The Sugar and Spice Band

by Alysia Stern

The Sugar and Spice Band is an incredible Motown and disco band with a lot of soul. The band is compiled of ten phenomenally talented artists and musicians from around Long Island. Each member has a story to tell and a history with music that ranged from Gladys Knight to Little Buster. The band has an unbelievable song list which includes a range of melodies. “You Can’t Hurry Love, “Le freak”, “Band of Gold” and” Chain of Fools” are just a few of the numerous songs they perform. This band gets the crowd singing and on the floor dancing from the minute that first melody is played.

Joyce Kendrick, the manager and lead vocalist, is a Brooklyn criminal defense attorney by day and a thoroughly known singer by night. Joyce comes from a very musically skilled family. Her mother sang with a renowned gospel group, and her uncle sings with and produces the iconic Dorothy Norwood.

Joyce was inspired as a youngster by Diana Ross. During college she toured with the Eastern Arizona Repertory Theatre Company for two years. She has enacted in a multitude of musicals. One year, during a summer break from school, she flew to New York for a vacation. Little did Joyce know she was going to meet her husband Darryl Kendrick and fall in love. Joyce followed her heart and relocated to Long Island, where she received her degree in law.

Darryl has been playing saxophone since the age of 10 and has performed in several bands including Love, Peace and Joy, Nemesis, and New Life Soul. Joyce and Darryl sang together with New Life Soul for about 5 years. When Darryl decided to start his own band, he introduced Joyce to a few musicians, and before they knew it, The Sugar and Spice Band was formed.

When asked how all the members came together, Joyce stated, “It was sort of fate. In the beginning, the original drummer, saxophone and trumpet player from our previous band came with us on our new venture. The drummer met a keyboard player, who had joined the band but eventually had to part from the group. That was when Roast beef Joe contacted us to join the group. When our drummer left, Tommy Randano (who played with Gladys Knight) joined the group as the drummer.” The Sugar and Spice Band have been together for almost two years. They practice weekly at Jamhouse Studios in Lindenhurst New York. http://jamhouserehearsalstudios.com/

Each member has an astounding talent worth sharing:

Michael Carpenter, the tenor saxophonist, has been playing the saxophone for more than 25 years. He holds a degree in music from Berklee College of Music. Currently Michael is a band director and a teacher at Westbury High School.

Rich Gordon plays the trumpet, flugelhorn and harmonica. He has played with several bands including “New Life Soul and Randy and the Rainbows- with whom he continues to perform.”

“Roast Beef Joe” Samuels is the keyboard player. He has played with the legendary Little Buster.

Timothy Maye, who plays the bass guitar, has performed for over 20 years. His talent will have you on your toes and dancing the entire evening.

Joey Donato plays the guitar and vocals. “He has been playing guitar by the age of 13. By the age of 15, he was studying with Con Estone and later, the great Carmen Mastren. After a tour of military duty and before joining The Royal Teens (Short Shorts), Joey resumed his playing experience by providing the guitar background for acts such as The Belmonts and later Gary US Bonds and the Paragons.”

Tommy Rendano plays the drums. “He holds a degree in Instrumental Performance and Music Education from Berklee College of Music and a degree in Music Education from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. For over five years, Tommy performed in Las Vegas showroom house orchestras at the MGM Grand, Caesars Palace, Aladdin & Tropicana Hotels. He played behind top showroom headliners including Gladys Knight, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., Lola Falana, Dionne Warwick, Wayne Newton, Glen Campbell, Doc Serinson, Paul Williams, Bernadette Peters and many others. He spent ten years in New York as a personal drummer for the Holidays and Cathy Jean and the Roomates. Serving as House drummer for the Cavalier Lounge he played for oldies groups the Angels & Lenny Welch. “

Sheryl Myles is one of the background vocalists. “She is the choir director for her church choir and is very skilled at perfecting harmonies.”

Stephanie Ghulson is another background vocalist. Stephanie also has gained her singing experience while growing up in the church. Together these women will bring tears to your eyes as they help reproduce the oldies in a way never heard before.

The Sugar and Spice Band can be seen all over Long Island. They recently played at The Resorts World Casino New York City Aqueduct and at Old Westbury College for “The Jazz Under the Stars” show. You can find them at The Lizard Lounge, The High Note and numerous venues between Queens and the Hamptons. They plan on coming up with new videos and a new demo this year. Joyce stated that she would love for the band to be able to display their talents at Butterfields or The Crazy Donkey, for the experience. “I have always wanted to play there.”

As much as talent that is based in this band’s unity, the Kendrick family itself has just as much. Darryl and Joyce’s daughter Jazmine, won the 2004 LI Idol in her school. She also made it to the final cuts for Christina Aguilera’s show, “The Voice”. While their eldest son Vernell is a 27 year old music video productions artist.

The band’s website is http://www.sugarandspiceband.com/default.html . Here you will be able to find their next event, and any new information that they have to share. The next time you want to do something fun, and something that will keep you moving, go see The Sugar and Spice Band. Sugar and Spice really is everything nice.

Navy SEAL Lieutenant Gary S

by Mick DuRussel

Lieutenant Gary S is a highly decorated 21 year veteran Navy SEAL whose battles were not only fought overseas but also in United States courtrooms. He is also a freelance writer whose current children’s book “Never Far Apart” is a heartwarming story that helps children cope with separation from a military parent. Gary’s next project is a book that details his military exploits and quest to gain custody of a son taken away to Israel by his ex wife. It’s not often you get to speak to a true American warrior but I did!

MICK: When did you join the Navy?

GARY: I joined back in 1986.

MICK: How were you chosen to become a SEAL?

GARY: I actually wasn’t chosen contrary to popular belief. No one is ever invited to become a SEAL. I joined the Navy just for that reason. There were no Navy SEAL movies back then. Most people didn’t know what a Navy SEAL was although most had heard of the Navy frogmen, which dated back to World War II. I had heard about it from a friend. I joined and went to boot camp and then went to Navy Corp School, which is where you go to become a medic in the Navy. I then went to field training. At that time, it was considered the toughest training in the world and I’m sure it still is. Everything fell into place after that.

MICK: How long did it take you to train to become a SEAL?

GARY: Initial training was six months. After that, it was another six months of intense training which was also an additional vetting period. You must pass certain tests after that six month period. That is when guys in the team get a chance to see who you really are outside of the rigorous training environment.

