cracking jokes for years and years and years and everybody kind of took it in stride. Now, you got to be real careful with what you say because you’re going to end up without a gig, your family is going to be broke, you’re going to be homeless, or whatever. It’s like, this country has become so politically correct, it’s sickening.

J.T.: Well, like what happened with the Dixie Chicks. A two-second comment cost them gigs and appearances.

Rickey: Yeah, I mean, I got my own opinions of the Dixie Chicks, man. You know what? We live in one of the greatest countries in the world, and that’s how they can become as wealthy as they’ve become. You know what I mean? By living in a place where they’ve had the opportunity to do that. But you know, man? At the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, we live in a great nation and we should learn to appreciate what we’ve got. People…just take everything for granted, you know, and that’s a damn shame, man.

The prolific powerhouse that is Lynyrd Skynyrd rolls on, playing town after town with various acts such as Saliva, Hank Williams, Jr. and Kid Rock. The group has faithfully released new material, starting with the album Vicious Cycle in 2003 and the most recent edition to their eclectic repertoire, Gods And Guns, was released in September, 2009. While there are those fervent purists who believe that the real Lynyrd Skynyrd perished in a flash of flames in a swamp in Magnolia, Mississippi, the true tradition of Southern Rock has been loyally carried on, with still one more from the road just around the corner.

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