MICK: What was it like going into Afghanistan as one of the first military troops after 9/11?

GARY: It was pretty interesting for me. At that point, I had done my first ten years in the military as an enlisted member of the SEAL teams. At around the eleven year period, I actually got a commission. I went to college on my own on my off duty hours. I worked my way up through the ranks of the SEAL teams and ultimately became an officer. 9/11 happened shortly after I became an officer. I had just been relocated by the military from the East Coast to the West Coast. They were looking for young officers to go over there. Initially I was working in our joint operations center and was able to work my way into many operations. I had a lot of passion in me and wanted to go over there after 9/11. My heart bled for the families of people lost in New York.

MICK: When did you first get married?

GARY: I’m divorced from my first wife. I married an Israeli whom I met on my first deployment in the SEAL teams in late 1987. We got married and waited about 10 years before we decided to have a child together. She came with me to California when I was transferred from Virginia. Subsequently, I was told I would be deployed right away. I hadn’t bought a home in San Diego yet at that point and had no choice but to put her and him on a flight to Israel to stay with her family until I returned from Afghanistan. Unfortunately, she never came back. If I had realized I had any marital problems back then, obviously I never would have put them on that plane.

MICK: Is that something that happens often in the military?

GARY: It happens a lot more than people realize. Unfortunately for me, there were no laws back then to say what she had done was wrong which was parental child abduction. I was flown to Sacramento, California by Sen. Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) and Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny (D-San Diego) to testify before the California State Senate. My case was ultimately sent up to Washington DC. It took about six years but it finally resulted in the amending of the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act which protected service members from things like credit card debt and problems with rent. It was more financially orientated. It protected soldiers until they returned from deployment. It was hard to get attention on my case. Back then, there were around 1000 service members that had cases like mine. In my case, they couldn’t declare parental child abduction because I was the one who put them on the plane. To this day, I haven’t got any formal visitation or custody of my son over in Israel. I fly over there a couple times a year and it’s very costly, around eight to ten thousand dollars visiting him. The first six years, my visits entailed sitting next to him in school all day and that was pretty much all the time I got with him. My attorney at the time told me I needed to take a parenting class on base and get a parenting class certificate. If my ex wife ever came back to the United States with him, we would try to go for full custody for a temporary period until it went through the legal system the appropriate way. I actually ended up marrying the teacher of the parenting class! We ended up having four children together in our first four years of marriage!

MICK: Please tell me about your children’s book “Never Far Apart”.

GARY: After she left with him, I didn’t have a lot of communication with him and still don’t. He doesn’t speak English. Whatever little English he was exposed to kind of faded away. It was difficult over the years to communicate with him when I went to visit him. I really worked hard to maintain that relationship. The book was my way of letting him know that no matter how far away he was, we are never far apart. I’ve always got him right here in my heart. There’s a lullaby in the back of the book called “SS Rock-a bye” which I used to hum to him when I put him to bed at night. For the book, I finally put the words down. This book is actually the first in a series of five. My current wife wants me to write one for all of the children. So now I’m writing books for military children.

MICK: You also have a new book that’s almost ready to be published.

GARY: Yes, I’m working on my first book for grownups. It’s my memoirs about places I’ve gone, things I’ve done in the field teams. It’s very different from most field books as it’s not specific to any war or conflict. I’ve been in pretty much everything that’s happened in the last 20 years in one way or another. My book pretty much lets other people into the mind of one specific Navy SEAL with my political beliefs and theories of my own. It talks about our way of life in the United States and offers some common sense solutions to a lot of the problems facing the nation now.

MICK: You were a SEAL for 21 years and you are now retired. Is there an age limit to the length of being a SEAL or a mandatory retirement?

GARY: I’m sure there is eventually a limit but I’ve seen officers stand for over 30 years. Normal retirement can be anywhere between 20 and 30 years. I got out when I did because of all the legal proceedings I was going through here in California, Virginia and Israel. I had three attorneys all working at the same time to help me out. They could only do so much because there were no laws in place back then. I was up through the night talking to attorneys in different time zones and it got to the point where it was impossible to balance my personal life with my military life. I ended up being unable to find any employment in Southern California that paid what I needed. I went back to work in Iraq providing diplomatic protection to the U.S, Ambassador Ryan Crocker in my first year of retirement. It was a very interesting period for me. I was still able to serve my country in some capacity.

MICK: The big thing in the news lately is the Team Six of the Navy Seals taking out Osama Bin Laden. What are the different levels of SEALs?

GARY: All of the SEAL teams are a great bunch of guys. Once guys have paid their price of doing a cruise or two, they put you through another rigorous period of training. They are usually a more mature leveled individual over there and that’s primarily because they’ve already traveled the world and made a name for themselves. They take a little more time to think before reacting. The Team Six is considered our best of the best.

MICK: What kind of job are you doing now?

GARY: I work in anti piracy operations basically hunting pirates over off the east coast of Africa, the Indian Ocean and up into the Persian Gulf. I’m getting older now so in this position I’m in now, I wait for them to come to me if they want trouble. I really enjoy the job. I’m gone away a lot and I’m also home a lot.

MICK: How is it with the pirates over there? Is it getting any better?

GARY: The U.S. military is stepping up operations over there. Our arms have been tied as we have guys spread out all over in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, etc…We are spread thin in the military. That’s why there’s a lot of private contracting companies trying to pick up the void and help out where they can. When I was working under the Department of State in Iraq protecting Ambassador Crocker, you would hear among civilian communities and blogging sites horrible bad mouthing of contractors. I always thought it was very interesting that most contractors were guys that had spent at least 10 years in the military or were retired military. The week before they became contractors they were heroes to the country. Then when they become contractors, they were called war mongers and mercenaries which was utterly untrue. I think 45-50% of the wars are in Afghanistan and Iraq were being fought by security contractors of some form. There were guys helping with electrical, plumbing, building structures or behind guns shooting. They are all just as American as they were when they were on active duty. It’s all kinds of people, men and women, who love honestly their country and want to contribute after they leave the military. They’re not taking money from any foreign government.

MICK: What do see in the future for yourself?

GARY: I’d love to get a normal job here in Southern California and come home to my wife and kids every night. But there’s not a whole lot of security work out here that pays what I require with five children and living in Southern California. So I will keep doing what I’m doing. I will keep writing my book and the other children’s books. I don’t expect that to pay the bills today but maybe it will when I’m 65! I’m also a lyricist and have a lot of children’s songs for military children. I’ve written a lot of country music lyrics.

MICK: Is there anything else you would like to mention?

GARY: Yes, on my current job, we will deliver US aid to Africa with an entire ship full of rice and grain. Most of the time, these people don’t even realize that this is from the United States of America. There are people back here who have lost their homes and their jobs and basically getting kicked out in the street. But their tax dollars are going to buy this rice and grain for Africans who need it which is a great thing. The problem is that the grain is usually purchased in some other country. The US government will buy it from places like Russia or Australia, put it on a foreign ship that was built in China and run by Indian and Filipino crews. They will deliver it to the East African Shore countries and the people there don’t realize it is coming from the United States because there’s no sign or anything. It’s all foreign flagged vessels delivering it. You have to wonder how we are winning friends and influencing people when they don’t even know it’s coming from us. We help out the country we buy the grain from, we help the country that builds the ships, we help out the Indians and Filipino crew members on the ship and we help out the Africans that are getting the grain. We should somehow let these people know that this is coming from the United States of America!

For more information on Gary’s book “Never Far Apart”:

http:/neverfarapartseries.com/aboutbook.htm

Whatever Become of…Richard Lamparski?

by Mick DuRussel

Many years ago, when I was a kid, I had a keen interest in old movies and the classic actors and actresses from the bygone era. When I came across this fascinating book “Whatever Became Of…”I was thrilled to see many of the old time greats that were still living profiled in the book. The author, Richard Lamparski, tracked down these lost celebrities and told us what happened to them. His autographed photos in the book got me writing to the stars and building my own collection that I still have to this day. My first autograph, thanks to Richard’s book, was actor Buster Crabbe, Flash Gordon in the movies!

Well, I tracked down Richard Lamparski and we had a really nice chat recently…

MICK: When and where were you born?
RICHARD: I was born in Detroit, 78 years ago last month. I was there until I was 19. When I got out of school, I worked for a year and a half at Saks Fifth Avenue in the men’s department. I saved my money, quit my job and took a night flight (for $99) to Hollywood. I never went back! I got a job delivering teletypes at CBS Columbia Square. That’s not Television City, it was the radio network at Tower and Sunset Blvd. From there, I became a press agent for The Ice Capades. After that, I went to Channel 5 Television in Los Angeles which was owned by Paramount Pictures. I was there for 2-3 years. Then briefly I was an associate producer for NBC working on a series of pilots. That lasted for about six months. I moved to New York on my birthday in 1960 and attempted to get “Whatever Became Of…” together as a project. I had a terrible time with that. Eventually I got an agreement with radio station WBAI to broadcast the show and from that I got a book contract.

MICK: What year did the radio show go on?
RICHARD: March of 1965. It lasted for over 8 years.

MICK: How did you choose the celebrities that you profiled?
RICHARD: In the beginning, it was anybody I could think of that was available in New York. I had no budget for traveling. Over the years, I had made a list of people I wanted to contact. I had the idea from back in the 1950′s. In those days, there was no interest in old movies. In the 1960′s, kids started having festivals of black and white films, films from the 30′s and 40′s. If I saw a celebrity on the street, I’d write down their name and see if they were in the telephone directory. Often, people who knew me also knew I was interested in this. They would say “I saw this person at the A&P or I met this person at the library. Do you know what they are doing now?” I made notes of this. So when I went to the program director at the radio station, they wanted to know who I would have on. I gave him a list of about 20 people. “These people have agreed to see you?” Yes, I replied because they tentatively had. So I was told to proceed. The publicity director took my list and sent out a press release. The only call they got was from The New York Times and wanted to know if this was a joke. After hearing that I’d been in touch with Jack Pearl, Dagmar Godowsky, Larry “Buster” Crabbe and so forth, they asked me to do a feature about what I’m doing. I did and it ran in the Sunday New York Times. Several publishers contacted me and eventually got one to take it as a book. It wasn’t easy. Many of the publishers wanted to know what kind of idea was this! They didn’t get it but I thought it was a very simple idea. One publisher said if we forgot about these people, why do we care about what happened to them! I laughed. I eventually signed a contract that was nothing big. There was no enthusiasm from the publisher or the editor in chief.
When it came out, book stores started ordering it much to my editor’s surprise. Radio shows and TV shows were slightly interested. Then the Today Show called. From that moment on, I had a very different reception from my publisher. My first interview was with Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs. It just took off from there.

MICK: Who was the first celebrity you profiled?
RICHARD: I started before I had the program and these interviews were never aired to begin with. Upton Sinclair was one of my first. Vicki Baum who wrote ‘Grand Hotel” and Gale Sondergaard were others.

MICK: You wrote eleven “Whatever Became Of…” books, each profiling 100 celebrities from the past. Did you have any favorites out of the 1100 you interviewed?
RICHARD: That’s kind of impossible to say because some were my favorites because they gave me sensational interviews. For some of them, as soon as they opened their door, we clicked! We became friends! Buckwheat’s (from the Little Rascals) son just called me because I knew his dad. He wanted to write a book about growing up as the son of Buckwheat! I put him in touch with my publisher. For others, we just had chemistry between us. There were very few that I ever had a problem with and usually the problem was that they were drunk. Then I’d have to go back for the interview. It usually worked out well. The only time I really had a problem, though it didn’t come over in the interview, was Buffalo Bob Smith. I went to his house in New Rochelle, New York for the interview. He had a liquor store but was retired at that time. Everything went fine but right in the middle of it, his son came into the room to get a book or something, and he just chewed his son out something fierce! “What’s the matter with you! There’s an interview going on in here!” It was totally uncalled for. For a child entertainer to abuse his son that way was terrible. There was another one. Silent movie star cowboy Ken Maynard. I went to his residence with my assistant who was black. He always took the pictures for me. Maynard lived in a trailer in a trailer park. When he opened the door, he said “he can’t come in here” meaning my assistant. He was very abusive. A terrible pathetic old man. He was totally drunk and couldn’t get anything out of him.

MICK: Do you plan on writing any more ‘Whatever Became Of…” books?
RICHARD: No I don’t think there’s any market for it. Interest evaporated over night. When the last one came out, I did my usual round of publicity and no one asked ‘when is the next one coming’…I had no intention of writing another anyway. No shows were asking to see me. Programs that I did 3-4 times a year for many years had no interest. I really didn’t mind it at all.
I’d done it all by then there were very few people I didn’t get to. I had no regrets at all.

MICK: Do you think the internet has anything to do with that?
RICHARD: No, twenty one years ago the internet was not that prominent. It would not have affected my book buyers.

MICK: Are you working on any other books?
RICHARD: Yes it’s called “Hanging Out in Hollywood” that will probably be out late next year. It’s a collection of 12 stories about people I’ve encountered.

MICK: I’ve read that in 1986, Crown Publishers arranged a party for every personality profiled in your “Whatever Became Of…”books. Had did that go?
RICHARD: There’s a lengthy story on the party with lots of pictures in my next book. Some really nice photographs of the stars as they arrived. I was astonished that Lila Leeds came. No one had seen her since she was arrested but she came! It was a wonderful party. Lots of fun. It was at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

MICK: Is there anyone that you wanted to interview and you couldn’t?
RICHARD: Alger Hiss. He considered to have dinner with me but he didn’t want to be recorded or interviewed. He was a very charming dinner companion. I wanted to interview Greta Nissen. When Howard Hughes shot “Hell’s Angels”, the original blond bombshell was Greta Nissen, a Norwegian actress. But when he decided to re-shoot it as a talkie, he dropped her because of her heavy accent and choose Jean Harlow instead. Ben Lyon told me the real reason was that Harlow had bigger breasts.
But Greta was married to a very rich man who was envious of her career and wouldn’t let me get to her. There were some others but most turned me down because of poor health.

MICK: It sounds like overall, you had a great time finding these celebrities!
RICHARD: I had a very untroubled career thoroughly. I got to meet people I would not have dreamed I could ever meet. I met Ish Kabibble! I met Tokyo Rose! Brenda Frazier! Walter Cronkite never met Brenda Frazier or Tokyo Rose. The nicest thing about that was I met these people in their homes. I never knew what to expect. Several people had terrible fights with their spouses when I was there. I thought that was funny.

MICK: Did you go to the homes of all the stars you profiled?
RICHARD: In most cases yes. Even when I did radio, I tried to do the interview in their homes. Nobody was doing that. I think it added a lot to the program. I would tell them “Pretend this is television and take us through your house and tell us what it looks like”. When I was on a radio station in Detroit, I got the nicest compliment ever. There was a man waiting to go on the air after me. He was the food and wine critic for Esquire Magazine. On a commercial break, he told me he lived in New York and he heard me there. He said ‘When you take us for a tour of the homes, it’s very vivid for me”. As I was leaving, the radio host called me to the side and said “Do you realize what that man just said to you?” “Yes, it was a very nice compliment” I replied. “He is blind Richard!” said the host. I didn’t see it because he was seated and I didn’t see his white cane. I was very struck by that. And he chose the word “vivid”!

MICK: How long did it take you to complete one volume of “Whatever Became Of..?”
RICHARD: Usually about one year. It was hard to judge the time because by the time I finished and turned the book in, I was well into the next book already. To me, the books all run together. I could tell the interest was waning because every year I went to Europe and did people for England and the continent. I could tell my readers weren’t really interested in those people. These were people who had gone to movies and the matinee when they were kids. That’s what they were reliving. That’s not what it was for me. To me, it was meeting celebrities that very few people ever got to meet. Like Baby Sandy! The only interview she ever gave was to me. She had no recollection of her career because she was so young. So she never granted another interview. I thought I would do one or two books and have a nice career in radio, never dreaming it would be eleven books!

MICK: How long have you lived in California?
RICHARD: I lived here in the 1950′s. I moved back here in 1972 because I bought a St. Bernard dog and the St. Bernard and Manhattan wasn’t very convenient. I bought a house and she eventually died. I decided I didn’t want to continue with the series so I moved to Santa Barbara. You could say I’m semi retired. I’ve only written a few books since I’ve been here.

“Whatever Became Of…” books can be found on Amazon.com

Richard’s latest books “Manhattan Diary” and “Hollywood Diary” can be ordered at

BearManor Media

P O Box 1129

Duncan, OK 73534-1129

Phone: 580-252-3547 (Sandy Grabman)

Photographed: Gloria Swanson and Richard Lamparski

Author & Photographer Victoria Jennings Mitchell

by Mick DuRussel

It’s been said that dreams are the seedlings to reality. Victoria Jennings Mitchell has followed her dreams and they are as real as the sky is blue. She is a mother, photographer, writer, musical agent, spiritual healer and all around great person!

Her first book Rock Stars of the 80′s and 90′s has just been published and it is getting rave reviews from all over the world. Her brilliant photographs capture the essence of the great rock stars that she has crossed paths with. I had the great pleasure to speak with Victoria late one evening as her day was finally winding down…

MICK: Your new book is fantastic. When did you decide to write this book? It’s your first book too, right?

VICTORIA: Yes, it’s my first book. I decided to do this book about 20 years ago when I took all of those photographs. I knew someday I would write this book.

MICK: I saw in your book that it all began for you when you photographed rock star Jon Butcher.

VICTORIA: I had seen Jon play many times. When I started photography school, the first thing I wanted to do was take his pictures. I contacted him and he readily agreed to let me pictures. I took photos of him several times when he did shows up in Providence, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. After that, I photographed Stevie Ray Vaughn.

MICK: That’s what I wanted to ask you about next. You got some great shots with him. What was he like?

VICTORIA: Stevie was awesome. I miss him. I cried for a week when he died. I had talked to his publicist, Charles Comer, many times and he was such a nice man. He arranged for me to shoot Stevie in Gardner, Massachusetts at an outdoor venue there. I was able to spend about an hour with Stevie. He told me everything that was going on. I really commend him. He was truly on a good road and he was so talented, a really nice guy. Right before he died, I was supposed to photograph him the following week. Also, something very strange happened at the show where I photographed him. It was an outdoor venue and backstage, one of the supporting metal beams crashed down and snapped the neck right off of his guitar. It was the famous guitar that he used all the time. I was back there taking pictures and I saw this happen. I wondered if this was some type of weird omen or something. He got it fixed before the following show. But that was really strange. A year later, he died.

MICK: In your book, there’s also a picture of you with Merv Griffin.

VICTORIA: Yes, he owned the radio station that I worked at in Providence. He was cool. A very smart man for sure. He had just bought the radio station and I approached him with my portfolio and told him I’d love to be the station’s photographer. They were so impressed that the station manager hired me right on the spot. I stayed with them for almost four years. Had a lot of fun and worked very hard too!

MICK: One thing that stands out in front of your book, in the dedication, you state that a portion of the proceeds was going to go to the victims and the families of the tragic fire that killed 100 people at The Station Night Club, in Providence. Did you know people who were there that night?

VICTORIA: Yes, one of my friends from the radio station, Dr. Metal, died in the fire. It was terrible. I found, within the last year, that the victims and their families ended up getting millions of dollars. They filed a law suit and they won. There was also a lot of benefits. I was unable to come up to help out because of family obligations down here.

MICK: I know you are also writing a children’s book.

VICTORIA: That’s right. It’s being published right now. The publisher brought it to the Beijing Book Expo and it was purchased, along with other children’s books from Eloquent Books in NY, to sell the books in Chinese. I still retain the rights to my book here but that’s just for the rights in China. I heard that it sold and they are making us wait so I’m very excited. We should know very soon!

MICK: For the children’s book, are you using photographs or illustrations?

VICTORIA: I’m using illustrations. I have several illustrators. I used my daughter Ariel as the model for my old friends book when she was 5 years old. I’m having another illustrator do my next book and my mom, who is also an artist, will do my third book.

MICK: I’ve read that you home school your children?

VICTORIA: Yes I do! Actually, we are un-schoolers. Home schooling is when you sit down and do school at home. We don’t do that. We don’t use a set curriculum; we use everything for their learning…classes, CD Roms, computers, life in general. It’s geared towards what they want to learn and are interested in. It’s continuing learning; learning from the inside out, not the outside in.

MICK: So that is recognized by the state?

VICTORIA: It sure is. There are un-schoolers all over the world. I wanted to do this even before I had children. It is basically non-forced learning.

MICK: Do you still photograph rock stars?

VICTORIA: Not at the moment. I’ve done some local band photos. My next book, that I’m halfway done with, is spiritual book with uplifting poems and photos. It’s going to be called Divinity On Earth. I have most of the photos for it already and I’ve written some poems and will also include some scripture.

MICK: Who is on your wish list to be photographed?

VICTORIA: I’d love to photograph Sting! I’d also love to photograph royalty. I’ve always admired royalty and their way of life. These people are not stressed about money. They used to be like tyrants for centuries but now I can see that they are more spiritual. I have several friends who have royal blood and I can see first hand how they live and what they feel. I am also descended from royalty! My great grand mother was Polish royalty. We are actually trying to find the rest of the family. She came here during their revolution by herself to Ellis Island and met my great grandfather. Shortly after, that got married! She was the matriarch of our family and died when I was very young. Her name was Anna Olactz.

MICK: What else inspires you?

VICTORIA: Talented people. People who have gone through a lot in their life and overcome it. People who use whatever talent they have and make the most out of it. People who help other people. I love Mother Theresa and I actually have rosary beads that were blessed by her. She inspires me with my healing work. I want to open a spiritual center here.

MICK: What’s involved with the spiritual healing?

VICTORIA: It’s spiritual energy healing. Healing energy goes through me. I’ve known since I was young that I was supposed to do this. About ten years ago it hit me and I began to start healing people. All types of healing, physical and spiritual. I take the negative energy out and replace it with healing energy and then let the body do the rest. I love helping people.

MICK: You’ve photographed hundreds of rock stars. Have any of them ever given you a hard time?

VICTORIA: No, they were basically all nice. I’ve had trouble with audience members but never the bands or entertainers. Once at a Black Crows concert, I was actually hit in the face by this drunk guy. The place was packed and I was taking some shots. I wasn’t there long at all and this guy kept pushing me and then hit me. That’s the only trouble I ever had.

MICK: You moved from Rhode Island to Florida. Why did you move?

VICTORIA: I was sick of the cold. I always knew that at some point in my life I would end up in Florida. I love it here and I loved it in Providence too. If I could transplant Providence down here, it would be ideal! Providence is a very artistic, cultural city.

MICK: I know you work with a great new musician named Pete Munroe and he has a new CD out. How are things going with that?

VICTORIA: Yes, the CD is out but we are going to add to it. I put it up on a place called RadioReddit.com. It’s a radio station online and they also have a record company. I’m actually thinking about having a radio show on there. I would interview local musicians and bands and that would help them get recognition. I’d also take photographs of them too.

MICK: Do you have anything you would like to tell your fans and your future fans?

VICTORIA: I’d like everybody to buy my book! That’s how I support my family and how the spiritual center will come to be. If anyone would like to be involved with that, I would definitely love that. I have my hand in a lot of things because we are only here for a short time. I want to have fun and help people. I can see that spiritual center in my head every day. My uncle, who is actually a well known architect, is going to help me with the blue prints. It is really going to happen. I thank God every day, even when things don’t always go as planned. I’m very thankful for all that has happened and will be happening!

Victoria can be reached at:

http://www.myspace.com/rockstarsofthe80s

Visit Victoria on Facebook!

Her book Rock Stars of the 80′s and 90′s can be bought on Amazon.com

Autographed copies are also available upon request.

New Children’s Book: Do Witches Make Fishes? by Jason Mayo

Last October I interviewed Jason Mayo and his family about his comical and successful blog Outnumbered. I asked Jason…

Christine – Do ever think about writing a book one day?

Jason – I was thinking about writing some sort of a humor memoir about parenting but also anything I can do that goes to charity. So if anything getting more involved in Garden of Dreams, has inspired me to sort of think about possibly doing something to take the blog thing to the next level and turning it to some sort of charity effort.

Within one year of this interview, Jason amazes us with his brand new children’s book Do Witches Make Fishes? With bold and colorful illustrations by Justin Wolfson, Jason tells the tale of a little boy who prefers candy over his mom’s healthy dishes. The boy brings us on a new journey after he wishes that his mother disappears only to learn that moms always right! Jason captures the eyes of a child with humor and tackles a very familiar subject that all parents can relate to. From a successful blog and  now a successful book, Jason Mayo is unstoppable and writes with his heart. When you purchase his new book all profits will go the Garden of Dreams Foundation.

NEW YORK – Oct 13, 2010 – Author Jason Mayo announces the release of his latest children’s book, Do Witches Make Fishes?

Do Witches Make Fishes? is the moral tale of a young boy who favors candy over his mother’s outlandish but healthy dishes. When faced with an ultimatum from his mother, the boy has to make a difficult choice. What ensues is a series of extraordinary and fantastical events that takes the reader on a magical journey through the imagination of a child.

In the end, the book teaches an important lesson to children about eating healthy, as well as, learning to make responsible choices. The book is fun to read for both parents and kids and boasts eye-popping, color illustrations. It is most appropriate for children ages 4-8.

All of the profits from the sale of the book are being donated by the Author to The Garden Of Dreams Foundation; Garden of Dreams is a 501c3 non-profit charity that works closely with all areas of Madison Square Garden, including the New York Knicks, Rangers, Liberty, MSG Media, MSG Entertainment and Fuse Network “to make dreams come true for kids in crisis”.

What People Are Saying:

“Just in time for Halloween, Mayo crafts a story that is both fun and engaging while remaining a little bit twisted and deliciously ghoulish as it tackles the topic of picky eating.” –Honest Baby

“Do you have a kid who won’t eat his vegetables? Would your kids rather have candy at every meal? Well, perhaps you should check out Do Witches Make Fishes? by Jason Mayo and see if they change their minds.” – My Book Retreat

“The illustrations are beautiful and are geared towards a child’s eye. It is not at all scary, but very fantastical and imaginative and completely different than ALL THE OTHER BOOKS YOUR KIDS HAVE. I promise.” – MamaPop

About The Book:

Do Witches Make Fishes? by Jason Mayo

ISBN-13: 978-1452069449

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Date of publish: August 23, 2010

Pages: 36

S.R.P.: $12.99

About the Author:

Jason Mayo is the author of the children’s book, Do Witches Make Fishes? He is also the author and creator of a popular dad blog and has written for the pop culture website, MamaPop and is a regularly featured blogger at www.honestbaby.com .  He was recently chosen by BlogHer as one of the Top 100 Voices of the Year. In real life, he is the Managing Director and Partner of the award winning NYC Digital Media Boutique, Click 3X.

Jason is married and has two amazingly smart and beautiful daughters. They all live together and give each other much love and headaches. Do Witches Make Fishes? is his first children’s book.

For more information about Do Witches Make Fishes? please visit: www.dowitchesmakefishes.com or email witchesandfishes@gmail.com

Tommy James Comes to Westbury

by Mick DuRussel

He is a living legend. His name is synonymous with hit songs from the late 1960s. In 1968-69, Tommy James and the Shondells sold more singles records (45′s) than any artist in the world including the Beatles. His life has been one great roller coaster ride as he details in his new best- selling book Me, the Mob and the Music. Today, Tommy James’ star continues to blaze a celestial trail across the musical sky and will shine even brighter in the very near future! I had a real nice conversation with Tommy this week when he called me from his New Jersey home…

MICK: Your new book came out in February of this year. How is it doing so far?
TOMMY: It’s doing great! It’s in its sixth printing and I am frankly amazed at the response to this from the media and the fans. I’ve never been an author before so, this is really amazing to me. It’s being turned into a movie and a Broadway show! I am flabbergasted by the whole thing!

MICK: How’s that going with the play and the movie?

TOMMY: We are right on schedule. It’s going to be brought to Broadway through the Nederlander family who owns 9 Broadway theaters and about 1000 theaters throughout the country. They are one of the oldest theatrical families. I just flipped out when I heard they were producing the show themselves. The Broadway show and the movie are being developed simultaneous. My guess is that the play will be out just ahead of the movie because of the time involved in each project. The movie is being produced by Barry Rosen and Mary Gleason. We will be making an announcement very shortly about the directors as we are talking to three directors right now.

MICK: Do you have anybody in mind that you would like to play you in the film?
TOMMY: Yes, I get asked this a lot. There’s probably going to be two actors needed because of the amount of time involved. One of the actors being seriously looked at as the older Tommy James is Val Kilmer. He is a great actor and a good friend. He did a great job a few years ago as Jim Morrison. I’d be very honored for him to do it.

MICK: This is all very thrilling to say the least!
TOMMY: This is a project that’s been a long time in the works. It was very therapeutic to get this out of my system. I’ve been wanting to tell this story for many years now. The book is called Me, The Mob and the Music and it’s really an autobiography with about two thirds of it devoted to my crazy, tumultuous and very dangerous at times relationship with Roulette Records. The reason why it was so dangerous was because Roulette Records, in addition to being a functioning record company (and a good one), was also a front for the Genovese crime family in New York. Of course none of us knew that at the time. We found out incrementally. It’s quite a story. We started this project eight years ago, Martin Fitzpatrick and I. We were going to call it “Crimson and Clover” and we were going to write a nice music book about hits and writing songs. After we got about a third of the way into it, we realized that if we didn’t tell the whole Roulette story which really was the story, that we were cheating ourselves and everybody else. I was very uncomfortable writing it back then because some of these guys walking around. So we put it on the shelf for a couple years and got involved with other things. Finally, when the last of the Roulette regulars passed away, I felt it was safe to finish the book. It took us three more years to finish entirely and we got the deal from Simon and Schuster, which was very flattering as they are usually doing Presidential memoirs and things like that. Almost immediately after that came offers for the movie. The third thing was the Broadway show. I am very thankful for the response from the public and the media.

MICK: Are you still involved with the Democratic Party?
TOMMY: No, that was 1968 you are talking about. We were out on the road for almost the entire Presidential campaign with Hubert Humphrey. That was quite an experience. He [Humphrey] ended up doing the liner notes for the Crimson and Clover album! A lot happened out on that campaign that had to do with the music business. When we went out on the Humphrey campaign in August of 1968, it was all singles acts on the radio. There was us, the Rascals, The Association, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, etc… When we got back 90 days later, it was all albums! There was Blood Sweat and Tears, Led Zeppelin, Crosby Stills and Nash, Joe Cocker. The whole industry had turned upside down! This was as a result of the “Sgt Pepper” album a few months before that made so much money for Capital Records. All of the record companies suddenly went for albums. We knew that if we were to continue, it would have to be albums and that was something Roulette had never done. They weren’t an album label and we weren’t either! We were basically a creation of top 40 radio. So we knew we were going to have to produce or own product, write our own songs completely, do album design and all the rest. Thankfully, we were working on a tune called “Crimson and Clover”. That record allowed us to make the jump from AM top 40 singles to FM progressive album rock. I don’t think there was another single that we worked on that would have done that in one shot. So that happened on the Humphrey campaign and he got involved in the album and doing the liner notes!

MICK: Are there any more plans to record again with the original Shondells? I know you did reunite once in 2007.
TOMMY: Yes, we did the last track on our Christmas album! The touring group I’ve been playing with now have been together for 25 years. I feel like Captain Kirk with two generations of Shondells! The original Shondells are from Pittsburgh so we are back in the studio doing music for the movie! We will probably do an album. The first track we did is going to be used in the closing credits for the movie. It’s a very new, kind of different version of “I Think We’re Alone Now”. It’s done acoustically with no drums, very surreal and slow. Totally different from the original record. The last scene in the movie is when Morris Levy dies, the head of the record company. “I Think We’re Alone Now” completely changes the meaning of the lyrics in the film.

MICK: Do you still enjoy touring?
TOMMY: Oh yeah! We are out on the road probably eight months out of the year. If anybody would like to come to our website tommyjames.com, you can see where we are. We are winding things down now this year. Right now, we are doing the book tour which is basically going out to selected cities and talking about the book in bookstores and so forth. At the same time we are doing the music dates so it’s been a very hectic year. The next couple of years are going to be even more hectic.

MICK: Out of all your songs, do you have a favorite?
TOMMY: A lot of the hits probably. I think I’d have to say “Crystal Blue Persuasion”. That is probably my favorite out of all the hits we’ve had. There’s lots of other songs that were on albums that I really love but of the singles, I’d have to say “Crystal
Blue Persuasion”. It was one of the hardest records we ever made. It doesn’t sound like it but it was. When we went into the studio, it was that magic summer of 1969. It went number one right around the weekend of Woodstock. It’s deeply ingrained in my mind. What happened was we went into the studio and completely over produced it. We had a full set of drums, three guitars, etc… The production smothered the song. When we got done with it, we said “this isn’t the song that we wrote”. So we started taking things out. Over the next four to five weeks, we unproduced the record by pulling things out. When we were done, we had a bongo drum, a conga, a flamenco guitar and an organ. That was it! That became “Crystal Blue Persuasion”. I know that if we left it the original way, it wouldn’t have fit. Plus, the song was all about us becoming Christians at that time.
There was no talk of being politically correct at that time because the phrase did not exist! Each song we did was sort of snap shots of where we were at that time.

MICK: Do you have any new music coming out soon?
TOMMY: Yes we do as a matter of fact! We have just released, first in Europe and imported here, the latest studio album called “Hold The Fire” and that includes our DVD in one package. Two discs in one package. We have our own label.
We just put together a beautiful international deal together. We are also releasing here on our label in the United States which is independently distributed. We also have our 40 year package out which is all of the singles from 1966 through 2006. It’s 40 years of consecutive singles. Our last album “Hold The Fire” had three top five adult contemporary hits. One of them actually went to number one called “Love Words”, forty years to the week that “Hanky Panky” went to number one. I really feel like a complete circle has been made!
I didn’t mean to get heavily into the music, I wanted to tell you the Roulette story which is a totally true story. We weren’t able to tell it until now. Virtually none of the fans knew what Roulette was. Our first hit record was “Hanky Panky” and it sort of exploded out of Pittsburgh as a bootleg two years after we made the original record. When we first came to New York, we were thrilled because we got a yes from everybody. Got a yes from Columbia, got a yes from Epic, RCA, Atlantic, Kama Sutra Records. The last place we took the record to was Roulette. We weren’t expecting much from them and didn’t know much about them. The next morning, the phone started ringing at the hotel we were staying at in midtown Manhattan. One by one, all of the record labels that had said yes the day before suddenly said they would have to pass. I said “What do you mean? I thought we had a deal!” Jerry Wexler at Atlantic leveled with us. He told us that Morris Levy, the head of Roulette Records, had called all of the record companies and scared them off. He said “This is my record! Back off!!” They did! So we apparently were going to be with Roulette Records. Gradually we learned who we were dealing with. The head of the Genovese family was Tommy Eboli, who was Morris Levy’s partner. He was up in Morris’s office all the time. Roulette was used for everything from a social club to illegal bank accounts, money laundering and God knows what else was going on. There were some very scary moments up there. But I’ll tell you one thing, they actually needed us. If we had gone to one of the corporate labels, like Columbia or RCA, especially with a record like “Hanky Panky”, we would have been handed to an in house producer and got lost in the numbers. We would have been a one hit wonder. Roulette hadn’t had a hit in about three years so they gave us everything we wanted except royalty money. Getting paid was impossible. We were making money from other directions like BMI, the road, commercials. We were going to be making mechanical royalties. That’s the way is was at Roulette. It was like making a deal with the devil…do we interrupt all of the success and take them to court and place our lives in their hands or do we just go along. We decided to go along. But I will say this…the fact that we didn’t go to a corporate label and went to Roulette, from a creative standpoint was the best thing we could have done. They left us alone and allowed us to morph into whatever we could become. There’s no way we would have got an education like that with any other record company. It was a real trade off there and I feel we made the right decision.

MICK: When you were with Roulette, Morris Levy kept all of your gold records in his office. Do you have them all now?
TOMMY: Yes I do!! I had to steal them off his wall, that’s how cheap he was. That is a true story.

MICK: Is organized crime still involved in the music industry that you know of?
TOMMY: Roulette was kind of the ground zero for all that stuff. It’s not like it used to be. It’s like Las Vegas, mobsters aren’t really running it anymore. They were involved heavily in all aspects of the entertainment business. Roulette was financed and put together by Morris and his buddies. There were several other labels that were heavily involved with mob stuff. There’s not nearly as much today as there once was.

MICK: Who do you listen to now?
TOMMY: I listen to a lot of smooth jazz to be perfectly honest! I don’t listen to a lot of rock and roll anymore although I love to play rock and roll. For example, I will listen to Lady Gaga. She’s made some great records! The problem today is radio. Chart active radio doesn’t exist anymore. There’s never been more hunger for music but there’s almost no way, other than the internet, to get new music in front of the fans. The problem is there’s so many more fans than there are ways on the internet to do it. It’s almost by chance that you hear something new that you like. Although that’s growing, it certainly has not taken the place of what used to be normal radio and retail. That’s changing but not as fast as it would have needed to save the industry. It’s a brave new world we are into! I feel that once high definition TV is really a part of our life, which is the combination of computer technology and television technology, the whole industry will turn to television or what’s left of it. Not like MTV; there will probably be a Sony channel, a Warner channel. Your TV will be like your Ipod. We will probably have video radio, networks of them. Trade papers will come back online and on TV. There will probably be charts based on the music you download on television.

MICK: This is a question I usually ask songwriters. For you, what comes first…the words or the music?

TOMMY: I’ve actually done it both ways. A lot of times I will see a title, something that just catches my eye. I’ve taken titles off of matchbook covers! “Mony Mony” was a sign Mutual Of New York! That’s true! Sometime I’ll come up with a riff on guitar that I like, three, four chords that I really like to repeat over and over. It gets into my mind and I will write the lyrics around the music, winding the song around the music. All of my methods have changed. You have to do it when you are really awake. There’s a window for me from about 10am until around 2pm when I’m really alive and awake. When I start writing, the song tells me where it wants to go. You sort of get like that when you write a lot by yourself. If you have to think too hard, chances are when you play it for somebody, it’s going to come out like a grind. Sometimes a beautiful thought will evoke a song. I have to be perceptive all the time because you never know when that next song is going to hit you!

MICK: Do you still live in New York?

TOMMY: I live in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. I lived in New York for almost ten years. I needed a squirrel and trees real bad. Here, you are close enough to New York where you can kind of treat it like a theme park and far enough away to have a squirrel in your yard! I’ m close to the airports.

MICK: Are there any musicians you would like to work with or collaborate with?

TOMMY: There’s lots of people I’d love to work with. I spend a lot of time with my players. We are very tight musically and personally. I love writing with my guys. One of the fellows, Jimmy Wizner, has been with me since ‘I Think We’re Alone Now” as an arranger. He’s also a great producer and orchestrator. I’m still making music with the original Shondells! I dig meeting new people and making music with them because it takes you to another place. I’m a big experimenter. I love putting jazz in pop! Over the last few years, I’ve become very bored with the normal rock and roll chords on guitar. It’s hard to explain. So many songs have been written on the same chord. I start sticking in a jazz chord or an inverted chord, chords and grooves I’ve never used before. I love playing around with drum machines. You constantly have to update yourself.

MICK: Do you still get lots of fan mail?

TOMMY: Yes I do! A lot of it is email now. The website is so great for communicating with people worldwide. It’s just as easy now to have fans in Germany as it is to have fans in California! The book is being released overseas. The sales over there are astounding just off of Amazon alone!

MICK: Do you have any regrets?

TOMMY: Lots of them! I wrote about a lot of them in the book. One of the things about writing an autobiography is that you have to tell on yourself or it gets boring real quick. I would have loved to have had a bigger family. But you can only be in one place at a time. I would have liked to have spent more time with my son. I would have been a much better business man if I could do it over again. We were kind of floundering from one record to the next. But with all the craziness that went on, we ended up with 23 gold singles and around 110 million records sold. The good Lord has been very good to me in spite of a lot of failings and things I’m not proud of. I am very thankful!

You can see Tommy James and the Shondells on Saturday, Oct. 16th at the Capital One Theater at Westbury, Long Island, NY. Showtime is 8pm.

Learn more about Tommy at https://www.tommyjames.com/

Me, The Mob and The Music can be bought on Amazon, Tommy’s website or most book stores. It is truly a great book that will keep you spellbound!

Roasted by BoneheadBlog.com

Last night we went to see  Jeffrey Ross at Caroline’s on Broadway.  My thoughtful wife got us the tickets as a Christmas gift.  If you haven’t already noticed we really enjoy stand-up comedy. We do like to laugh as often as possible, and a live comedy show is a great way to partake in our little hobby.  With us, there’s always a side story to our adventures, and last night was no exception.

The past year has been a mini comedy tour of our own.  We’ve managed to get ourselves involved in some shows – usually inadvertently.  I was invited to show off my dance skills at a show last year on our family vacation. We’ve had opportunity to meet some of our favorite comics, Lewis Black, Jon Reep, Josh Blue, Susie Essman. We went to last night’s show fully expecting to be roasted. That is of course what Ross is known for, and, as typically is the case with us – we managed to get seats right near the front. Well, we didn’t get picked on – but my wife wound up being a part of the show – as the piano player.

It was a great show. The emcee for the evening was Rachel Feinstein, a local comic who lives in Brooklyn, and she was really funny.  James Smith, whose shtick seems to be that of an Australian slacker, was absolutely hysterical. Jeffrey Ross did over an hour and had us cackling like a couple of demented schoolgirls. He was brutal – just like we had hoped.

Towards the end of his set – he asked for a volunteer to come up to the piano that was at the side of the stage to accompany him as he read some “poems”. The place was packed, probably three or four hundred in the room, yet there didn’t seem to be any piano players available, or frankly, anyone brave enough to step up and risk being insulted by the guy who’s known as the Roastmaster General.

No problem, the Giddys are in the house.

Chrissy can tickle the ivories, and occasionally actually plays the piano. I can see her looking at me as if she was saying “Should I go up there?” What she actually said was “Should I go up there?” Not to be accused later in the evening of volunteering her, I discreetly pointed in her direction and mentioned to the couple sitting next to us that my wife plays the piano. They of course took the bait and further encouraged her to go up to the piano – which she did.

So she sits down and answers the usual questions and comments; where are you from, who are you here with, you sure have some  big fucking tits …she mentioned that she had gotten me the tickets for Christmas, for which Jeffrey wished me a Merry Christmas. As too then did pretty much everyone in the place on the way out, and at the bar after the show. It was nice.

She’s playing some poetry music; actually it was Stu’s song “Doug” from The Hangover. She’s been recently teaching Junior Miss Giddy to play it. One of the ways that people get themselves into trouble at a comedy show is by trying to “out-funny” the pros. Having been to enough shows, she knew full well to just play it straight and she’d look much better, although I know how hard it must have been sitting there knowing there was a live mic right in front of her.

Each of the poems in the bit had ridiculous titles. One of them Ross entitled “I Think we should See Other People” to which Chrissy could hold back no longer. Upon hearing the title she instinctively said “Can I sing that one?” A well timed zinger designed to roast me got a great response from the room and from Jeff.

Figures, she gets me tickets to see an insult comic and she’s the one who ends up roasting me. Just another typical Saturday night out.

Check out Boneheads Stand Up debut on the Giddy Mystery Cruise

Beers with Josh Blue

Chrissys interview with Susie Essman on SpotOnLI